Saginaw, Michigan is undergoing a renaissance. It’s full of people working hard to turn this city around. This brought me to Nancy Parker, the Executive Director of the Saginaw Zoo. In this episode, she shares her journey literally starting from scratch to become the person in charge of delighting families and igniting passion in our children’s futures.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Igniting a science passion in kids
- The importance of community
- What you can expect when you got the zoo
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Transcript
So for myself, I didn't, I worked myself up, so I was a president of a company and running a company. But I worked myself up. I had been a secretary, I had been an accounting clerk. I had, I did all those things. So I knew how it worked. I knew how it functioned. And so I think all that. So it wasn't as though, it was my journey through life, I think that prepared me to do what I'm doing now.
Cliff Duvernois:Hello everyone, and welcome back to Total Michigan. I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois. It pleases me to no end When I see a group of people that are working very hard to bring a community back, and one of the communities that has just absolutely just been going through an absolute renaissance is Saginaw, Michigan. I've actually got the honor and the privilege today to speak to one of those people who are working hard to make Saginaw a place that people want to come. They wanna bring their kids, and they just want to hang out with all kinds of activities going on. With that, I am speaking with Nancy Parker. She's the executive director of the Saginaw Children's Zoo. Nancy, how are you? I'm doing great. Excellent. Thank you for taking time to be with us today. Glad to be here. Why don't you tell us a little bit about where you're from and where you grew up.
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:I grew up right here in the area. I grew up in Carlton. Graduated from Carlton High School,
Cliff Duvernois:Nice. Right around the corner. Yes. And then after you got outta high school, you went to college?
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:I went to several colleges actually. I moved out of the area. I moved to Ohio and I was married at the time. My husband was transferred. And so I went to a couple different schools. I went to Indiana University at Fort Wayne. I went to Northwestern University and then ended up on the West Coast and graduated at Purdue, not Purdue. Oh. Pepperdine.
Cliff Duvernois:Okay. And what did you study when you were in college Business. Now what made you decide to study business?
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:Always liked it. got, I did different jobs in different companies. And I'm one of those people who likes to watch and see what happens. And so I watched people in all kinds of companies as I moved around and I thought I could do that, I could do that. And so I, it just found a fondness for it, I guess.
Cliff Duvernois:Now, you were talking before you mentioned about you and your husband had moved around to a couple different states. And I can imagine that it's probably this little curly path. Yes, exactly. Going from business. Yes. Cause you're talking about business. Yes. To now moving into like nonprofits. Yes. So share with us, how did you get connected with the zoo in the first
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:place? Mm-hmm. Well, I, decided to move back to Saginaw. I had lost my father. My mother needed some help. And so I thought it makes sense to come back to Michigan. Always loved Michigan. And when I came back it was what would I do? And so I thought I could translate my for-profit skills to a not-for-profit. And I, worked with the Shaheen family, which is a wonderful family. It's done a lot of good in the, in, the city of Saginaw and the county of Saginaw. Yes. And actually beyond Saginaw. They're a wonderful family. And I got introduced to, someone who said the zoo job is open. And when, I've been a nature lover my whole life, I'd rather be sitting under a tree than in a five star hotel. So that's just me. And so I thought, wow, I could go to the zoo. And I came here in 2004 and have been here ever since.
Cliff Duvernois:Cause I know we talked about, talk about translating of your skills, but we're talking about the executive director of a zoo. So you've gotten some experience. So why don't you talk with us about, when you first learned about the job, what made you think that you were qualified, or what qualifications did you have that you thought this, that I would be a good fit for this? Mm-hmm.
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:one is that I, I. A science lover and we're a lot about science. And then, and, businesses all have some very common threads, whether they're for profit or notfor profit, different functions. and that. And the one piece that I did not have was, to have a responsibility for fundraising. And that is very much connected with not-for-profits. And so that was, fast learning schedule. But on the other side of it, I had participated in fundraising being part of businesses because businesses typically work with not-for-profits. Certainly. So I saw fundraising from the other side of it. And then, as I came here, was responsible for it.
Cliff Duvernois:When you came in here, what were some of the things that making that transition from private to nonprofit, what were some of those like transitions that, that you encountered that you thought, okay, this is gonna be a little bit of a challenge? Or how did you ha adapt
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:yourself? One of the things and not for profits is that, you never have enough people. in. When you're working for a for-profit business, you typically have more resources. You have more access to resources. And so in this job, you really have to do everything from A to Z. It's just the way that not-for-profits work. So for myself, I didn't, I worked myself up, so I was a president of a company and running a company. But I worked myself up. I had been a secretary, I had been an accounting clerk. I had, I did all those things. So I knew how it worked. I knew how it functioned. And so I think all that. So it wasn't as though, it was my journey through life, I think that prepared me to do what I'm doing now.
