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volunteer

Lucky Friday the 13th and thoughts on being a caregiver

June 2, 2025 by Diana 6 Comments

Katelyn’s blog post yesterday perfectly previewed the month of June, which is full of celebrations!

I just happened to get a couple of blog-worthy videos of twin-birthday-chimpanzees Negra and Terry and thought I would combine them into one post (not to overlook Dora and Honey B’s special days coming up even sooner).

I have also been thinking about all that goes into caregiving lately, and how it is easy to forget the thousands of ways that we can and do contribute to the well being of those in our care. So, I asked the volunteers and staff yesterday to think about a moment in their day that stood out or an overall observation of how they helped fulfill the mission of the sanctuary and to write it down for me.

The themes that emerged were: contributing to a larger team effort, being a positive influence and presence for others (humans and chimpanzees), providing the chimps with comfort (like making sure the chimps have clean blankets), and doing something extra for an individual chimpanzee (for example, making Burrito belly laugh at breakfast or putting together special “surprise box” enrichment for George).

I loved learning what caregivers noticed about the important ways they contributed to the sanctuary in a given day.

What really got me thinking about all of this was watching Negra react to Elizabeth, as captured in the video.

At the time, Elizabeth didn’t know I was above watching (and filming) thinking to myself, “how incredibly lovely is it that Negra has friends like Elizabeth who will dance for her?!”

And how lovely it is that the sanctuary has you all reading this and watching the video?! ❤️

Filed Under: Caregivers, Latest Videos, Negra, Sanctuary, Terry, Volunteers Tagged With: caregiver, elizabeth, mission moments, volunteer

Three Short Stories

January 5, 2025 by Diana

To understand the impact of the first story in today’s video requires the background of yesterday’s blog post by Jenna. So go read that first if you haven’t yet.

Can we talk about celebrating another year of Burrito??!! Tomorrow’s bash is going to be a celebration focused on the things he likes most in life, and we hope you’ll join us here on the blog tomorrow evening to see how charming Mr. B celebrated his 42nd birthday.

Filed Under: Annie, Burrito, Friendship, Gordo, Latest Videos, Play, Volunteers Tagged With: Annie, Burrito, lizz, snow, tv, volunteer

Let’s groom!

August 30, 2024 by Jenna

Grooming is an important part of being a chimpanzee. Chimpanzees spend a majority of their day grooming, either themselves or each other. Not only does it help one be clean of dead skin, dirt, plants, debris, bugs, etc., it also helps build and maintain friendships and social relationships.

As we have discussed many times before, Willy B is an awkward chimpanzee. It seems like he doesn’t know what to do in many situations. However, one thing he has down is grooming. He grooms with the boys in his group the most, but can often be seen grooming with Rayne or Mave. Check out today’s video to see Willy B focused on grooming his group members! I threw in some footage of a current funny mystery we have going in the chimp house, as well. I’m curious as to who you think is the culprit.

Photos from today:

Cy grooming Volunteer Lizz

Cy portraits. Are you kidding me?! Look at this guy!

Gordo piloerect:

Gordo not piloerect:

Filed Under: Caregivers, Chimpanzee, Chimpanzee Behavior, Cy, Foxie, Gordo, Grooming, Volunteers Tagged With: Cy, Gordo, Grooming, lizz, pilo, piloerect, portrait, volunteer

Animal Sanctuary Appreciation Day 2023

November 3, 2023 by Jenna

Today is Animal Sanctuary Appreciation Day – a day to highlight the dedication and hard work from staff and volunteers at animal sanctuaries all across the world. What we do every day is not easy, but it is worth it. Thanks for being here and supporting us!

I’d like to highlight all of the special humans at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. There are familiar faces and some new ones that you haven’t met yet! I personally think what is so great about our staff is that we have all come from different walks of life, have different backgrounds, are from various parts of the country, have different areas of expertise, have unique former experiences, but we all have come together in a small town in central Washington all because of our shared love of chimpanzees.

Our staff:

J.B.

 

Diana

 

Dr. Erin Zamzow (DVM)

 

Katelyn

 

Anna

 

Kelsi

 

 

Chad

 

Grace

 

Jenna

 

Sabrina

 

Amanda (who will be introducing herself on the blog soon!)

 

Ellen (who will be introducing herself on the blog soon!)

We also are so fortunate to have an amazing group of dedicated volunteers. We have volunteers who help us in the kitchen and with laundry, volunteers who help us clean, and volunteers who help serve meals and interact with the chimps. We are so thankful for each and every one of them. We recognize we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without them.

Just a few of our awesome volunteers and interns! Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of everyone!

We do it for our residents!

Jamie

Negra

Burrito

Annie

Missy

Foxie

Cy

Dora

Willy B

Rayne

Gordo

Terry

Mave

Lucky

Honey B

 

Filed Under: Caregivers, Sanctuary Tagged With: appreciation, caregiver, hard work, volunteer

Volunteers Needed!

May 3, 2022 by J.B.

