Happy Holidays!

To celebrate the holidays and the completion of our first quarter together, the Zoo-Mates mentors and mentees enjoyed a festive and exciting party together at the Zoo on December 10th.

We started the party with a visit from some of the Zoo's most colorful and interesting birds! We spoke with a kookaburra, ducked as a parrot flew over our heads, and learned how owls hunt at night.


Our friends from Fidelity Investments hosted the party for us. They arranged a trail-mix snack station and took a photo of every mentee to be made into a holiday card for their families!

Check out our awesome matching t-shirts!

Hard-working card makers!

Nice hat!

Notice the special thanks to his mentor, Corey!

The folks from Fidelity also organized a coat drive, so each mentee left the party with a brand new coat and a goodie-bag full of surprises! Everyone was so excited and the room was full of laughter and thank yous!

Here come two of Santa's elves!

Thanks, Fidelity! We loved our party!

We had an excellent day and we're looking forward to an even better 2009 together!

Zoo-bration video!

The folks at PC captured the spirit of the Zoo-bration in this video!

Making Art and Building Connections

On Wednesday, November 19th, Zoo-Mates mentors and mentees met at the kids' school for another afternoon of fun. A visitor from the Cincinnati Art Museum taught us to make art prints and we imagined all kinds of creative designs!

Showing off his not-too-evil jellyfish design.

Team Bobcat applies paint to their stencils.

Team Jellyfish made a logo for their prints!

A finished pizza print.

Team Iguana hanging out.

The Orangutans!

Armadillo family.

We also spent some more time playing board games together, filling the cafeteria with laughs.

Surgeons in training.

She's a charmer!

Not impressed with her four-in-a-row.

The Tree Frog team removes a funny bone.

See you in a few weeks!

Wednesday at the Zoo

Our first Zoo outing gave us the chance to get to know our partner and to explore the Zoo on a warm fall afternoon!

We started the day by watching a 4D movie about animals in the wild. The seats shook us, poked us, splashed water on us, and gave us a thrill!

Lucy the Bearcat inspired school spirit in the UC students!

The Moose Team set out on an adventure.

Building team spirit.

The Whales show us some energy!

Happy face on a happy day.

Who has longer tongues -- the Giraffe Team or real giraffes?

Big smiles from Team Toucan!

Visiting Mr. Rhino.

Where are we?!

Mentor bonding.

It was a perfect autumn day!

Zoobration!

We Zoo-brated our hearts out on October 22 at the Open House for families and mentors. The Zoo-Mates mentor/mentee pairs were officially introduced and given animal team names. We also got to meet and learn about some friendly zoo animals.

Team Herons!Meeting a hedgehog!

We also met an alligator, a rooster, and an old African bird.

The Sloth team is full of energy!The Whales!

We had fun working together on the placemat games!What a soft and fuzzy guinea pig!

Our year is off to a great start!

Zoo-Mates Meet & Greet 2008!

On Wednesday, October 15th, the Zoo-Mates mentors and mentees met at South Avondale Elementary for the first time to play some games and get acquainted!

We built some great new friendships!