Living Boom Boom in Mud

By Krista Luckow

Out of Africa Wildlife Park in Camp Verde, Ariz. needed shelters for the coming winter for their Safari habitats. Antelope Shelters was one of the shelters built for the Safari Tour exhibits.

During last year Cemrock Naturalistic Environments received a heartfelt email from Courtney Palmer, the Serengeti Manager for Out Of Africa Wildlife Park in Camp Verde, Ariz. The email expressed the dire need of shelters for the coming winter for their Safari habitats. Last winter the animals, zebras that have new babies every fall, giraffe, eland and sable antelope, took a toll on their health from the lack of shelter.

Palmer had been trying for years to get shelters built and upon hearing about the distress and desperate need for the animals. We jumped on board to participate. We quickly volunteered our services and time to help the park before the winter months hit. With all the collaborative efforts (company crew, Wildlife Park crew and donors), the African Bush Safari exhibits received five new shelters for their animals.

Shortly after the winter months, on March 22, 2012, a rhino named Boom Boom passed away at the age of 41. As he was past the average life span of most captive rhinos, the Wildlife crew learned that Boom Boom died of cancer. Boom Boom was a big hit for the park, as he was a rescue circus performer donated by Mark Ecko to the park. Palmer, once again, contacted us to build a concrete sculpture of Boom Boom for a memorial. Willingly, we took the project on pro bono for the park as their needs had such an impact on the company.

Safari crew and Memorial Concrete Sculpture, Boom Boom. The rendered/design drawing of the rhino was done by Cemrock. Based on a recently deceased animal in the wildlife park, it was created in a fabrication shop.

The company donated time (planned, built, shotcrete, sculpted and painted), people and equipment (construction tools and shotcrete and painting equipment) for the shelters to be built. The planning and construction process took about three months for all five shelters to be built. Because the project was pro bono and called for a short timeframe, we relied on our own expertise during the construction period to accomplish the shelters. Meaning, planning and construction was done on-site for efficiency purposes.

Based on the timeframe to build, we wanted the shelters up before winter hit. Going into the fall, weather became a challenge as the rain and cold slowed the progress down. The three-month project, under ideal conditions, could have been completed in four to six weeks. ???(R)'?N,A+