Another one in the bag. It’s that time again for the after action report from the Epilepsy Walk. Each year my company conducts numerous fundraising events from a chili cook off to a tailgating party to Superbowl squares to a gold tournament to various raffles to charity donations tied to the marathon to sneaky jeans passes to silent auctions. All of those efforts culminate in one donation to the Epilepsy Foundation that we hand over at the annual fundraising walk/stroll. Every year in spring, they hold the walk in various locations throughout Texas (Dallas, San Antonio, Houston) to spur donations to Epilepsy research and treatment. Last few years, the walk has been held in the Houston Zoo. It is not really a walk, but more of an amble/stroll/saunter as you mosey the zoo grounds for a couple of hours until the big wrap up event at 1100 where they announce the results and have the drawings for the big prizes. We did pretty well this year in twisting arms for donations. Through the efforts of many people, the company was able to hand over one of those Publisher’s Clearing House sized checks for – (drum roll, please).............$100,000. Not too bad for a year's work.
As with the past events, there was a very good turnout. Hard to determine the exact number of participants. From the website, our team had over 700 people signed up for our team alone and there were supposed to be 2000+ people total signed up for the stroll, but it did not look anywhere near 2k there yesterday. Our team wore red shirts – a good call since we could easily identify everyone in the zoo with that color. No matter where we went in the zoo, you were always seeing red. We even had a number of former NFL players there signing autographs and you could have your picture taken with a couple of Texans Cheerleaders. All for a good cause.
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| Prestroll registration pandemonium |
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| Up with the chickens |
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| Future cheerleader |
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| You lookin' at me, bub? |
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| Hanging around the water cooler |
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| Bored Leopard |
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| An old married couple? |
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| Looking at him reminded me of Abby's picture |
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| Albino Alligator |
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| Hanging out with my litter mates |
Now, I have said before, I am not a big fan of zoos. Something about lions and tigers and the larger animals caged up in pens has always seemed slightly depressing to me. The Houston zoo has done a nice job of developing areas for the animals that is supposed to simulate their natural habitat, so it is not the old tiger in the cage venue of the past, but I still can’t help but thinking they would be much happier, if not hungrier, in the wild. It may be that I no longer have kids to accompany me in the zoo. Something about seeing all those exotic animals up close and in person brings out the kid in a lot of people.
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| And it what's a zoo without a pirate? |
And, in keeping my winning streak intact, NO, I didn't wind the $!@#% i-Pad3 (again).
