Chehaw receives donation from Watson Spence law firm
Money to help feed Chehaw’s animals donated as part of Watson Spence’s ‘12 Days of Giving’
By Jada Haynes
ALBANY — As part of its annual “12 Days of Giving” campaign, Albany law firm Watson Spence donated $1,000 to Chehaw on Tuesday.
Bo Plowden, a partner at the law firm, said he chose Chehaw because he saw the shape Hurricane Michael left the park in.
“When you go out there, the thing that is the most striking as you’re driving back to the wild animal park is the amount of trees,” Plowden said. “There are just trees everywhere, (and) some of the bicycle tracks appear to be washed out. The immediate needs, it seems to me, would be to get the trees out of there because you can hardly get around them.”
Plowden said that, in the past, he has donated to organizations that have impacted his family via 12 Days of Giving, and giving to Chehaw is no exception.
“I knew that Chehaw had gotten hit hard,” Plowden said. “So I knew it would be put to good use. Watson Spence’s $1,000 is going to be a drop in the bucket to what they’re going to need otherwise. I just hope the firm’s is a good start because we’ve spent a lot of hours out there with our kids when they were little, just trying to find things to do.
“I just wish we could do more.”
Morgan Burnette, Chehaw’s director of guest and public relations, said the park’s staff was aware of 12 Days of Giving, and “were thrilled ” to receive the money because they did not expect it.
“Every little bit helps,” Burnette said. “Honestly, just knowing that the community thinks of us in that way is flattering. We were pretty excited about it.”
Park officials said funds will help the staff taking care of the animals while rebuilding the rest of the park.
“What the donations are going to right now is to our daily animal care because we had to shut the zoo down from what it normally is,” Burnette said. “Because we had to cancel our Festival of Lights, we really lost a lot of our revenue coming in at the end of the year.
“This really kind of helps us to keep the animals fed (and) to keep those daily operations going.”
Burnette said the park has set up a GoFundMe page where people can continue to donate. That fundraiser can be found at GoFundMe.com/Chehaw.
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