Cliff Duvernois:And so when you came to the zoo, what were some of the projects that you started, what were some of the initiatives that you brought here to try to, to help out the zoo?
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:I need to tell you a little bit about the history of the zoo. Perfect. The zoo was, we're a very old zoo, 1929, and it was in the eighties. It was run by the city. And in the eighties there was a group of community citizens that decided that they were going to take the zoo. They worked with the city to take the zoo over to have a management agreement to operate the zoo. And so it's really within that group of people that the zoo is here today. And when they took it over, they started to build things. And that's 30 years ago now. But they started to really build some new buildings and all these buildings at the top end of the zoo, they're all new. And if you come in through our admissions gate, all that was built by the people who took the zoo over. So when I came in, all that work had been started. But there was still a lot of work to be done. It wasn't, and I guess in the zoo it's never done really. But we had an area in the lower part of the zoo that was an old pond. And, the lower part of our zoo kind of walks around a circle with exhibits, but in the center of it was this old concrete dilapidated pond. So that was the first project that we tackled. And we created a wetlands. We can walk around. You can see it very different. And that just brightened up the whole lower area of the zoo. And they had started adopt a Garden program before I came. Actually, our horticultural committee started that program. And so we have now all these beautiful gardens all along our walkways. And so there were many things that had been started that then we took those things and did more and there were other things like that pond that was in really need of work that we created at wetlands.
Cliff Duvernois:So that sounds absolutely beautiful. My question to you is, cuz you said that the zoo was started back in 1929. Yes. So of the people that put this together in your research, did you run across anybody who really explained why they felt that Saginaw should have a zoo.
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:Point in time where, the community was suffering? it was after the lumbering era. And the city leaders started to focus on culture. So they started the zoo. The Coral Society started. The symphony started. All these things started in the community back in that time when the community was challenged. And the zoo was one of 'em. And it was, some land and it was Native Michigan animals really. raccoons, bears, fox. It was that type of thing.
Cliff Duvernois:So then the original animals to the zoo were just local animals?
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:Yes. Animals you'd find in the woods. Yes.
Cliff Duvernois:Most people's backyards. Yes. Yes. Right. You're depending on where you live. Yes, yes, yes, definitely. Okay, that's really good. Okay, you were talking before about expanding some of these areas. Doing a lot of work as far as the beautification goes. Now, over your tenure here and doing these, what has been like the impact? Have you seen like attendance go up because of this? Have you seen more people coming and, maybe traveling from out of state? What are, what is the results that you've been seeing?
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:Yes. we really have right now about 110,000 people coming here. And we draw from about a 60 mile radius, around our facility. And sometimes a little further than that. but we are too. People think of us just from April to October, and that's our zoo season. But we are so much more than that. We're really a year-round facility. Not just in taking care of animals, but also we do programming. And so in the wintertime we do a program called Living Learning Lab. And that is third grade students coming at into this room that we're in right now. And and that, and they have a school, a day of school here at the zoo. And we find that the kids love that program because, there's no one else in the zoo. So in third grade where they learn inference and observation, they're going out into the zoo and it's their zoo for the day. And so it's a really wonderful program. We've had it going now for, we've had 10 years of programming. Couldn't do it during the pandemic and that, but, it's really wonderful program. And we do, a series of questions at the beginning so we know where the kids are starting, cuz not all classes start at the same level. Sure. they may be at different levels. And then we ask those same questions at the end and so we know Did they learn something while they were here? And also we know from those questions initially how to adjust or adapt our program so that we can really, our whole goal is to reach the children and for them to have a wonderful day at the zoo.
Cliff Duvernois:So then, if I understand correctly, you're basically open year round?
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:Yes. Not to visitors, but we do it in different ways. Okay. And that's programming where the teachers actually schedule their class to come here. And Yeah. Yep. And it's formal programming.
Cliff Duvernois:I noticed that when the zoo opened back in April timeframe, I. That there was a lot of press coverage about the lines. Yes. Like everywhere. And I, that's the first time, that's when you and I first started talking. And I was like, you know what, that's a good sign. That bodes well. Because if nobody was there on opening day, that would be bad. The lines were there. And even today, so you've been open now for a few months. And even today when I came in, there's just cars everywhere. There's a line at the front gate next to the polar bear. And this is just incredible.
