7/10/06

From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli..

Word of Oops(!) has spread like wildfire, from "The Colorado Springs Gazette" to South Africa, and even Fox News just ran the story as part of Fox & Friends.

Nice of them to notice us, but I think the prize should go to the Salem Avalanche for "Most Creative PR use of a missing monkey":

07/09/06 "The Salem Avalanche will be holding Monkey Business
Monday at tomorrow's game against the Potomac Nationals. As with all
Monday home games, fans can receive $1 General Admission tickets with a
coupon from the Roanoke Times or roanoke.com. Tomorrow, however, the
Avalanche will extend the $1 General Admission tickets to all fans
presenting bananas at the ticket office, in hopes that Oops will seek out the tasty fruit."


Admission time: Your friends at Forgotten-Roanoke.com hit the mountain yesterday to "search" for Oops, and take care of some long outstanding business.

We walked the Loop from top to bottom and back again. First time too.. not a bad walk.. cannot imagine trying to jog or bike it though - not yet anyway.

However, it did firm up my commitment to one day gaining access from downtown Roanoke up the Mountain to the Zoo without a car. A shuttle bus, perhaps styled after a trolley, could easily run up and down the loop, or at the very least - up the Fishburn Parkway to the Zoo from downtown providing an opportunity for those who do not drive or folks too young to drive to get to the zoo on their own.

And your hosts here at Forgotten-Roanoke.com also joined the Zoo as members - so we witnessed firsthand the turnout the zoo had due to the publicity. We have been planning to become members for a while now, as we do hit the zoo perhaps 7 times a year or so.

Found out some interesting things about the zoo as well, in terms of public fundraising. Did you know they have a deal going with Sherwin-Williams Paint? 20% off regular prices, 5% off sale prices on nearly any paints. A percentage of the sale price goes to the Mill Mountain Zoo, similar to the Food Lion MVP card (which can also be linked to a charitable giving program).

There is no reason anyone can give to NOT support the Zoo.

What baffles me is the amount of people who seemed completely ignorant of the Oops(!) story. But I get baffled easily, we know this.

In the coming months and years, I'm hoping to build a relationship between Forgotten-Roanoke.com and the Mill Mountain Zoo to answer a question I've been curious about for a long time now. What happened to the stuff from the Children's Zoo?

Memories of the Central Park Children's Zoo (and another small zoo somewhere in NY) include some of the same items seen in photos of the old Childrens Zoo.

What can I say, I like the Zoo.. Im a Zoo guy.

Welcome to Sean Greene, the new Director - what a way to start your tenure.

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