An essay was written based on a conversation with the manager of the Phoenix Zoo. It has been edited to make it clearer.
For the past ten years, I've been working full-time on ZooLights, a light show featuring animal sculptures and creative light displays at the Phoenix Zoo. I wrote a report about my desire to work at the zoo when I was in the fourth grade.
When my father was offered a job at the zoo 18 years ago, he asked me if I was okay with it. I tried to get a job there when I was a teenager.
I got the job because he thought I would be a good fit and I applied. My predecessor left and I was promoted to manager. I've been in the role for eight years.
Even though it's a holiday event, it's a year-round job and nothing could have prepared me for it. We start tearing everything down at the end of the month. Usually it isn't done until the beginning of May, but I aim to have this done by tax day.
We begin to work on repairs. It takes from May to June. We're going to start installing the lights and armatures again on June 1. It takes until Halloween, then from Halloween until Thanksgiving, and we're about 85% done.
A lot of people ask why we take everything down if we are going to put it back up, and a big part of that is we want to offer a unique experience every year.
It's a group effort when we come up with new ideas. A new 50-foot floating tree required a lot of work because of its high budget.
We decorate the same tree each year. The Skittles tree is multi-colored. We have begun to create different scenes that can be interchanged instead of having a set plan for each tree. We have a forest scene and a farm scene that are different.
I need to know how each tree is decorated so we don't repeat it.
Some elements of the décor are up to my team. A man who is a huge comic book fan likes to decorate a tree with white, purple and green lights to look like the villain in a comic book. He will do a Batman tree that is purple because we don't have black and yellow. A team member wraps a tree in his wife's and daughter's favorite colors, and we name it after them.
When we're decorating in the middle of the summer, it helps to have this motivating factor. People are shocked when they find out how small our team is.
It's worth it when families love the lights. One of my favorite things to do is go to the zoo and take off my name tag so people don't know I work there. I was able to see his amazement at the lights when he was a child.
It's my favorite part of the job to build new and creative things. The event has been going on for 30 years so it's important to add new things.
It's important for the zoo because it's our largest source of funds. All of the money from donors and ticket sales goes to us as a nonprofit. It allows us to care for our animals and keep the zoo growing.
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