Goat bridge for Children’s Zoo
Minot’s Roosevelt Park Zoo will benefit from this year’s Community Rocks! concert on Saturday, Feb. 4 in the Grand Hotel in Minot.
The concert is performed by the 30-piece Community Rocks! orchestra performing favorites from the ’60s to today. Live and silent auctions are part of the activities. This year’s live auction includes a guitar signed by all three original members of the band Cream and a guitar signed by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd.
The event starts at 6 p.m. with a social and silent auction followed by the show at 7 p.m.
This is the third annual Community Rocks! concert. Each year the nonprofit organization raises money through the unique concert to benefit local organizations.
Roosevelt Park Zoo will be getting dwarf goats for its Children’s Zoo. Along with the addition of these goats, plans are to build a goat bridge in the Children’s Zoo area.
“We’re going to do this project with the money,” said Becky Dewitz, zoo director, of the Community Rocks! fundraising event.
“This will allow the goats to move from pen to pen, visitors can even walk underneath the bridge that the goats will use to move. It’s just a different experience to engage with the goats,” Dewitz said.
The zoo has pygmy goats. The dwarf goats are a smaller-sized goat – playful and very interactive, according to Dewitz. “They’re very personable,” she said. “They can be as friendly as a puppy dog. They really enjoy people.”
The zoo is in the process of obtaining the dwarf goats.
“We hope with the help of volunteers that we can have supervised interaction with our goats. People can go in with the goats – pet them, brush them, feed them,” Dewitz said.
These additions are part of the visitors’ experience and the zoo’s focus for 2017 to provide the most valuable visitor experience for people when they come to the zoo, Dewitz said. She said they want to make a visitor’s zoo experience “unique and memorable and enjoyable for the kids and families.”
Based on how much money is raised at the Community Rock! 2017 concert, the zoo’s plans could include adding a storybook theme with the addition of what are called all-weather books or large-sized outdoor “books” in the Children’s Zoo.
“With those all-weather books we will incorporate storybook themes throughout the Children’s Zoo. We would have “Billy Goats Gruff” by the goats and we could have “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” by the yellow house (in the Children’s Zoo),” Dewitz said. She said an Eagle Scout will be renovating the yellow house themed a “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” playhouse for children.
She said the storybook themes could be carried out in other areas of the Children’s Zoo such as “Mary Had a Little Lamb” by the sheep and also “Old Macdonald Had a Farm.”
“Again, it’s all about the visitor experience,” Dewitz said.
Tickets for the Community Rocks! event are on sale but people are encouraged to buy them early. The two previous years’ concerts were sold out. Tickets are available at Jacobsen Music, Classic Rock Coffee, and the zoo office or by calling 857-4690. Ticket are $45 for general seating and $60 reserved.
For more information visit Roosevelt Park Zoo’s Facebook page at facebook.com/RPZoo/ and Community Rocks’ Facebook page at facebook.com/OrchestraRockOfMinot/.
Currently, the zoo is open Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. As long as temperatures are above zero, the zoo is open on those days. The zoo will open for its daily season starting April 29.