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:yes. today is drop everything and read, and that's an event that we do every year. And we love to partner with other community organizations, and that's the Reed organization that does that event. And every child gets a free book. There's all kinds of activities going on in the zoo, We love it. We really don't like to be here by ourselves. We really much prefer having that people,
Cliff Duvernois:our animals do too. Nice. For our audience, we're gonna take a quick break to thank our sponsors and when we come back, Nancy's gonna share with us how to make the best of your visit to the Saginaw Children's Zoos. We'll see after the break. Are you enjoying these amazing stories? Michigan is full of people doing some pretty extraordinary things. If you want these amazing stories sent directly to your inbox, head over to total michigan.com/join. What are you gonna get? I'm glad you asked. First, you're gonna join our awesome Michigan community. Second, you'll get an email with the top five interviews from the show sent directly to your inbox. This is going to include not only the powerful lessons that we've learned, but the amazing stories that these people have to share. Third, you'll get exclusive behind the scenes information about the show. There's a lot of things that are happening to grow this movement beyond the confines of just a radio show and a podcast. To get these goodies, head over to total michigan.com/join. Enter your email and join our awesome community. Hello everyone, and welcome back to Total Michigan. I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois. Today we're talking with Nancy Parker, the executive Director of the Saginaw Children's Zoo. On Nancy. I got a question for you when I came in here today, and was hunting for a parking spot, the one thing that caught my eye coming in, of course, was like the carousel. Mm-hmm. I don't see very many carousels at zoo. But I'm actually a fan of carousels. So why don't you talk to us about where'd that carousel come from?
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:Mm-hmm. Well, the carousel this year is celebrating its 25th anniversary. And the carousel was built by a local community group, the Tri-City Wood Carvers. And the Tri-City Wood carvers decided they wanted to build a carousel. And it was about at the same time that a community group was trying to revive the zoo. And the, it was decided to be placed here. And it's wonderful. It is all. carved, hand carved? Yes. All we have, horses and we also have some carved benches. it has carved running boards on it. There are only about 136 of these in the United States right now. Wow. So we feel very lucky that, we have one at the zoo and that a group from the community was willing to do it. And the community also helped the wood carvers by donating funds to the carousel. So it's really quite a beautiful, we love our carousel.
Cliff Duvernois:It is, and I think about I. just the number of kids that would just climb on that day after day. And the fact that they actually made it outta wood versus stamping horses on a metal or something, and painting them. So it would you have that durability?
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:Yes. Yes. Today a lot of 'em are fiberglass and but we can get you a ride on that.
Cliff Duvernois:Oh, that would be funny. I have to look at my Instagram page for a photo if that actually happens. So wonderful.
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:Yeah. the zoos aren't just for little kids. Big kids could have fun too.
Cliff Duvernois:No, I just remember as a kid, whenever we went to the fair, Cedar Point, someplace like that. It seemed like my always like my favorite ride was always a carousel. Yeah, I like rollercoasters and things like that, but the carousel, there's just something that's just magical about it that I just really love. So that's just pulling into the parking lot was just something that caught my eye. Let's talk about before you were talking about some of the programming around here that happens, like When people think you're closed But you actually have events going on. So talk to us more about some of those events that you got coming up.
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:Okay. All season long. and what you see here today is Deere, and that's, an event. We have a variety of different events. Some events are focused on conservation and that, so we'll have different activities in the zoo. Always, there's a full list of those on our website, saginaw zoo.com. And we go through our whole summer season. So there's activities and events. Then at, in October we do our big event that ends our regular zoo season, which is ZooBoo. And ZooBoo is all about Halloween in the zoo. So the zoo's all decorated and our employees dress up. And it's so fun. People love it. They come as families and many times the family, they'll all be, the mom will be dressed up, the dad will be dressed up and the kids, and they'll all dress in theme. And so it's just, oh, how cute. Very fun. And we do different activities around the zoo that are all Halloween themed. It's wonderful. We do that for three weekends in October.
Cliff Duvernois:When you talk about teachers bringing their students here. You got the classes that are going on, and obviously part of the mission of the zoo is to educate people. We come and look at the animals, but we wanna learn something about the animals that are here. Yes. So share with us a little bit about how you go about finding the staff that comes in here to be able to share this knowledge and to educate the public, so to speak.
