the
Beth Hildor, an executive director of the Racine Zoo, joining us this morning. She brought
in a Lemur.
Lemur? What did one of the call those things?
Those lemurs?
Lemurs? Okay. She brought in a lemur this morning. We're going to walk around and everything.
What is a lemur?
I just, I just, I made it primate from Madagascar.
Oh, okay, just, are you following this punch the monkey thing?
I've seen it, but I'm not following it.
I love this little carrier. I think it's in China. I'm not sure. I think it's in China.
The lines to see him are outside the zoo. What happened with his mother shunned him.
All the other monkeys don't want to do with him. So they gave him this doll if they
got it from IKEA. It's an orangutan. And he brings it everywhere. He sleeps on it. He
hugs it when it was raining. He cuddled with it. And one of the other monkeys now is
adopting him.
Finally, but he won't let go of the orangutan because that was his buddy punch the
monkey. And the whole world is looking at punch the monkey. And he looks so, he looks
so sad when he's carrying that, that stuffed animal with him wherever he goes.
It's comfort.
Would you or animals to the zoo they don't worry about that? They're all loved.
No, we had, oh, absolutely. But we had one where the mother passed and we had to take
care of the little one and they ended up with a little stuffed animal.
Do you do that too?
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, because they need that. So I can't help the, you know, the mom died. So it's what
we got to take care of it.
I didn't know that's a regular thing just to do that.
Oh, yeah.
Why would you get that?
Which animal, what kind of animal was it?
It's a tamarind.
What's that?
It's a little primate. It's got the mustache in the castle.
Oh, now you make me feel bad.
That's bad.
Eight years ago.
I don't care.
Circle of life.
I can't, you know.
You have any new animals there?
Not right now.
Okay.
I can talk about on here.
Any bit.
Oh, no, that means next to next time I'm here.
Any babies born lately?
Nope.
Okay.
Let's check it.
I didn't check the birth record check.
The zoo was there.
Inside the animals at the zoo is a lot of people's stuff going on too.
Always people's stuff.
And we're going to start off with cold me, call me old-fashioned.
When you said that before, I thought you would just call me old-fashioned.
I didn't realize it was an event.
Oh, I thought I wasn't calling you old-fashioned.
Although you could be.
I mean, that's Wednesday, March 25th from 6 to 8 p.m.
And it is all about old-fashioned and it's already to drinks.
So this is the one that, you know, there's lots of people and lots of breweries and
liquor places all are making ready to drinks.
And so it's all ready to drink old-fashioned.
We should have the list up later today of what we're going to be sampling.
And then, of course, red onion is going to do our food.
They do hand past appetizers.
It's in our castle or vanishing kingdom is where the event is going to take place.
So it's super, super fun.
You got to be 21 to attend.
And we are getting close to being sold out.
So we need people to get their tickets bought at recinesoo.org.
There's a green bar at the top.
Do the drop-down for events.
Go to calm your old-fashioned and get your tickets before they're sold out.
It's when it's gone.
It's gone, right?
And it's gone.
That's right.
You sell out a lot?
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
That's why we're telling you about this now.
Exactly.
And the website is recinesoo.org.
Uh-huh.
I've never seen zoo.org.
Yeah.
All right.
Then we got the spring break camp coming up with that.
Yeah.
The camp is based off of when the RUSD is on their break.
So that's when that particular program is.
What's really nice about it is that so it starts on Monday the 6th.
You can sign up for every day that's 6th through the 10th.
Every day of April is a different theme.
So you could sign up for one day because maybe you're going on vacation but you're not
going to be gone the whole time.
You could sign up for all five days.
So it's really kind of your choice and it helps a parents out because kids still need
to do something even in there when they're on break.
Parents can't always, they're not always on vacation at that time.
They are working at that time but we're a great opportunity and option for parents to
book their kids into a super fun and safe camp for the week.
Yeah.
You can do pre-drop off and you know, late pick up to help parents schedules.
I regret growing up not going to summer camp.
All the kids in the neighborhood went, my mother said, do you want to go?
And I said, no, I don't know why.
Thinking back, what was I, why didn't I want to go to camp?
