And with me from the Racine Zoo, the executive director, Beth Heidorn.
This has got to be a stressful job.
You would think so because you don't have employees you're dealing with.
You're dealing with animals you can't reason with.
We have both,
yeah.
Oh, you can't.
Wait, I want to have it backwards.
No, we have staff.
We have staff.
We have animals.
What is that?
Head up backwards.
You have the animals and the staff you can't reason
with.
Maybe the
other way around.
I mean.
And it's a 365 day a year job.
I mean, even holidays, you don't lock up the joint and say, see you after Christmas.
Right.
Right.
Every day.
That's got to be so stressful.
And you know, you get so much importance on your head dealing with all these animals and people.
Right.
And you got the labor of love, man, labor of love.
You have to get the grounds.
You've got the the orange barrels in front of your zoo.
I know, right?
Goodness gracious.
I see they took the orange barrels from Spring Street and moved them on to Main Street.
Oh, I know.
But they're down further now.
I know they're not right in front of the zoo this year.
And then up by my house, either down
further down from there.
OK.
But it's funny, they got the barrel.
They just took them from from Spring Street and moved them over.
Where are they going next?
Yeah, the sign coming in was like, well, wait.
Oh, there are barrels here.
You know, it's like, I think I need a blanking site.
Well, that whole zoo area is nice.
You get that playground across the street now.
And I say, oh, when I loaded with gas, did that sit go across
the street?
I almost noticed the kids playing there.
And I keep thinking they're not on their tablets.
They're not on their phones and not on the computers and not streaming something.
They're
actually
in the fresh air playing right across from the zoo.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's really, that's a neat playground too.
That's what a fun
looking thing.
It's very pretty.
I feel like sneaking out in the middle of the night and trying
some of those things.
I think you probably could.
You're a kid at heart anyway.
Yes, I'd love to.
And I'm losing weight so I can get on that stuff.
All right, let's talk about August 11th, which is today, the Milwaukee Milkmen.
Yeah, so we're their nonprofit.
They're highlighted nonprofit for tonight's game.
It's a 630 start and they're playing the dogs.
And you can still get tickets.
You go to racinesu.org, go to the Milwaukee Milkman and then go through our portal because the tickets that are sold, a portion of those come to the zoo as a donation.
So we'll have some animals up there.
You'll be able to talk to Abby, our Education Conservation Manager.
And she'll bring some animals.
We have a 50-50 raffle, and we're just the highlighted nonprofit.
And we love the Milwaukee Milkmen.
Super fun.
It's up at Franklin Field.
So the Milwaukee Milkmen are?
It's a baseball team.
Yeah, they're a minor league or just
a fun local?
I think they're... That's a great question.
I think they're a minor league, but I don't really...
minor league.
They could be a funnel to somebody.
I don't know.
You said they play in Franklin.
They play with that drive-in theaters up there, that new drive-in they put up in Franklin.
I don't know if it's by the drive-in.
There's a whole complex and there's you can golf at the Lux Bay.
There is all these fields that are up there.
So it's a great location and they're super nice to us.
How'd you get involved with them?
A couple years ago we had we're looking for different ways to raise money because you know we got to feed the animals.
And they, I'd met one of the managers up there and he said, well, you know, you could be our nonprofit.
We're like, well, that's super cool.
And so it kind of started about five years ago and now we go up every year.
We just pick a game that works for us and we head on out.
Super fun.
Let's talk about your new residence.
It's always nice when you get somebody new at the zoo and you have, and I saw this online.
Fusa.
Fusa.
That's
one.
Fusa.
Fusa is one.
Fuses is two.
Not fusae.
It's not fusae.
It's not octopi either.
It's octopuses, just so people know.
All right.
It's all depends.
Science is fun.
Sometimes it changes.
So we have two fuses, two fusa, fuses.
And they are sisters, and they came to us from central Florida Zoo.
They live, the only place they're found in the wild would be the island of Madagascar.
And what are they?
So they look kind of like, they're a mammal, a carnivore, but they kind of look like a cat or an otter, larger cat from head to tail.
They're super cute and they are so active.
They just are a little bit over a year old.
They turn to year in May.
So they are a really good age and they are siblings.
So there's a little, you know, they're sisters.
So they're hanging out and sometimes they squabble and sometimes they don't.
Now, do you have to send your people who work at the zoo in training when you get a new animal because they need different care, don't
they?
They do, but we've had FUSA before, so they, it was the same, they're in the same exhibit.
We just remodeled the exhibit space, so it's in the Vanishing Kingdom.
If you come in on the south end, down by where the lions are, about halfway through to the other side, it's on the right-hand side.
