All zoo people knew all other zoo people. And everybody responded. Bob Weidener from Jackson, Mississippi Zoo said, “I’ll be the treasurer.” Don Davis, Cheyenne Mountain said, “I’ll have my accounting department send out the invoices.” Karen Salsman from Living Desert Museum came up and said, “I’ll do the newsletter.” I mean, people just came from everywhere. I came back to Topeka. I didn’t even have a secretary. A little old zoo, a little old town, didn’t even have secretary, and there’s this nationwide organization we gotta pull together. But a lady at the park department, a secretary there who could take dictation over the phone and then I’d go down to city hall, sign the letters and run ’em to the city hall postage meter. (chuckles) And there was a fellow with Hill’s Pet Products at that time, Jerry Hoagland. He was a salesman, came to all the conferences, and I said, “Jerry, you think a Hill’s would print up some AAZPA letterhead for me?” So I got the logo and they printed that up for us. And it was because of the comradery of zoo people that it worked.
