Children and parents have fun at Safari 2005

A LARGE crowd of excited children and their parents attended the Lions’ Safari 2005 at the Emperor Valley Zoo, Port-of-Spain yesterday and had fun watching the zoo animals and playing a variety of games. The Lions’ Safaris are annual, fund-raising events organised by members of the Lions’ Club of Port-of-Spain Central for the last 23 years. The chairman of the Lions’ Safari 2005, Gregor Reece, said the event was one of the club’s major fund-raising activities during the year. “We put on the safari to raise funds to address the needs of the less fortunate in our community of Port-of-Spain Central,” said Reece. He revealed that the club gets sponsorship from companies to help underpriviledged children attend the event.

“And we have a loyal cadre of concessionaires who support us year in, year out as well as the zoo workers,” stated Reece. He said the Emperor Valley Zoo is popular with the children because they love the animals and they are naturally attracted to them. “In the past, we usually drew between 8,000 to 9,000 people with the number varying according to whatever other competing activities there were in the country at the time.” Reece added that the club’s members always give of their best in making the safari a success. On the question of whether future safaris would be held at the Emperor Valley Zoo if it is moved to another location, his understanding was that they would still be held there but for the smaller animals. “The larger acreage in a rural area is for the bigger animals,” he said.