Archive for November, 2008

November Enrichment Themes

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

Editor’s Note: Every day at CHCI we put out a wide variety of enrichment items for the chimpanzees, usually based around some theme. Here are the themes from the 30 days of November 2008.

  1. General Enrichment
  2. General Enrichment
  3. General Enrichment
  4. Election Day
  5. Pet Day
  6. Baseball Day
  7. Music Day
  8. General Enrichment
  9. General Enrichment
  10. Jurassic Park Day
  11. Slumber Part in the Night Enclosure Area
  12. High heels Day
  13. Autumn Day
  14. Ghost Day
  15. General Enrichment
  16. General Enrichment
  17. Blue Day
  18. Football Day
  19. Yellow Day
  20. Cleaning Day
  21. Hanging food and toys in Human Cage Area
  22. General Enrichment
  23. General Enrichment
  24. Under the Sea Day
  25. Fishing Day
  26. Fort Day
  27. Bird Meat Day
  28. Black Friday
  29. General Enrichment
  30. General Enrichment  

Collaboration is the key to success

Monday, November 17th, 2008

Collaboration is the key to success. That is what I have learned thusfar at CHCI. Everyone has a different skillset, and everyone can contribute something different to a project; but, everyone can contribute. This applies to everything we do here at CHCI. When the tops of the night enclosures need to be cleaned some people (those who aren’t afraid of heights) climb on top of the cages while others clean other areas. No job is more important than another, and everything needs to be done. If one person finishes his/her job before another person, he/she helps with what still needs to be done. Everyone works together until the task is finished. The same is true of projects. I have had the pleasure of contributing what I could to two projects so far, and I look forward to contributing to more projects as well as receiving help on some of my own.

This idea of communal support in all things is very different than anything that I have encountered before. Coming out of two years in the work force, I am used to working on projects alone or with one other person. However, I am one of those people who would normally rather work alone. Working alone allows me to take responsibility for my own work, and if I don’t complete it on time I have only myself to blame. But at CHCI, collaboration is not only encouraged, it’s necessary. It would take hours to clean the enclosures alone, which is time that we just can’t afford. Projects benefit from many different talents and points of view. So, everyone helps everyone else. This seems to build community among the students and interns as well as making sure that tasks are completed in a timely fashion. A success shared is a success multiplied.

Homecoming Decorations

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

For Central’s 2008 Homecoming this fall, the HomecomingCommittee challenged every department on campus to compete for the best frontdoor decorations. The winning prize: free pizza party lunch to the entiredepartment! CHCI students chose to participate in the contest, and designed adoor decoration that included Central’s color scheme (crimson and black) aswell as Wildcat spirit, and additionally the unique décor of chimpanzees.Wellington the Wildcat, our school mascot, was featured on the front doorwearing a shirt with a picture of Washoe on it. Loulis, Dar, and Tatu werealso depicted on the front doors. Dar was signing “RED” and Tatu was signing“BLACK” to represent our school colors. On one side of the door, we had“C-H-C-I” spelled out in depictions of chimpanzee hands finger-spelling in ASL. On the other side, we had some CWU spirit with theword “Wildcat” written with paw prints on each side, as well as “C-W-U” writtenout in bold crimson letters.

Door Decorating

To add a little more uniqueness, we made a stuffed versionof Wellington, and put him as a display in the side window along with a tablewith some chimpanzee pictures on it. Wellington was holding a book (This IBelieve) that all incoming freshmen read, and that the rest of campus areencouraged to read as well (Central does this every year, it’s called the “OneBook, One Campus” program).

Finally, we threw some lightsaround the door to add an extra glow. Students worked very hard for a couple ofdays to make the door décor very special. Judges went all around campus anddeliberated about who should be the winner. Sadly, CHCI did not get firstplace, but even so we certainly had a great time and the door looked so great!And we’re going to have our own pizza party anyway! 

 Finished Door

To see a slideshow of all decorated doors, go to http://www.cwu.edu/~publications/slideshow/slideshow.html 


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