They're between our lions and our cape porcupines, and that was where their exhibit.
They have two spaces that they can use.
It's super fun, and you gotta come and visit them.
They love to see people.
They get porcupines, right?
We have Cape Porcupines.
Now, do they shoot quills?
They never shoot quills.
Not any porcupine shoots quills.
The challenge is, is they have really fine hairs.
They're modified.
That's hair.
Their quills are hair.
It's modified way at the far end.
That's very, that's got like little barbs.
So if you brush against it, you could pick up a quill.
People think they shoot them because they can't see.
It's so fine that they can't see the end of where the quill is compared to where a person or something walks by it, where it could then pull it out.
So people think they shoot the quill.
Because I
saw those pictures of that dog once.
They had the quills holding their
nose.
Well, that's because they went after it and went right in.
It would not be fun.
I would never do that again.
That's a one and done.
We're going to go to our next event here.
I'm going to take my friend of ours.
His granddaughter is turning a year old in September.
And my wife said, you know what?
This kid got so many toys, no toys.
Can't get clothing because a little girl would not grow the clothing in a month.
So here's what we did.
We are buying her ever seen zoo pass.
Membership.
She gets
it free.
But this one's mainly for the mom
and the and
the grandpa.
You single
mom.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah.
It's a great way to come out to the zoo and start them early.
I'm starting before two, that's great.
Yeah, she's turning a year old and my wife said, get something they can use.
Yep.
Because clothing will be gone in a month or two.
Right.
That kid's gonna grow.
And
toys, that kid's got so many toys.
And you're giving them an experience.
Yeah.
And I think that's important.
So we're gonna give them the plus one.
Nice.
and because we have one too.
Perfect.
We're gonna get that.
Plus it goes to a good cause.
Okay, let's see what our animal crackers.
Coming to a close, it's the end of summer.
Wow,
my goodness.
I know, I know.
That is on Wednesday the 19th.
It's Grace Kelly is our final artist.
And then we end with a drone show.
So the usual drill, the gates open at 5.30.
The concert starts at 7.
And then there'll be a little break, probably 10 to 8.
And then they'll start a second set at 8.
and they're gonna be done just a smidge before nine.
We wait till the music is done.
We shut all the lights off and the drones will start probably about nine, 10, nine, 15 and we'll have a nice drone show.
Wow.
Grace Kelly, huh?
Grace Kelly is coming,
right?
For our younger listeners, Grace Kelly was an actress who became the princess of Monaco.
Of Monaco, yeah.
And yeah, she was in a...
rear window with James Stewart, a lot of movies.
She was at a lot of Alfred Hitchcock
movies.
This is a different Grace Kelly.
I know, this is
not the same race.
Grace Kelly.
It's just odd to have that name,
Grace Kelly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's
like, oh, you having Paul McCartney there?
Yeah, this is not the Paul McCartney.
This is Paul McCartney from Caledonia.
Yeah, it's gonna be super great.
And that's also the night that we sell season tickets for 27, which is already the tickets already showed up.
So we'll be selling those at a very discounted rate.
We'll probably sell a thousand sets of season tickets for 2027.
Okay, so
that's a week from this Wednesday.
That's a week from this Wednesday.
The Final Animal
Crackers Concert.
Yep.
Oh, that's nice.
Beth Heindore, Executive Director of the Racine Zoo is here.
I guess you can go to the zoo.
You can talk to the animals, see the animals, but there's also a lot more than that.
Let's talk about the car and truck show.
Is the car and bike show coming up,
right?
Yeah, it's coming up on Sunday the 16th.
It is our 30th annual car, truck, and bike show.
Now, do you put the cars right on the grounds?
Yeah, so they will enter our Gould gate, which so they'll be right at the corner of Gould and Michigan will be where the gate they go in on and they'll be lined up, oh gosh, probably by 5.30 in the morning in order to get their cars.
People have a very particular spot they like to park their vehicles.
We'll probably have 300 vehicles, cars, trucks, and bikes, and they'll come in that south gate and they'll park anywhere from on our grass beginning north of our mountain all the way up to south of the playground and then on both sides of the road.
And so lots and lots of vehicles.
It's a $5 admission day, so everyone gets in for $5, two when younger is always free.
It's just a really great way to get folks in.
Or if you're smart
enough to have a special card that you bought.
Or you can have a special member card, that is correct, sir.
You know, if you're smart enough to do
that, you
don't have to wheel out
the cash every time you want to go.
You don't even have to spend $5, exactly.
So very exciting to have that happen.
We've got a DJ that will be playing lots and lots of cars.
We give 70, I think it's 75 awards.
At the end of the day and we everyone who brings a car or truck or bike votes on Different categories and then that's who how we pick the winners.