My mother signed us up for the police boys club because where I grew up, they wanted to
keep kids out of trouble.
So my brother and I got signed up for the police boys club.
But all the other kids went to day camp and sleep over camp and I just, I look back
down and do it.
Why didn't I do it?
There had to be something.
I don't know.
All alone in the neighborhood when they went away.
I know, I was like punch the monkey.
Did you go find a stuff down?
I'm going to throw me a stuff down.
Go enjoy yourself.
All right.
That's spring break camp.
How do you sign up for that?
You can go to recenezoo.org and go to the education tab.
Do the drop down to camps and then there's a variety of different camps and that's the
one that's coming up.
And in April, it's very exciting.
Everything's happening at recenezoo.org.
So I'm going to Garfunkel, everything's happening at the zoo.
What's business booths?
What's that about?
Business booths is an opportunity for a business, a company to use their marketing techniques
and their dollars to come out and be a booth.
It's about a 10 by 10 space.
And we do those at our family events, which is extravaganza, which is on April 4th.
And then we have Christmas in July.
And then we also have boo with the zoo.
So people will come out and they've got to, they can market themselves to the parents,
but they're giving the kids candy or a pencil or something like that for their booth.
So as the kids walk by, they are getting some treats and then the parents get information
about what the business is selling or the opportunities that they have for extravaganza.
We'll probably have, I would say, 25 business booths.
And Christmas in July tends to be about 20.
And then boo with the zoo tends to be about 30.
We don't restrict how many people can come, but they're all going to be up in the big
grass area north of the penguin south of Land of the Giants.
And that's where we put everybody.
And it's super fun.
This is something real cute.
They had to move these penguins to a different part of the zoo, I forget where it was.
And you see them marching and they're having trouble getting down the steps.
And what are the other penguins going to push the other?
Oh my.
I did not see that.
I forget to move, but they were so cute the way they were just walking down to their
new surroundings for the day.
I think something broken they had to move.
And it was like the march of the penguins going down these steps.
And one of the penguins would step down the steps.
Talking about high-dorn executive director of the Racine Zoo, that's got to be a big
job being in charge of that because it's not people now.
Now you're dealing, it's one thing when you're a manager of people, you can reason with
people.
Well, I still have staff.
But now you have to deal with animals and you can't reason with animals, especially
wild animals because they're going to do what they want to do and they don't care
what Beth Hydor tells them what to do.
We have very good animals at our zoo.
They pay attention and they listen.
Well, my neighbor brings his pit bull over every Friday because I love dogs, brings it over.
But a free loader.
They don't pay for rent, they don't pay for food, lays around old, they don't have a job.
A free loader.
Okay, but your animals work, they entertain people when they come in.
They educate people.
They educate people, so they're workers, they're not free loaders.
No they are not.
That's good.
Okay, we're talking about some events coming to the zoo.
Now this is a competition, Bloody Mary Fest competitors, what is this?
Yeah, so we have Bloody Mary Fest over a year and this year it's on Saturday, May 16th
from 11 to 2.
What we're looking for right now are the competitors.
So the guests that are coming get to taste each of the Bloody Mary's that are there.
And we have a variety of competitors from bars.
Some of them are just groups.
If you think you can make the best Bloody Mary, bring it.
Oh, you can make it.
So I don't know what's in the Bloody Mary, I don't drink, so I don't know.
Well, it's tomatoes, tomato juice and lots of people put different spices and everyone
has their own, they're not telling me they're not telling me.
I see that celery stalker is coming in.
Now that would be a garnish.
Okay.
So you don't have to put a celery stalker in there.
What's the alcohol in it, it's vodka.
Oh, it's a vodka.
Yep.
So we supply the vodka, we supply the cups, the ice, all of that type of stuff.
And then the beer backs, so a little taste of beer after you taste of Bloody.
For those of you who know drinking, then they know what I'm talking about.
Is that to clean the palate?
Yeah, a little bit, I guess.
It just kind of makes it all that much better.
So who judges?
We have some, we get celebrity judges and we'll be picking those soon, but right now
I'm looking for competitors.
So if you think you have the best Bloody Mary, you're going to make around 300 some drinks.
