Alumni

UH fundraises with poster event at Houston Zoo

Several attendees check out the posters at the Houson Zoo during the silent auction portion of the event.  |  Rebekah Stearns/The Daily Cougar

Several attendees check out the posters at the Houson Zoo during the silent auction portion of the event. | Rebekah Stearns/The Daily Cougar

Several hundred people gathered at the Houston Zoo on Wednesday for the fifth annual Conservation Gala, the proceeds of which funded dozens of conservation projects.

The main event of the gala was a silent auction spotlighting works of UH alumni.
The UH Graphic Alumni Partnership issued a challenge to all its members to join the cause of Conservation Awareness and took part in a fundraising competition on Oct. 4, called the Mane Event, where two posters were sold immediately.
Kirsten Ufer, the zoo’s creative director and alumna of the UH Graphic Communication Program, led the collaboration between the zoo and UHGAP.
“We gave them 12 choices for the causes they wanted to develop for,” Ufer said. “Each contestant would research the animals they chose, develop a poster and then we judges picked the winners.”
The competition pitted each poster against others in its category, including The Cheetah Conservation Botswana, The Jane Goodall Institute – Chimpanzees, Painted Dog Conservation and Texas Sea Turtles.
Proceeds will be split between the Conservation Program and UHGAP scholarship program, said Martha Petre, Conservative Gala organizer.
“Some of the money raised from the auction will be put toward the animals we have here,” Petre said. “But the majority will go toward the several conservation programs that we have initiated and that we have worked to support over the years. We have over 20 projects in 10 countries.”
Along with the alumni’s posters, there were several other original handmade works of art on display, like a drinking glass painted by an elephant.
Fundraising events like the gala keep the Houston zoo afloat, said UH alumnus Brian Hill, the zoo’s public relations director.
Through the past several years, the gala has successfully brought in more than $750,000 and they hope this year’s Conservation Gala is just as successful, said Hill.

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