The General Manager of the BC Wildlife Park is grateful for the financial support from the Kamloops community, including from two young kids in Juniper.

Speaking on NL Newsday, Glenn Grant says the bottle drive organized by Gabby and Dmitri Armstrong has surpassed its original $2,000 goal with no signs of slowing down. Their new goal now is to now hopefully raise $10,000 for the park.

“It’s a huge initiative by a couple of youngsters that just wanted to help out the animals of the wildlife park,” he said.

“I’ve spoken to their mother and once things do settle down, they would like to come and volunteer at the park. It’s awfully kind and generous of their time, and not just their fundraising efforts.”

All told Grant estimates people have stepped up in a big way to donate about $50,000 to the Wildlife Park while it remains closed because of COVID-19. It’s as about 70 per cent of their revenue depends on ticket sales from both locals and visitors as well as purchases at the gift shop and cafe.

“The people of Kamloops are extremely generous and have been insanely supportive of the park through this whole ordeal,” noted Grant. “It buys us time into the future, but how far that looks, we’re not sure. We’re not sure when we can open up.”

“Our first call out for help was our number one priority, which is to feed and care about our animals, but we’re not going to worry about that aspect so much any more because we have had some great support.”