As part of her Max Potential journey, Aimy spoke to all three classes at Mudgee Preschool about the time she spends volunteering at the zoo and showed off a few up-close-and-personal snap shots of the animals as part of her talk. 

“I volunteer at Taronga Western Plains Zoo and have done work placement there in the past,” Aimy said.

Her love of animals of all shapes and sizes is what promoted Aimy to involve the zoo in her Max Potential community service project. The community service projects undertaken by young adults taking part in the coaching program are designed to fit a need within the local community and help and educate a certain demographic depending on the young adults hobbies and interests. 

As well as speaking of her time at the zoo and the activities and jobs she undertakes as a volunteer, Aimy spoke about how the zookeepers cared for each of the animals and the different tricks they used when dealing with something as large as a giraffe.

“I really love being at the zoo, it’s heaven. I’ve been able to stand on a ladder and feed giraffes and make gibbon noises and even stick my hand inside a hippos mouth to check his teeth. It’s amazing,” she said. 

There were tales of giraffes’ blue tongues and otter swimming lessons, stories about ostrich eggs the size of basketballs and even what the different splotches on cheetahs meant. 

“The keepers look after the animals as best they can with the help of volunteers so they can release certain animals back into the wild once they’re healthy enough,” she said. 

Students were able to ask their own questions about being a volunteer at the zoo and even spoke about their own visits to the zoo. 

After the presentation, some students created artworks about what they had learnt during the presentation with Aimy even receiving a drawing of her feeding a giraffe as a gift.