Googleserve @ the Oakland Zoo
I was looking back on some previous entries during my Xanga days, where I used to write about what I did everyday. While I think that is somewhat excessive, I do think it’s appropriate to write about some more noteworthy things that go on during my day to day. At least it will be interesting for me when I look back on moments like these.
This entire week is Googleserve, a company-wide initiative to get out and serve our local communities. It was initiated by an all-star Googler who used to be on our team, Seth Marbin, who manages to do his full-time job, organize GoogleServe, and raise a child. My team went out today to the Oakland Zoo to help them out with various maintenance. The work was set-up with the help of Hands on Bay Area, a pretty awesome non-profit that gets volunteers into the community to help with initiatives throughout the year. Our group of around 50 split up into various groups to tackle some stuff the zoo needed help with. I think many people expected this work to be pretty easy and then we could go off and pet the animals. We were quickly mistaken, as groups ended up cleaning out the carnivore feeding room, reseeding grass near the elephant exhibit, or clearing brush near the flamingo exhibit. I ended up pulling weeds in the area where goats in the children’s area could run around. It was a really hot day however, so the goats all hung out in the barn, while we toiled in the sun. Overall, the groups did a tremendous job helping out, and the zoo staff was really appreciative of how all our work put them weeks ahead of the tasks they needed to do over the summer. So that felt good :) My group did get to walk around a bit – petting the goats, looking at some tigers, and almost getting spit on by the chimpanzees. The biggest issue was simply that we had no idea what we were getting involved in to begin with, and our instructions were to wear long pants and layers. It was way too hot to be wearing all that clothes while pulling weeds.
In other news, I really need to get rid of my biking tan:
Thanks to Koklynn for taking this picture, I guess.
Hey Reid,
I’m glad you had fun (and got to pet the goats)! Hope you can encourage other Googlers to follow your example by continuing to be involved in communities throughout the year…Hands On Bay Area has lots of opportunities! In case you want to volunteer at the zoo again (and work on that farmer tan) – http://www.handsonbayarea.org/projects/viewProject.php?_mode=occurrenceView&_action=load&ixActivity=75359
Best,
Erika Jones
[...] these plants with hoe-matics and our bare hands. The project was organized by Hands on Bay Area and I worked with them over a year ago on a project at the Oakland Zoo. The whole experience made for some fun [...]