The N.C. Zoo Society launched its public capital campaign to help bring additional Polar Bears to the North Carolina Zoo by announcing that it had already raised more than $1.2 million toward a goal of $2 million.
“It is so gratifying to be able to report this wonderful start,” said N.C. Zoological Society Board Chair Mary F. Flanagan, Chapel Hill , as she reported the total raised toward a $4.7 million expansion of the Polar Bear exhibit and holding facilities. “This response, during these trying financial times, make us deeply appreciative of all the individuals who are such good friends of the Zoo.”
The announcement was made at the Zoo's Rocky Coast exhibit. During the announcement, one of the Zoo’s two Polar Bears frolicked through several tons of ice piled in his habitat in honor of the kickoff, which preceded a quarterly meeting of the N.C. Zoo Society Board. That Board has already pledged or given more than $250,000 to
Project: Polar Bears, the official name of the Zoo Society's campaign. Directors’ family members (and family foundations) have committed more than $300,000 additional dollars. The F.M. Kirby Foundation made the largest such gift, $150,000.
With Board, family and foundation giving, the Millis family of High Point has also invested over $300,000 in
Project: Polar Bears. Current Society Board Director Molly Millis-Hedgecock’s late father, Jim, was long the Vice Chair of the Zoo Society Board and a sponsor (with wife Jesse) of the Grizzly Bears during
Project: North America in the late 1980’s.
A donor couple gave $200,000 to expand the original $4.5 million project, adding artistic items and more educational, interpretive graphic elements. The Society’s Randolph Friends of the Zoo, the volunteer group that manages the Zoo Society;s annual Zoo to Do dinner/dance/auction, gave $100,000 and the the Zoo Society's staff added $20,000. The State has allocated a total of $4.5 million for the expansion as well as renovations to the existing polar bear facilities.
Wilhelm rolls in 5,000
pounds of ice that Zoo officials placed in his exhbit on October 28 when the N.C.Zoological Society launched its public fundraising campaign to expand the North
Carolina Zoo's Polar Bear exhibit. NC Zoo Photo by Jeff Owen