Is that like a car club that goes down there?
There's multiple car There's lots of people that just own their own favorite vehicles and bring them on out and it's Amazing the types of cars trucks and you know bikes that are show up.
I see
some of them driving around you see some of these like
I don't know what they call them.
It's like an old Stuck's Bear cat car, or they have these Model A's
or
Model T's
and
mint condition.
I'd be afraid to drive that on the street for fear somebody would bang into it or something.
I'd put it behind a glass cage.
These people all take very good care of their cars.
I know, and they love showing them off.
And they do, and we will have probably 2,000 people on property that day, which is our normal for our car truck and bike show.
We'll get about 2,000 people.
to come see what I love about it is people come out to see the cars, and then they go, oh my gosh, you got amazing animals, or they're coming for the animals, not necessarily realizing that there's a car show, and go, oh my gosh, look at all these cool cars.
So it's a great opportunity for people to come on out.
You see lots of dads and their kids come on out, I think it's super fun.
Hey, I came for the car show.
Hey, look at this.
A zoo broke
out.
I know.
Where did the zoo come from?
It's crazy.
I love it.
You're lucky you have big grounds there.
We do.
Because a lot of zoos
don't have them.
Right.
And you can use the grounds for other
projects.
Super fun.
Very excited about that event.
OK.
We've got the world.
Wait
a second.
You got it.
Come on.
You
know what it is?
I have to look under my glasses
because
these aren't reading glasses.
We've got the World Roar Wine Pour Wednesday.
That's like one of the Sally.
sold gels down by the seashore thing.
Yeah, exactly.
World, war, world, roar, wine, pour.
Who came up with that line?
Well, we used to do World, or World, World, Wine Wednesday, and then we did roar and pour.
So because we're out of days, so we combined our wine tasting and our beer tasting to one.
So that's how the name came up.
It is Wednesday, September 2nd, from six to eight.
It's a great hump day event.
We'll have, you know, five or six beers, five or six wines.
It's unlimited samples.
Red Onion does hand-pass appetizers, so it's really fun.
We're gonna be at, I think we're gonna be up by the land of giants for that particular one.
We kind of move around the zoo a little bit.
Land of
giants?
That's up at our north end.
That's where our...
giraffe.
I don't like that
name.
It's scary.
The land of the giants.
It was named long before me, sir.
But that's a really fun event.
We've got lots of people already booking for that.
So it's really great.
And it's, you know, come, it's easy peasy.
It's a great way to celebrate and support the zoo.
And you get to have wine and beer and hang out with your friends at the zoo.
So who doesn't think that's a fun time?
Nobody.
All these animals sleep at night.
I mean, you, I mean, if you have nocturnal animals, obviously they don't sleep at night.
They're on opposite.
There are, like our nocturnal animals, like our bats, they are on opposite sides.
So it's dark for them in their exhibit space when we're awake, and then it's light for them where they're then napping when we're not at the zoo.
So they're active when our guests are there, and they're not active when the guests are not there.
So when do they turn at the count Dracula?
Where is it?
What time are
they?
We don't have those kind of
bats.
Okay.
I just was wondering.
Nice
question.
Well, you never know.
You
might slip it.
You might slip and answer
me.
True.
It's true.
OK, so that the World Roar Wine Pour is on September 2.
September 2.
September 2.
Yes, you got it.
The Old Fashioned Cocktail Night competitors.
I can't.
You know, I got to take my glasses off to read this stuff.
It's
all
good.
The
Old Fashioned Cocktail Night competitors and Saturday, October 3.
Yes, we are already looking ahead.
I mean, we, you know, I feel like we're the car show is kind of back that end of summer event.
And then we're into fall, but we're already looking for, it's a fun event.
About 350 guests show up.
They're tasting old fashions and it's a contest.
So what I'm asking for today is those people for competitors, whether it's a bar or a person that thinks they make the best old fashions in the world, they are welcome to sign up.
We supply the liquor, the guests or the competitors supplies their mix and whatever garnish they want.
and it will have 350 people tasting all the old-fashioned.
So what I need right now are competitors.
I've already got some signed up, but we can always use more.
And it's competition
then.
It's a competition, yeah.
See who can make the best old-fashioned in the area.
And it's a
vote?
It's a vote by the guests.
Oh,
wow.
The guests that are tasting it are voting on what their favorite is.
I never had one.
Yeah, well.
Never
tasted an old-fashioned.
I'm not an old-fashioned drinker either.
I just host the party.
I had, like, my first drink when I was 13 years old.
My dad made me a whiskey sour.
But he made it nice and sweet.
He said, you want one here?
