By Katherine Hatcher | Staff Writer
Cameron Park Zoo is strengthening its educational and community outreach opportunities for all ages through their new veterinary and education center, which wiil hold its grand opening at 10 a.m Friday.
The opening of the Corwin, Estes and Jaynes Education Center and the Carol Schmidhauser Veterinary Hospital will feature a brief program, refreshments and facility tours.
Cameron Park Zoo Director Brendan Wiley said that when the zoo moved to Cameron Park 31 years ago, an education center was always part of the plan, but funds went towards the health of the animals first. However, design for the education center began in 2019.
Wiley said that the facility will offer the same programming and environmental classes the zoo already offers, including classes about animals, recycling and sustainability. The new physical building allows the zoo to be flexible in harsher weather conditions.
“What this facility is going to do for this zoo is dramatically increase its flexibility in the type of programming that we can offer, both here on site and virtually, along with making it more year round [and] user friendly,” Wiley said.
Cameron Park Zoo Education Curator Connie Kassner said that the new building will allow the zoo to develop additional programming with technology thanks to grants from the Cooper Foundation and the Waco Foundation.
“Each of the classrooms has a large TV with video conferencing capabilities, and we’re also in the process of purchasing a classroom set of iPads,” Kassner said. “We’ve got some interactive boards as well so that we can throw stuff up on the board and kids can brainstorm.
In addition to updates with technology, Wiley said that zoo workers are trying to make the zoo and the education opportunities more available to all in the Waco community.
“By incorporating the technology, it will allow us to take virtual programming into pockets of the community and/or communities that otherwise could not get here, and we can do that at a much more affordable rate,” Wiley said.
Before having a specific veterinary space, Wiley said that the zoo veterinarian had to be extremely creative with how he cared for the animals. The technology in the new facility creates opportunities for him to teach to anyone.
“Our new hospital will have … cameras everywhere, so he can turn a case that he’s working on into a learning environment, just with the nature of broadcasting from any of the number of different rooms,” Wiley said.
Kassner said that the zoo’s goal is to eventually offer programs at no cost so they can reach different communities, but they want to reach Baylor students as well.
“We’ve been partnering with the professors in different departments, and so we’re hoping that we can reach different areas at Baylor.” Kassner said. “Also, the building would be for rentals, so if someone wanted to host an event in the evening, we’d be open for rentals.
Emphasizing that it was important to bridge the gap between zoos and Gen Z college students, Wiley said it was important for the next generation to connect with Cameron Park in the next five to ten years.
“We want to really engage Baylor students with [the zoo] and, at the same time, help them understand why it’s important for a zoo like this to operate. [It] builds connections between kids and the natural environment,” Wiley said. “That leads to being a better steward for the planet,”