So you bring your own mix and your garnish of whatever you want.
And then all the people will have 300 and some people that are going to be at the event.
It's fabulous.
It's a wonderful day to celebrate May on the 16th.
So get your competitor, go to our recinesew.org, go to the drop down for events, go to Bloody
Mary Fest, and then there's a link to sign up to be a competitor.
Well, you must be fun to be a judge at the end of the line, but the time you get to the
300th.
Well, they're judging.
They come later in the event and then we put the, could be eight, it could be ten, it
could be twelve Bloody Mary's that they're tasting.
Okay.
Drink the whole drink.
They're just tasting it.
Done.
My goodness gracious.
Sit, sing and safari.
Yeah, so we are partnering with buckets, pubs, second round.
And they have, it is literally a sing-along brunch and we're going to be doing that at
the zoo this year on, there's two different dates, May 30th and August 15th, super, super
fun.
I was at one the other day and it is, there's a great DJ, a great MC and it's just energy
in the room and this time it's at the zoo on May 30th and or the August 15th.
You can certainly come to one or both.
So we're starting to promote that now because things sell out so quickly that if we don't
start talking about it, it's going to be sold out before we get to April and I don't
want that to happen.
They sell out.
I is fabulous that they sell out but get your tickets for that.
That's a brand new event at the zoo and again we're partnering with buckets, pubs, second
round, Marcy and her team over there, super, super fun and breakfast is included.
We just posted the brunch for that and then it's just going to be a fun day and we had
such a good time the other day when I was at it so this is going to be even funner because
you get admission to the zoo as well.
Did you say funner?
I did say funner.
I can use that word if I want to.
Is this from your list?
This time was that last time.
Let's see.
I got that.
That is last time.
Last time.
Okay.
I got them all mixed up.
Yeah.
What do we have after Sipsing and Safari?
That's all we were talking about today.
So this is old news.
Yeah, that's well.
Yeah.
I have to mention this.
I know it probably embarrassed you to mention this but I was kidding around when you
walked in the building and I said, did you bring an animal like Joan Embry from
the San Diego Zoo used to do on the Johnny Carson show and you knew Joan Embry used to
work at the San Diego Zoo.
I didn't know that.
Yeah.
So it's one, one organization, two campuses.
So there's the zoo in downtown in Valbol Park and then there's the Safari Park that's
up at Escondito.
Wow.
So one organization, two campuses and I was at the Safari Park but worked for San Diego
Zoo a long time ago.
Have you worked for zoos all your life?
Zoos are aquariums.
Mm-hmm.
Accredited ones.
Yeah.
I went into my daughter yesterday and she was telling us about the Long Island Aquarium.
She lives in Florida now but they're going to visit the Long Island Aquarium.
So where's that other than Long Island on my life?
Where was that?
It must be new.
Could I don't have it heard of that one?
Long Island Aquarium.
It's out in the Eastern Long Island toward Riverhead and I said, I never heard of that.
After I left, they must have said, all right, Rosin's gone, we can build the aquarium
now.
I think I told you we had a zoo by us, the Mass Peak was zoo and it was all the animals
from Frank Buck.
Now Frank Buck was the guy, there was a movie about him and a TV series bringing back
alive.
He brought, he was an African hunter and he brought these animals back to Long Island
and they opened up a zoo with these animals.
So it wasn't a lot but there were some animals there and my father's, it was later in
life.
My father became best friends with the guy who owned the zoo.
Too bad of no bad of that beforehand, I could have got free admission.
But this was it and I have pictures of the zoo on my phone, somebody was brave enough
to take these pictures and save them and we, we have them, the Mass Peak with Park Zoo.
Is that still in existence?
No, no, no, no, long gone.
If it's actually the driving movie theater, those were knocked down, they built stores
and everything.
Gotcha.
But yeah.
See, it's an enriching part of your life to have been able to go to see the zoo and
animals.
They had the monkey mountain.
This was a big mountain.
It's a symbol of yours.
And it was right as you pull into the driving movie theater and people used to taunt the
monkeys.
And a kid or naughty.
They're not and then a monkey sometimes they're naughty.
They threw stuff at the cars.
