Our family spends a substantial amount of time at the local zoo, and this week we looked for ways to make the experience more meaningful.

What are your family’s favorite, frequent adventures?

Have you looked for ways to add a DGT dimension to them?

Our family visits the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory at least a dozen times a year. We take advantage of the educational programs, free story times and puppet shows, and of course, learn about our animal neighbors that reside in the park.

Mention the Como Zoo to any family with young kids in the Twin Cities, and you’ll undoubtedly find a fan club in the making. For one thing, the whole park is free, with only a small recommended donation of $2 for adults and $1 for children. For another, the park is relatively small. In only an hour and half my girls can meander from the Galapagos turtles, to the new polar bear exhibition, through the tiger habitat, and all the way around the orangutans and other primates.

Anyone who hasn’t visited Como Zoo in a while might cringe at their memories of the park from a couple of decades back, when sad animals were crammed in a circle of tiny cages. Fortunately, the zoo has been transforming itself piece by piece into a small but lovely oasis.

Since we visit so frequently, we have decided to step up our support and sponsor an animal.

This decision caused some initial confusion. When I explained to my five-year-old that our sponsorship would help take care of whichever animal we choose, she was ecstatic. “Great! The zoo keeper can just tell me how to feed them. Can we take them home? I think I want the giraffe!”

Right. It took a while to clear that up. Luckily,she was almost as excited about a color photograph of her animal and special news about the zoo…. Especially news about new baby animals. She asked what we needed to do to become sponsors, and when she found out, she ran to her room yelling, “Well, that’s easy!”

She ran back clutching her piggy bank gleefully, “this should do it!” Her little sister followed suit. They delivered their donations at the front door of the zoo, since I’ll be submitting our official sponsorship over the phone.

The difficult part now is choosing our animal.

My two-year-old seems happy to support whatever decision her sister makes, while sister is weighing the decision extremely carefully. You see, the black-footed penguins have a very, very small space, and maybe our ($30) sponsorship could get them some more room. But then there are the ostriches, who always seem to be casing their pen for a big escape, they must need something to play with. But the lion was tucked away in a corner during our last visit. Maybe he was sad and needs our support!

So we aren’t actually sponsors yet, but the decision-making process is moving forward. Soon we’ll have a special friend to learn about and visit each time we head to the zoo.

Tags: Healing the Earth

About Sarah

Sarah Aadland is striving to make family volunteering a meaningful habit for her two preschoolers. Join the conversation as she ponders what they may (or may not have) learned and looks for helpful information about raising compassionate kids.Though she plans to one day put her Masters in Public Policy back to work for social justice, she sees family volunteering as a way to build a stronger community, a better world, and a more connected family. In addition to her children, Sarah tends a large garden, a small flock of chickens, and a habit of mindfulness amid the necessary rituals of parenting.

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