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:Many of our people are have science degrees. And so those are the individuals who are knowledgeable about science and working with our animals. And that, and also individuals who are doing teaching for us would really have, they would have a knowledge of teaching, but also science. So we are very much, have a very big part of us that's a scientific part of caring for animals. And it's more complicated than what I ever knew before I came
Cliff Duvernois:here. Certainly. Has it been hard? Cause I know a lot of businesses talk about this, and I can imagine nonprofits getting impacted even more since Covid. Has it been hard to find staff to come in here and work?
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:We're always finding staff because we have a, what we call a year-round staff. And those are people who work for us 12 months of the year. But when we open for the season and we have big days, like today, we bring in high school, college students and all that and we ramp up. And so our workforce more than doubles in this time period. So it's always people coming and going, in that way. And it's just something we're used to. And we pride ourselves in being a good place to work. And so many times we'll have a, or a good place to be in general because we have a, youth volunteer program called Zoo Crew. And they, you can volunteer for the zoo at age 13. So we'll have students that come and participate in that program. And then when they get to be 16 and they're in high school, they come to work here in the summer. Nice. And then they go away to college. And then they come back here in work for us in the summer. So many times, we'll have someone who starts with us at 13 as a volunteer and then there until they graduate from college. So we may have a seven or eight year relationship with them. And that's what we really like. We really like to bring people in and bring them along. And many times those, zoo crew volunteers came here as children themselves. So their parents brought 'em here and then, and so it's wonderful. It's like we go through the whole life cycle, It's great.
Cliff Duvernois:That is cute. I could imagine if a child had a dream of being a zoologist or a veterinarian Yes. Or something like that. yes. To actually be able to come here and start to get that experience. Yes. Then be able to work here, And then you go to class, you learn about it. Yes. at the university. And then you come back here and kinda get to see it and apply. I can just imagine that's just golden.
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:Yes, yes. I, many times in the community I'll, if someone ask me, and say, oh, my son daughter wants to be a veterinarian, and Isaac say, tell him to come volunteer at the zoo. Just tell him to come around us because, they need to sort a lot of that out with their likes and dislikes and all that. Sure. And there's nothing like being right here. And seeing it first firsthand.
Cliff Duvernois:Let's talk about if I were to bring my family here And I've never been to the Saginaw Children's Zoo before. So already know, if I got little kids or let's just stick with little kids for now. So I've got little kids here, I know there's gonna be line stuff. What are some things that you would recommend parents to think about when they're planning their day? Hey, let's go to the zoo. What are some things that they should think about? Mm-hmm.
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:one thing I wanna say, if you're coming in from another community, you could, because it, most people spend about two, two and a half hours here. So if you're coming to spend the day in Saginaw, there are lots of other wonderful things you can also do here. Okay. Okay. So that's one thing I would say. And, and that because we do have a wonderful children's museum. We've got a great historical museum. And that, so you could plan some other activities. The zoo's located in the kind of park area of Saginaw, the city of Saginaw. So you can bring a picnic and you could do more things like that. As you come to the zoo and you come into the zoo. We have a beautiful carousel, and I wouldn't miss that. I think you really have to just take a little look at it, further because it's really a work of art. And part of the zoo. I. We have animals, we have all these wonderful gardens. But we have history too, right? And so we have a couple of historical fountains and that. So I always say if even if you're not as much of an animal person, we have something here for you.
Cliff Duvernois:As far as like thinking about food, thinking about water, talk to us about what it is that you offer here.
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:We have a big construction project going on right now. And so we are redoing the area that is our food area and our whole food plaza, and that should be done this fall. If you're coming this year, you will see that construction and project progress. And so we have now a little, it's a like a mini food truck kind of thing, and Nice. Um, and so we sell, hot dogs and chips and cheese and popcorn and drinks and snacks and ice cream and that type of thing. So we're not complicated on the food side. And we do allow, people also to bring food in. So if you wanna bring a picnic in and have a picnic here, you're more than welcome to do it.
Cliff Duvernois:And. One of the things that cause, cuz you said before that you could probably get through the zoo in about two and a half hours. What would be I. like maybe a few exhibits, two or three or whatever that you would say, if I was coming in here, these would be like the three things I would recommend that you see. Obviously we wanna see everything. But here are three things that I really think you should see. So what would those be?
