By Emily Schoch | Staff Writer, Lauren Holcomb | LTVN Broadcast Reporter
The Baylor community gathered on Saturday at the Bill and Eva Williams Bear Habitat to celebrate the second birthday of Judge Indy and Judge Belle. The party featured special treats, interactive exhibits, a crowd of students, alumni and families eager to celebrate the bears.
LTVN’s Lauren Holcomb recaps the black bears’ second birthday celebration.
Edna senior Kaydence Chiles, a Bear Habitat trainer, said that the event was made for everyone to have fun.
Besides having free cake and popcorn, they also gave out free t-shirts to the first 400 students that attended. On top of that, there were activities for everyone to participate in, such as walking around the Bear Habitat and racing through an inflatable obstacle course.
Dallas junior Andie Rawe, lead trainer for the Bear Habitat, said that Baylor is passionate about supporting the Waco community by only using local vendors for the event.
“What we do is we get local vendors and we contact them and try to support them as much as possible and bring them together with the rest of the Baylor community,” Rawe said. “We have balloons from Balloon Pop Waco, and we also have Astro Jump, which supplies our bounce house. We also support our local businesses through grocery stores. We order cake through H-E-B.”
Rawe said those who work for Bear Habitat are passionate about celebrating Indy and Belle’s birthday because it’s about “bringing everybody together.”
“I think when we bring everybody together for an event like this we’re [not only] celebrating the bears, but we’re also celebrating them being taken care of by our student-led organization and our professionals that come in to help us,” Rawe said. “Throwing a birthday party lets people know that these are live animals. They deserve as much care as humans. It’s special to be able to take care of these bears, especially as a student.”
Chiles said the mission behind the Bear Habitat, aside from celebrating the bears’ birthday, is to provide quality care for Indy and Belle.
“We take care of these bears day in and day out, and it’s just so special to be able to have people love them the way that we love them, being able to steward bear care and conservation,” Chiles said.
