More than 300 volunteers dedicate time to sharing their knowledge and passion for wildlife with visitors, and for International Volunteer Day, we want to recognise them for the PAW-some work they do.
Volunteers come from all walks of life, like Tricia and Terri, a mother-daughter duo who together, wanted to make a difference and learn more about conservation.
For mum, Tricia, the Zoo seemed like a natural fit. “I always loved visiting the Zoo and felt comfortable there, so I thought I’d like to learn more about how I could help with conservation.”
Terri accompanied her mum to the Docent open day, and before she knew it, she was signing up as well.
“I thought it would be a great way for me to have some down time from my Monday to Friday job – which can be very stressful,” Terri said. “Plus, it would be nice to spend some quality time with mum.”
Together, Tricia and Terri tackled training head on, fascinated by the things they learned and the people and animals they got to meet along the way.
“Some of the guest speakers were so very interesting and knowledgeable,” Tricia said. “We also got to experience some amazing things together, like feeding Memphis the rhino.”
“Our conversations in the car on the way home were always, ‘wow, I didn’t know that!’. I really enjoyed having mum to myself for a few hours.” Terri said.
Tricia and Terri are now fully fledged Docents and love driving visitors around in the zebra cars while sharing their newly obtained knowledge.
In the past year, our Docents have contributed more than 46,900 hours of service, but what they have brought to the Zoo extends even further than that. Their passion for volunteering at the zoo is limitless and inspiring. Not only do they facilitate tours for visitors, they also help our keepers create enrichment activities for the animals and lend a hand to our horticulture team. We can’t thank them enough!
If you’re interested in joining Tricia, Terri and the rest of our amazing team of Docents, you can find out more about volunteering at Perth Zoo.