THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 16, 1995 TAG: 9503140127
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
BOB KENNEDY COULD be a city employee - if he got paid.
At the Virginia Zoo at Lafayette Park, Kennedy gives classes, guides tours and leads road trips with a caravan of animals. He and others like him are vital to the zoo living up to its mission of educating the public about wildlife conservation, zoo officials say.
But Kennedy, 70, is a volunteer. He is one of about two dozen ``docents,'' a fancy word meaning teacher or guide. His work and the zoo's increasing reliance on volunteers are an example of cities around Hampton Roads depending on volunteers.
This new emphasis on an unpaid work force comes in part because cities have spotted an under-utilized resource and in part because budget constraints have forced cities to look for new ways to solve problems.
Sterling Cheatham, one of Norfolk's assistant city managers, says volunteers are now crucial to everything from running recreation programs, spotting code violations and keeping neighborhoods safe through the city's community policing program.
``You have people actually performing work that staff, in other circumstances, would be providing,'' Cheatham said.
Virginia Beach has thousands of volunteers used in programs throughout the city, including more than 500 in the public libraries alone.
At the zoo, Kennedy and other docents broaden people's experience of the zoo by educating them about wildlife and wildlife conservation. The docents also help educate people who perhaps have never been to any zoo by literally bringing the zoo to the people.
How do they do this? They pack a llama, a goat, a boa constrictor, a turtle, a hedgehog, a tarantula, a screech owl and a gallago (which is sort of like a monkey) into a van. Then they take them to day-care centers, schools, retirement homes and other places.
``We let people pet them, except for the tarantulas and the owl,'' Kennedy said.
For Kennedy, working at the zoo is part of a long history of volunteer work. He was a Boy Scout leader for 25 years, a volunteer fireman for 19 years and an active member of his church for all of his adult life. He did all of this while holding down a full-time job in the civil service.
Kennedy, who lives in Wedgewood off Little Creek Road, came to Norfolk in 1962. Now he is retired after 41 years in the civil service and married with three grown children. In his half-century of volunteer work, Kennedy has seen his efforts help save lives at a fire, help injured people receive care, help keep a church functioning and together, and help raise young boys into healthy men.
``I sometimes feel it's more for me, because I get so much out of it,'' Kennedy said. ``When I was a Boy Scout leader, I felt like some of the boys I helped out came out better citizens.''
Kennedy puts his heart into his work. The screech owl, for example, travels in a finely crafted house made of poplar with a slide-out perch that Kennedy and another docent made. During the holiday season Wildlights celebration at the zoo, Kennedy played Santa Claus. It's a part he's well suited for. He has a long, white beard and a generous amount of stuffing on his tallish frame.
To volunteer at the zoo, Kennedy had to complete about 25 hours of training over a month's time.
The zoo has two dozen docents now and 75 in training. Therese Braynard, education director of the zoo, hopes to have 200 volunteers in a few years when the zoo has been substantially renovated.
``The more volunteers we have stationed at various exhibits, the more we can fulfill our mission of educating the public about wildlife conservation,'' Braynard said.
Braynard's own position, created in 1989 through a state grant, is an example of the way cities are leveraging their manpower to use volunteer labor. On her salary of $30,000, Braynard coordinates the staff of volunteers and helps recruit more of them.
Braynard's salary is funded by the state and Gov. George Allen has proposed eliminating the position's funding. Braynard said she hopes the zoo can shift funds to keep the position if the state eliminates its funding. MEMO: For information on becoming a docent at the zoo, call 626-0803.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by BILL TIERNAN
Bob Kennedy is one of about two dozen zoo docents who broaden
people's experience by educating them about wildlife and
conservation.
by CNB