This Halloween, amid the spooky cobwebs and costumed keepers, Safari West kicked off our Conservation Pumpkin Patch. This pumpkin patch is a little different than the others you’ve seen around town in that instead of going to get carved up and put on porches, our pumpkins go out to be carved, kicked, clawed, smashed, eaten and otherwise toyed with by our animals here at the park. Not only that but the money spent on these gourds doesn’t go into our pockets, instead, it’s donated to one of three conservation organizations.

Here’s how it works: when you drop by our patch you find a pumpkin that speaks to you and sponsor it for a donation of $5 ($5 is the minimum donation. Some of you may wish to donate more and you are certainly more than welcome to). You then pick which animal department your sponsored pumpkin goes to: carnivores, birds and small mammals, or hoof-stock. The money you donate will go to the conservation organization sponsored by that department. For the carnivore department it’s the Small Cat Conservation Alliance, for birds and small mammals it’s the Lemur Conservation Foundation and for hoof-stock, it’s the Sahara Conservation Fund. All three of these organizations are doing amazing work out in the world protecting and conserving some very special animals and habitats.

Halloween weekend marked the beginning of our pumpkin patch rather than it’s close and if you’re looking to get involved, we’ll be up and running every weekend through Thanksgiving. In our first weekend, we raised over $250 which is a great start toward our goal of at least $1,500 in total or $500 per organization. Our second weekend garnered even more in spite of the rainy weather!

Peter and Nancy Lang, the owners of Safari West are also getting in on the action by offering to match all contributions up to our goal amount! So if you are planning a trip here, whether to join us on safari or for dinner at the Savannah Cafe, stop by the Safari West Conservation Pumpkin Patch and have your donation to a worthy cause immediately doubled!

We were also featured in an NBC Bay Area article here!