Special Dreamnight event at Newquay Zoo
On Saturday 14th June, Newquay Zoo staff hosted their third annual ‘Dreamnight' event for chronically ill and disabled children and their families.
‘Dreamnight at the zoo' started back in 1996 by Diergaarde Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam and has now grown to include zoo's from all around the world including Australia and Japan.
Each zoo organises this event in its own way, but in all the zoos the children are welcomed and treated as V.I.P.'s. They get a warm reception, they can come into close contact with the animals and get a more intimate view of the zoo than the average zoo visitor and ask the keepers lots and lots of questions.
Lorraine Reed Event Organiser explains "The weather and atmosphere during the evening was fantastic and we welcomed over 130 children and their families for an evening of entertainment at the zoo. Staff were in fancy dress as fairies, tigers and of course Ziggy our Zoo Mascot who was a real hit with the children. Families explored the zoo and enjoy talks, feeding times, face painting, animal encounters, barbecue, ice creams, bouncy castle and goody bags to take home. This is the third year we have run this special event and we feel very privileged to be able to open the zoo free of charge for these very special children and their families to enjoy an evening out together. Families came from Little Bridge House in Devon (The Southwest Children's Hospice), Sennen Ward at the Royal Cornwall Hospital and from the local authority autistic group. I have to give a huge thank you to all the staff and volunteers who gave up their time to host this evening by cooking, face-painting, doing animal encounters and talks and looking after our special visitors. Plus a big thanks goes out to all the very generous local and national businesses who helped us by supporting this worthwhile event making it an amazing evening for all ."
Many thanks to the sponsors of the evening, they were;
Veals meats, Newquay Fruit Sales, Bookers and M.J Baker generously donated goods for the BBQ while Walker Crisps and Cornish Farmhouse Ice-cream also donated goods for the event.
Jelly cat, Autumn Publishing and the Carole Group for very generous donations of toys and books so every child went away with party bag.
Scott from Jumping Rascals for not only providing the bouncy castle but for dressing up as a tiger!
Special thanks to ;
Sue Turk and staff from Sennen Ward in Treliske Hospital and Anne Newman and staff from Little Bridge House in Devon (The Southwest Children's Hospice) for coordinating the distribution of invitations.
Children's Hospice http://www.chsw.org.uk/index.cfm?type=N
Dreamnight http://www.dreamnightatthezoo.nl/English/index_EN.htm