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:Our wolves. We have Mexican gray, we have three Mexican gray wolves. And, they're in a beautiful exhibit. And, I would recommend, because people don't get to see wolves up close. We're a smaller zoo and so you really have a better view most times of our animals. And so I definitely wouldn't miss the, wolves in the forgotten forest. The other thing that we have that is unusual is that we have beehives at the zoo. And we have some in areas that are not visitor areas. But in the cabin that is right next to where the wolves are, we have an active beehive. And so you can actually see the bes be the bee, the easy for me to say the bees making honey and that, and actually working in the hive. And so that's something that you wouldn't really wouldn't see anywhere.
Cliff Duvernois:so I'm curious, is this place just, is it giant windows in a building? Is it an all glass? It's
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:a, it's a enclosure that. Where the bees can go outside. Sure. Okay. And then you can actually look in and see all the bees working and it, so it's plexiglass on the front of it. There you go. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So you can see right into the hive. Excellent. Yeah. Which you don't get to do. So I always think, what can we do that, you, you don't get to do unique and
Cliff Duvernois:fun. Sure. You mentioned before about the construction going on, specifically around what I'll just call it the food court. in that area there. is there other places in here where you're, expanding, gonna bring new exhibits in?
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:Yes. We have a building, we right now are working on, we have. Three projects that we're working on. The first one is underway. The next one there is a building where actually we're going to remodel that. As soon as this one is done, we'll start working on that. And that will have animals in inside the building where you can actually go in and, and that. And so that will be a really nice, when the weather, maybe there's a little rain or it's a little warm, you'll be able to get in there out of the heat or out of the sprinkles, certainly.
Cliff Duvernois:The one question, that I would like to close with is, and this has been a recurring theme throughout this interview, and I want to take a minute just to explore it, cuz what you're doing here is not inside of a vacuum. So when you're talking about, oh, we're adding this building, oh, we're renovating this, This tells me that there's people from outside Of the zoo that are coming in here to do. This particular work you've had, you talked before about these, the gentleman that carved Or the woodcarvers that carved The, the carousel, things like that. Talk to us about working with the community to really make the zoo a special place.
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:We couldn't do it without the community. I'll give you an example. Last Friday we had a water main break. Four o'clock on, oh,
Cliff Duvernois:that must have been
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:a nightmare. Four o'clock on Friday afternoon, right before the weekend. And we have, our zoo closes at five o'clock. So we left the leak until five. We turned the water off and we are calling in the community saying we need help and we need it now. We had a crew here seven o'clock Saturday morning. And by we open at 10 on Saturdays by 9 52. Our water was back on. Beautiful. And that's really people helping the community. They knew what it meant to us. And it meant a lot. It meant a lot to, the family that comes in. And what does a child wanna do? First thing, right? They wanna go into the restroom, we, we had to make sure that we were taking care of our visitors. So our community really helps us do that. And our community, the money that we're investing right now, we're putting in, unisex bathroom. We're putting in, new, nursing quiet room. we are doing all of that, and that's really from funds we raised from the community. And the other thing I would say about our community is, As much as they give us, we work to give back. So we work with a lot of other not-for-profit groups that, that, we'll do things for. And the money that we raise, cuz we raise 3 million to do this work. We really worked to invest back into our region, so we prioritize those funds. a few years back we did the accessible train project where we actually, created a new car and did some improvements in that so that our train could be, Accessible for those people who had extra needs. When we did that, we invested 85% of the money that we raised for that project right back into our community. We could have gone to Kansas City and ordered things and had shipped here, but we didn't. We really worked with the local blacksmith and the local irons. we did all of that, to really keep the money invested here.
Cliff Duvernois:Nancy, if somebody's listening to this interview and they're like, you know what? I wanna bring my family over there to the zoo, and they want to check out what you're doing online and take a look. Maybe look at the maps, the parking situation, whatever that might be, where's the best place for 'em to find you online?
Nancy Parker, Saginaw Children's Zoo:Saginaw zoo.com. Excellent. That is the place to go that. It tells you what animals we have that tells you our events schedule, tells you, gives you everything you need to know, is on our website and you can always call us. We still have someone answering the phone. a lot of more people do that. No, but we actually answer our phone.
Cliff Duvernois:Nancy, thank you so much for taking time to speak with me today. I've learned a lot today. But yeah, thank you so much for your time. You're welcome. And for our audience, you can always roll on over to total michigan.com. Click on Nancy's interview and see all the links that she mentioned above. We'll see you next week with another inspiring story of a Michigander doing some pretty extraordinary things. See you then.
