CONTACT: Tom Gillespie
FOR RELEASE: April 5, 2000 Telephone: 336-879-7204
N.C. ZOO HOSTS TWO MAY WEEKEND SPECIAL EVENTS
ASHEBORO - Two special events will help usher in spring at the North Carolina Zoological Park on the weekend of April 15 and 16.
The seventh annual Street Rod Safari returns to the zoo Saturday, April 15, and Earth Day 2000 will be observed on Sunday, April 16.
Street Rod Safari
The event, which features classic and collector automobiles manufactured before 1973, will be held during normal zoo hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) in the North America parking area.
Visitors can jam throughout the day to '50s and '60s rock-and-roll tunes pumped out by a disc jockey. WHSL-100 radio, one of the show's sponsors, will broadcast live from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. A GM Goodwrench engine will be given as top door prize for entrants, along with award plaques for cars in various categories. National Street Rod Association safety inspections will also be available for entrants.
Last year's event drew more than 230 vehicles from as far away as New Jersey. The Chatham Street Rod Association, which co-sponsors the event, has donated more than $13,000 to the N.C. Zoological Society, during the event's first six years, to help support the zoo's programs of wildlife conservation, education and research.
Earth Day
Sunday, the zoo will join in the 30th anniversary of the national celebration of Earth Day with programs centered at the Hardee's Touch & Learn Center. The activity-filled event is held to create public awareness of Earth Day and land-use
issues. This year's theme is "Central Park of the Piedmont." A number of businesses and organizations will be on hand to promote ecologically friendly tourism activities such as canoeing, hiking and bicycling in the Piedmont.
The zoo's Horticulture division will join the exhibitors with a booth explaining the Natural Heritage Inventory recently completed for Randolph County.
Celtic Jam will perform Celtic and traditional music for visitors at the zoo's Junction Plaza from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The Ashegrove, an Asheboro-based musical group also performing Celtic and traditional music, and the Greensboro Folk Dancers will perform in the afternoon.
The zoo's Earth Day visitors can bring an aluminum can for recycling and trade it for a reusable zoo cup. In addition, each family or group attending will receive a hardwood seedling (and instruction on its care) to take home and plant.
To learn more about Earth Day and the zoo's other special events, call the zoo's too-free number at 1-800-488-0444.
The zoo is located six miles southeast of Asheboro on N.C. Route 159 (Zoo Parkway) and is an agency of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
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