It a was drizzly, uncomfortably chilly day in October 1969, and the one-time milo field that would soon be home to the Sedgwick County Zoo was a muddy, mucky mess. A little over 50 years later, though, all Barb Hoppins remembers is the cold, the dirt and her mother’s instructions: “Get Mr. Blakely’s autograph.” Hoppins, then a fourth-grader at Peterson Elementary School, was one of about 75 schoolchildren chosen to serve as ambassadors at the “Commencement of Work” ceremony on the Wichita site of the future zoo, which would open almost two years later. All the kids present that day got small glass jars and tiny silver scoops and were invited to fill their containers with dirt from the site. When Hoppins got hers, she did what her mother requested, asking zoo director Richard Blakely — a bona fide local celebrity by then — to sign the jar.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
