Volunteer Spotlight - Margaret McCall and Betty Barry

Margaret McCall’s history with the Natural Science Center is much longer than her two years as a volunteer may indicate. She began volunteering because her and her husband had been long-time members of the Science Center and had frequently made visits with their children and grandchildren. Her prior experiences with the Science Center, along with her love of animals, steered her toward docenting when she wanted to volunteer after she retired.

She has enjoyed many different animals during her years at the zoo, but she says that Discovery House is consistently her favorite. She has always owned “Discovery House animals” as pets at home, including ferrets, guinea pigs, and others. She has, however, never owned a snake and, like many docents, had to overcome her aversion to them. Two years in though, she is just as comfortable with Checkers as with any other animals in Discovery House.

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Betty Barry has been a volunteer for a number of years, in addition to being on the board of directions at the Natural Science Center. She had a career in healthcare and decided that when she retired, she wanted to spend her time volunteering. However, she wanted it to be in a field completely unrelated to healthcare. Having always been an outdoorsy person and an animal lover, the Science Center docent program was a perfect fit.

Betty was actually part of the very first docent class at the Science Center. When she was deciding where to volunteer her time, Betty came in on a whim and Marion Gilligan, the volunteer coordinator, had incidentally started putting the class together that day. Betty has enjoyed her long career volunteering at the Science Center, and is impressed with how both the zoo and the docent program have grown during her tenure here.

Betty is a superb volunteer, but she has not always had the confidence she shows now. During docent training, Peggy Ferebee, the co-curator of the zoo, instructed Betty to “hold out her hands.” Peggy promptly placed Vader, the Science Center's six-foot black king snake, into Betty’s hands. At first a harrowing experience, Betty quickly became more comfortable with the reptiles.

Betty is glad to be less anxious around snakes, and got even more training thanks to one particular boy. He frequently came in to Discovery House for the sole purpose of seeing Checkers the corn snake, and it would never do to just wave hello through the glass. Through docent training and the continuing education from Checker’s fans, Betty is comfortable with snakes and a great asset to the docent program.