Crowds and cones – Ice Cream Zoofari draws-in community

Families in southeast Idaho packed themselves into the Pocatello Zoo on Saturday evening for some frozen treats at the 18th annual Ice Cream Zoofari fundraiser.

Event co-chair and Zoological Society board member Liana Litzinger has been helping to put this event on for the past five years.

She said this fundraiser tradition started when Dreyer’s ice cream distributor Don Redican and his family from Nampa tried to find a way to volunteer in the community. So, every year they have been donating 300 gallons of ice cream to the Pocatello Zoo, along with all of the fixings that go with it.

She said the money from this fundraiser will help go toward upgrading the zoo, which in turn, will help benefit the community who comes out to enjoy the facility which has been a staple in the Pocatello community.

“Not everyone gets a chance to go out and go hunting or camping and if they come here and see native mammals, native birds, it gives them a greater appreciation,” Litzsinger said.

Volunteers throughout the community came out to help scoop ice cream for the large crowd the event drew in.