Riverside Team Members Work a Day at the Zoo

A group of volunteers from the RDO Equipment Co. store in Riverside took a walk on the wild side by spending a day volunteering at a community zoo.

The Hesperia Zoo is home to a variety of exotic animals and offers tours and other experiences to get up close with the wildlife, while relying heavily on support from the community. Jimmy Van Vleet, Parts Specialist, noticed a call for volunteers while researching a visit to the zoo. He shared the idea with Jackie Duran, Riverside Receptionist, who investigated the opportunity and began coordinating an outing.

“I think when people saw it was at a zoo, they lit up. It’s a unique experience, and I bet we would have had 10 more team members wanting to join us if we didn’t have to limit our group size,” Jimmy said.

Even so, the zoo’s minimal staff, which had been cut even slimmer due to the impact of COVID-19, was ecstatic to see RDO trucks pull up with a group of 13 volunteers.

While getting in close with some of the resident animals, the group was put to work building and repairing shelters, cleaning, painting, and even organizing supplies and picking weeds.

“Volunteering at the zoo was a great opportunity to help a company in need and help maintain quality environments for many of the animals,” said Andrew Florez, Regional Sales Coordinator, who got to drain and clean a small gator pond that was in need of repair.

At the end of a full day of work, the zoo staff was amazed by the efforts of the volunteers, saying they rarely got groups the size of RDO’s and could never do as much in a single day as the group did during the visit, a point of pride for those who were there.

“To take a step back and see how much work a small group of RDO team members was able to contribute in a days’ time was awesome, and it left a lasting impact about our commitment to helping our communities in need,” Andrew said.

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RDO Equipment Co. embodies a stakeholder philosophy, serving all those who make our business what it is. See the ways our team members impact the communities in which they work and live.