Well both directors, the marketing director and the finance man when he was director, neither one recognized the value of volunteers. It wasn’t until I became zoo director in 1982 that one of the early trainees that I had as a docent came to me, “It’s okay, Charlie. You’re director. Can we have a docent program?” And I made her chairman of the docent program and we started a new training program and we trained a cadre of docents. And today, I think the zoo has about 200 docents. These are trained docents that help with the education program that give skilled zoo tours to the students, but they also monitor what we call touch tables. In front of the reptile house, there’s a touch table monitored by a docent that has animal skins and skulls, turtle shells, lot of artifacts that students but also the general public are encouraged to pick up and feel and ask the docent questions. In front of the bird house, they have feathers. They have mounted birds.
