Published: October 28, 2009 07:26 pm      

JC volunteers ready for Boo at the Zoo

By Nathan Straus

nstraus@jacksonvilleprogress.com



Animals, candy and safe Halloween fun are on tap for Tyler’s Caldwell Zoo on Oct. 31 from 1-4 p.m. This year, the annual Boo at the Zoo special event will be entirely run by Jacksonville College students.

David Heflin, Spanish professor at the college, said students are ready to take to the zoo and handle thousands of children.

“This is the first time for Jacksonville College to handle the event completely,” he said. “I guess they found us reliable.”

Heflin also said the college has participated in about four of the zoo’s six Boo at the Zoo events.

Nancy Morse, book store director, said there will be game booths, a bounce house, a not-so-haunted house and lots of candy at the zoo.

“If the weather is nice, we could have a huge crowd,” she said. “Around 4,000-5,000.”

Morse said the Halloween activity is a neat, safe thing for children and their families to do Saturday. Everything will be decorated with themed scenery and the volunteers will be ready to tend to the children.

If Morse’s predictions for the number of attending children prove accurate, there will be almost 200 children to each volunteer. About 30 students have committed to attending.

In the past, Jacksonville College students joined with volunteers from other organizations such as Tyler Junior College.

“They like to use our students because they’re well-behaved,” Morse said.

Brian Simon, a freshman psychology major from Jacksonville, said he’s looking forward to his first time volunteering for Boo at the Zoo.

“I’m looking forward to hanging out with the kids and having some fun,” he said.

Simon claimed he volunteered because his parents worked in foster care full time and he saw a chance to do work with children as he had done back home.

“I’m used to ministering and hanging out with kids,” he said.

Margaret Hildebrand, a freshman theater major from Arkansas, said she signed up because of the opportunity to help out with children.

“You get to meet new people and you can invite them to church,” she said.

Stephen Bogan, a freshman music major from Rusk, said he’s going because he wants to visit the zoo and help out with the event.

“I get to represent the school,” he said. “We can be a positive influence around children on Halloween.”

Joshua Findley, a sophomore sports medicine major from Onalaska, is one of the students repeating a volunteer experience at the zoo. He said he first signed up to interact with the little children and because he enjoyed getting involved.

The Caldwell Zoo is at 2203 Martin Luther King Boulevard in Tyler. For more information, contact 903-593-0121 or visit www.caldwellzoo.org.

Boo at the Zoo is free with the price of zoo admission. Halloween costumes, so long as they are not of the scary variety, are encouraged, but not required.