There you go.
And I think that was the first.
And maybe I had one after that my entire life.
But he liked making whiskey sellers.
He said, you want to try one here?
There you go.
Thanks, dad.
There you go, dad.
Let me call Child Protective Services.
Stop.
It was my bar mitzvah.
Oh, gotcha.
You're a man now.
Here's your
drink.
Here's a drink.
OK, so let's do a quick review here.
OK.
We've got
The Milwaukee Milkman, today,
tonight.
At 6.30, yep.
So get your tickets.
But that's in
Franklin.
It's in Franklin, mm-hmm.
At the big
sports complex.
I think it's called Rock.
Yeah, I think
the driving's right there at the end of the
complex.
Yeah, it's a beautiful space.
Yeah.
Animal Crackers, the final concert with Grace
Kelly.
Of 26, yep.
And what does
Grace Kelly do, sing?
She's a singer and a
saxophone.
I think it's
saxophone.
Okay.
Sex,
not sex.
I don't know what you said
there.
I didn't know what to say.
Sex, saxophone, okay.
I'm just clearing that up.
That's Wednesday, August
19th.
And we end with a drone show.
So people want to just come out and we're going to be selling season tickets for 2027 at a nicely reduced price.
But you can only buy them at that concert on that night.
Price does not start before that and price raises right after
it.
Whoa.
I'm telling you, I'll sell a thousand season tickets for $27.
One
shot to get that cheap rate.
Yes.
Car and the car, truck and bike show.
Did say truck on there.
Car, truck and bike.
It's amazing when I take my glasses off and look underneath
them.
I know.
That's August 16th, Sunday, this coming Sunday from 10 to four.
Oh yeah, it's a Sunday.
Well, 10 to five, the four o'clock is when we do the awards.
Yeah, it's rain or shine, right?
It's rain or shine, yep.
Bring an umbrella if it
rains.
Bring an umbrella.
$5 day, $5 to come into the zoo that day.
The World Roar Wine
poor, which is Wednesday, September 2nd.
It's beer tasting and wine tasting with hand-past appetizers from red onion.
It's super awesome.
And then comes the competitors, the old-fashioned cocktail night competitors.
They're lining up now.
We do.
They're in training.
We need some more bars.
We need some more people.
I think they make the best old-fashioned.
Sign on up.
Let's see what you got.
October 3th.
That would be a Saturday.
At the zoo.
Yep.
69
PM.
Now, you can have that.
Are you going to do your globes again outside the dining?
We're working on that pretty soon.
I'll be talking about that with you too, sir.
Yeah, the dining globes.
That was really neat.
When people eat out there,
they're
catered and everything.
They
ate these snow.
They look like the
snow domes.
Like an igloo.
Yeah, like a snow dome.
The snow globes.
They shake it up.
That looks like.
Shake it up without shaking it
up.
So who puts this all?
Who think comes up with these ideas?
Well, that'd be me and my team.
Okay.
So we got to get creative, got to feed the animals, man.
And one more time, you got some new residents there.
They are the...
Two new fuses.
Sisters.
Fuses.
From Central Florida
Zoo.
And they're not fusi.
They're
fuses.
They're not fusi.
That is correct.
I appreciate you asking the question.
They don't want to be called that.
They get very angry.
You can see on their faces.
And they're very sleek looking.
They are.
They're super cool.
And they're carnivores, and they actually have an opposable thumb, and they can actually climb down a tree.
Oh, wow.
They're on the island of Madagascar.
Do you give
them names?
They came with names.
I can't, I don't have them off the top of my head.
They've only been here less than a week.
Fusa one, fusa two.
In my brain right now, that's what they are.
Like Dr. Seuss would name,
thing one and thing two.
Yeah, there you
go.
Thank you, Beth, for coming in.
Thank you, sir.
I appreciate
it.
And if people want to know about these events, they go online too.
Racinezoo.org.
At the top, there is a drop down, go to events, do drop down, and you'll see everything we've talked about and everything we didn't talk about.
Ooh, we didn't talk about
stuff?
Well, there's stuff that's coming up at late on the fall.
Okay, all right, all right, just make
sure you next visit.
Make sure you're not hiding anything.
No, I'm not hiding anything.
It's all on there.
I'm just only talking about what people can do right now.
Racinezoo.org.
There you go.
Thank you, Beth.
Thank you, sir.
And
we'll see you next month.
Yes, you
will.
All right, then we'll talk about the snow domes, snow globes.
They'll be close.
Yeah.
It looks like so much fun in there because when we go in there to take walks and stuff,
We see them, and I say, well, that looks good.
I don't want to bang on it and annoy people in there, but I was, I take a peek.