• Trillian passes away in June, 2001
• August Police Dog Demo
• NK passes away in April, 2001
• Easter 2001
• Walk For Wolves
• The New Bleachers
• The New Building
• Members Weekend
• Aurora passes away in January, 2001
• New Junior Volunteer Program
• Old News from 2000

   Trillian, 1984 - 2001   

Wolf Park's oldest wolf passes away. Click here for her Memoriam page by Pat Goodmann.

   Police Dog Demo   

August 11, 2001 we had our first Police Dog Demo. Of course Monty took lots of photos of these Canines in action here at the park.

   NK, 1989 - 2001   

Another elderly wolf passes away at Wolf Park. Click here for his Memoriam page by Pat Goodmann.

   April 7: Easter Bunny Visit   

The Easter Bunny, also known as Marla Borth, visited the Park for its Easter celebration. The Junior Volunteers hosted several egg hunts (for kids, littler kids, and for wolves) as well as games and activities during the afternoon. Click here for more info and photographs of the elusive Bunny!

   May 5: Walk For Education   

The Junior Volunteers' Walk for Education, held May 5, was a great success. Many people turned out to walk the 4 and 8 mile courses and received T-shirts and prizes for their efforts. Josephine Askren, of West Lafayette, was the overall "winner" and received a one-year sponsorship of Tristan from Wolf Park. The Walk garnered almost $1,000 for the Junior Volunteers. Click here for the full story (when it gets posted :)

   NEW BLEACHERS!   

Through the efforts of managing director Amanda Shaad, Wolf Park received new bleachers in late March which will effectively double our seating capacity, allowing us to handle crowds of up to 400-450 people. The new bleachers are aluminum and huge -- and arrived as a giant pile of loose metal parts, with only blueprints, and no instructions, to say how to assemble them. Several dedicated interns and staff managed to put them together, and now they are installed in front of our main pack enclosure. Rope light has been installed in the aisles for illumination in the dark (plus it makes them look cool at night).

The old bleachers have been moved to East Lake, where they will allow visitors to sit down during the 45-minute wolf-bison demonstration held every Sunday May through November.

Want to help support Wolf Park? "Buy" a bleacher seat! For $50 you can purchase a plaque, with a message of your choice engraved on it, to be affixed to one of the seats on our new bleachers for all eternity. Email us for more information!

   NEW BUILDING   

Thanks to the extreme generosity of board member Gladys Wright and her husband, Al Wright, Wolf Park received a new building just around the time the bleachers got in. This new building has become our Visitors Center, housing our gift shop and forming a new entrance to the Park. This new, more visible entrance makes the Park a little more accessible and allows staff and interns to take admission money in the great indoors! The new gift shop has much more space than the old and is allowing us to carry a variety of new items, such as wolf throws, clocks, statues, and others.

The old gift shop/seminar building has been renovated to become our Education Center, featuring the "A Wolf Family Album" exhibit, lovingly (and painstakingly) painted by Gale Motter. The April-May Wolf Behavior Seminar was hosted in the new Education Center this year, the first seminar to have the building all to itself, and it was wonderful. When not hosting seminars, the Education Center is the base of operations for the Wolf Park Junior Volunteers .

Many thanks go to the kind and wonderful people who helped to put up the ramps and decks around the new building so we could use it for Members' Weekend.

   Speaking of Members' Weekend...   

April 20-22, Wolf Park held its largest members' event ever, with almost 200 people attending on Saturday, April 21. O.J. Volkman of Wolfwoods Ranch in Wyoming, MN was there with Chance and Jacona, two four-year-old Arctic wolves. John Weller from the Wildlife Science Center in MN, and Doug Smith, of the Yellowstone wolf project, came to give talks. There were flashlight tours of East Lake, raffles, a photo seminar, and a professional storyteller. Wolf Park dedicated the new Visitors' Center building at a kickoff ceremony Friday night.

The charity banquet, at the Trails banquet facility on Saturday night, was well-received by all. An award was presented to Karin Bloch, our "professional puppy mother", who has raised all the Wolf Park puppies since 1991, on her ten-year anniversary with the Park.

The art auction, headed by auctioneer Dr. Samuel Conway, was held on Saturday afternoon and went extremely well, earning almost $5,000 in support of Wolf Park's wolves. Many thanks go to Dr. Conway, who himself donated $600 to the Park in addition to his time and services as auctioneer.

Plans are already underway for next year's members' weekend, to be held April 19-21, 2002. Email us for more info, and look to your next newsletter for a signup sheet! Thanks to EVERYONE who came and helped make this year's weekend a success!

   Aurora 1988 - 2001   

We are saddened to announce the passing of Aurora, our little neotenous wolf. She will be missed greatly by all who came to know her. Click here for her Memoriam page by Pat Goodmann.

   Wolf Park's New Junior Volunteer Program   

We are excited to announce the start of a new program for younger wolf lovers- the Wolf Park Junior Volunteer program! At the request of a few brave young folks, John Davis had taken on a couple of volunteers that are under 18, the age limit for our regular volunteer program. These youthful volunteers proved to be very helpful, and we realized what a great opportunity this could be to reach out to this age group and teach them about wolves, about caring for the environment, and about volunteering time for a cause you believe in.

This new group is open to any young person ages 8-17 that wants to volunteer some time to work at Wolf Park, and learn a bit about wolves and wildlife at the same time. The group will be meeting from 12 noon to 1 pm on the first Saturday of each month.

Junior Volunteers will get to do a variety of tasks from raking leaves to helping give programs to other young visitors. Community service projects will also be done. Activities will also depend on the volunteer's age, and on what is needed to be done at any particular time of year.

Due to the age of the participants, close contact with the animals will be limited.

See the Kids Web Page for more information.