Update: Our first volunteer work parties will take place Saturday, June 18 and Sunday, June 19 starting at 10am. If you’d like to join us, please fill out the form in the link below or contact J.B. at [email protected]. Thanks!

It’s been about 11 years since a group of hard-working and dedicated volunteers helped us build Young’s Hill, the 2-acre habitat that gave the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees their first opportunity to truly step outdoors. Now it’s time to give our group of nine chimpanzees their own dedicated habitat – named The Bray in loving memory of James Douglas – and we need your help!

This spring and summer, we’ll be installing fencing and building climbing structures. If you live nearby and would like to help, fill out this form to join our construction volunteer list. More details on volunteer work parties are included on the form.

And if you aren’t able to volunteer, please consider donating so that we can keep this project moving forward and nine chimpanzees can get the chance to run, climb, and swing through their own open-air habitat.

Thank you!!

Filed Under: Construction, Volunteers, Young's Hill Tagged With: build, chimpanzee, fence, habitat, northwest, rescue, Sanctuary, volunteer

Breaking Ground

June 29, 2018 by J.B.

Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest’s Bring Them Home expansion project officially got underway this morning.

A few years ago, we launched a campaign to expand our chimpanzee facility so that we could take in more chimpanzees in need. We knew it would be an ambitious project for an organization our size; what we didn’t expect, however, was all of the twists and turns that we’d experience along the way.

As we began to develop plans for the new addition, we were surprised to learn from the DOT that we’d be required to build a new driveway before we could get a permit for the building. We needed to find a suitable location to connect to the state highway and the options on our existing property, located on a long curve in the road, were limited. As fortune would have it, a neighboring property with an approved access location came up for sale, so we purchased it and made plans to install a driveway connecting the two properties. To get a permit to build that connecting driveway, we had to conduct a months-long environmental study. Given how eager we are to build for more chimps, each of these delays felt like an eternity. But at last we are underway.

This morning, Gordy Margullis of Gordon’s Dozing and Backhoe Service came over bright and early from Renton, WA to donate his time and equipment to build the nearly 1/4-mile-long connecting driveway. We are so incredibly grateful to Gordy for helping us with this project – he even took it upon himself to get other businesses to donate towards the cost of the gravel!. Our thanks also go out to Darci, who found out about our driveway project during a donor visit last summer and told her animal-loving employer, Gordy, about our situation.

Ellie supervising:

Connecting the new with the old, with Young’s Hill and the chimps’ Twister structure in the background behind the old barn:

It always helps with donors when your resident elk knows how to turn on the charm:

Next we will have to rip up the asphalt on part of the neighboring driveway and regrade it so that it’s not so steep (to meet code). Luckily we have another generous contractor lined up to help with some of that project and reduce the cost as much as we can.

The driveway is a costly and time-consuming project that we had not anticipated when we set out to expand the chimp house. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the sanctuary’s incredible friend Vicki Fagerlee and to the many donors from last summer’s Summer Biddin’ online auction who stepped up to help us cover the costs of this first part of the project. Because of them, and because Gordy and others have helped keep those costs as low as possible, we can put more of our resources towards the expansion and, ultimately, getting more chimps to sanctuary.

Speaking of the expansion, we are scheduled to begin construction on July 16! Due to the cost of the project, we have broken it into phases. The first phase will add a foyer, a permanent veterinary clinic with a recovery enclosure, a new bathroom, a new laundry/enrichment room, and two small indoor chimp enclosures to aid in quarantine and introductions. Phase 1 will immediately improve our ability to care for the Cle Elum 7 and create a better working environment for our staff and volunteers. It would also allow us to take in a very small number of chimpanzees to integrate into our current group, but only under certain conditions (depending on the number of chimps in the group, their ages, etc.), so there’s no guarantee that this would happen right away. However, we plan to continue as quickly as possible with Phase 2 (a new playroom) and Phase 3 (a new greenhouse) so that we can have space to integrate and care for a new social group.

For those of you with excellent eyesight, here’s a look at what the floor plan will look like after all three phases are complete:

Tomorrow we’ll be holding a ceremonial groundbreaking to commemorate this momentous occasion!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Construction, Sanctuary, Volunteers Tagged With: chimpanzee, driveway, expansion, gordon's dozing and backhoe, northwest, project, rescue, Sanctuary, volunteer

Keeping up with Jamie

May 25, 2018 by J.B.

Join grad student interns Carly and Grace as they take a break from cleaning and preparing meals to walk and run around Young’s Hill with Jamie.

I was very excited to get to use our new gimbal (a fancy handle that steadies your videos – especially when running) that a wonderful supporter purchased from our Amazon wish list. We’re looking forward to using it to film some Facebook Live videos soon!

Filed Under: Jamie, Latest Videos, Volunteers, Young's Hill Tagged With: chimpanzee, exercise, intern, Jamie, northwest, rescue, run, Sanctuary, volunteer

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Cle Elum, WA 98922
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509-699-0728
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