If you're going to taunt them, they reacted and there were signs don't yell at the monkeys
because it happened to be right next to that.
If there was a long line up, they have to drive it.
Let's do a recap of some of the things going on.
In case people just tuning in.
And by the way, this will be podcast later today.
So if you missed it, oh, I missed it, I always listen to, no, it will be podcast later
today.
And you can hear Beth.
I don't talk about these events.
Well, let's quick review here.
All right.
All meal fashion Wednesday, March 26th, 25th from 6 to 8 p.m., going to be super fun.
It's already to drink old fashions and we'll be posting that either later today or tomorrow
once we confirm what those are going to be.
Just a great night.
We've got red onion.
That is going to be doing hand pass appetizers for everybody.
We'll be in the castle or vanishing kingdom as we call it.
So get your tickets for that.
Eating break camp is April 6th through the 10th.
You can sign up for one day.
You can sign up for two days.
You can sign up for all five days.
It's a great fun and safe place to put your kids while you are working.
And while they are on spring break from school, we've got business booths where you can,
that's more of a marketing option for you.
And Saturday, April 4th for extravaganza is the first one that is up.
And you'll get a 10 by 10 space and you give out candy to the kids.
You talk to the parents.
And it's just a fun energy filled day with multiple, all multi-generational groups coming
out.
And then on Saturday, May 16th, we have our Bloody Mary Fest.
And right now we're looking for the competitors.
Those that say they've got a great Bloody Mary, bring it.
Let's come on.
Fill up the competitor form and we'll be talking to you about that.
Or you can sign up for Bloody Mary Fest.
That's super fun too.
And then the last one we're talking about today is Sip Singh and Safari.
That is going to be on May 30th or August 15th.
And it is a sing-along brunch with an amazing DJ and a fabulous MC.
And it's just hanging out at the zoo with a bunch of people singing and enjoying life,
having a great time.
And it is super, super fun.
I'm very excited.
It's the first time we've had that event at the zoo and we're partnering with Bucket's
pub second round on that particular event.
Now, for all these go to recenezoo.org, you'll see all the information under events.
And listen to the podcast if you missed any of it.
Or you can do what my wife and I do.
We just sign up for the zoo, the zoo membership every year.
And I don't look into this.
I look into this adonation to the zoo.
That's how I look at it.
And what we do is when the weather is nice, we start walking around and it's six tenths
of a mile.
We clocked it to do one go round, do two go rounds, you do a little over a mile.
I just dropped 33 pounds and this is going to make me go over the top.
Awesome.
That went away from nice weather.
And well, people walk out there every day, but that's exactly right.
A lot of people do that.
It's a nice safe place.
It's fairly flat.
You know what I mean?
So it's a good walking path.
And you walk past the Arctic foxes.
The Arctic foxes, yeah?
They're white now.
They'll be brown before you know it.
They will be.
They sit in their little perch.
They love looking over.
I know.
They're a little perch.
I am, of course, I ain't say hello.
They're like every idiot.
How are you?
And I say move on.
Keep moving.
Keep moving, Don.
Come on.
Well, this is great.
We're very fortunate.
A lot of cities don't have a zoo.
We have one.
Right.
And especially a city the size of a scene, usually.
And an accredited one by that.
Yeah.
A lot of people, you know, don't get that benefit.
You know, big cities like Chicago, San Diego, the Bronx.
Bronx is still around.
Yeah.
Yeah, the Bronx.
Because we used to live not far from there.
And the Bronx zoo, all these big cities happen.
So does we're seen.
So does we're seen?
Yeah.
We're very fortunate.
103 years old.
We are this year.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
And you're the caretaker.
And I am the caretaker.
That's a blessing.
It is a blessing that's my privilege.
I'm lucky to have you taking care of those nice animals.
And taking care of the 103-year-old landmark.
Whoa.
I don't.
Crazy, right?
Try down the block for me.
I say, and you have nice decorations up for Christmas.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And all the lights are out and stuff.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Always an event going on.
Always an event.
Racinezoo.org.
If you missed any of it, check out the podcast later today.
It should be up at wrgm.com.
And we're ever get your podcast.
Thanks, Beth.
Thank you.