Bathing the Elephants Pays

What: Houston Zoo Conservation Gala

Where: Houston Zoo

PC Moment: Anyone unfamiliar with the Houston Zoo’s heralded conservation program need only take note of the 20th annual Feed Your Wildlife Conservation Gala in the zoo’s Masihara Pavilion. All total, the dinner evening raised $963,601, including a $250,000 commitment by Herb Simons to provide the salary for five years for the zoo’s Director of Madagascar Programs, Jonah Ratsimbazafy, PhD. and native of Madagascar. Those funds are earmarked for saving wildlife in Madagascar including the precious lemurs.

More than 500 guests attended the fundraiser and were mesmerized by the talks of Ratsimbazafy and Russell Mittermeier, PhD., executive vice chair of Conservation International, on conservation efforts on the island off the eastern coast of Africa.

Kudos to the zoo for coming up with several unique auction items, including an opportunity to help bathe the elephants, to get up close with the lions during a training session, a primate tour led by Ratsimbazafy and to switch on the lights at Zoo Lights Presented by TXU Energy.

During the cocktail hour, guests were introduced to and photographed with several animals representing Madagascar — Mr. Pickles the Madagascar radiated tortoise,  Jonah the Madagascar lesser hedgehog tenrec, and Madagascar hissing cockroaches. The latter, not exactly appetizing. But guests persevered and settled down for dinner by City Kitchen.

Who: Dinner chairs Mindy and Josh Davidson; Rosemary and Matt Schatzman, Cathy and Joe Cleary, Kay Onstead, Nancy and David Pustka, Molly and Coert Voorhees, Cullen Geiselman, Anne and Charles Duncan, Isabel and Danny David, Lisa Marshall, and Courtney and Bas Soleveld.