Fundraising campaign to reopen harbor seal exhibit concludes

HARBOR SEALS BUBBA and Action lounge in early spring at the Roger Williams Park Zoo. Fundraising has brought in more than $113,500 to help defray the cost of major repairs to the harbor seal exhibit, which is expected to reopen in November.  / COURTESY ROGER WILLIAMS PARK ZOO
HARBOR SEALS BUBBA and Action lounge in early spring at the Roger Williams Park Zoo. Fundraising has brought in more than $113,500 to help defray the cost of major repairs to the harbor seal exhibit, which is expected to reopen in November. / COURTESY ROGER WILLIAMS PARK ZOO

PROVIDENCE – Fundraising has brought in more than $113,500 to help defray the cost of major repairs to Roger Williams Park Zoo’s harbor seal exhibit.
Brooke Fairman, the zoo’s director of development who led the outreach effort, said in a press release on Tuesday that more than 8,000 individuals made donations, as well as several foundations and companies. Thanks to an anonymous donor providing matching funds up to $50,000, the campaign raised more than $113,500, the press release stated.
“The response has been just amazing,” she said.
In late May, one of the harbor seal exhibit’s large viewing windows cracked when the pool was drained for routine maintenance. Additional investigation revealed structural issues requiring demolition of the entire wall followed by reconstruction.
The zoo launched a community fundraising campaign in June as a result of being faced with “these unanticipated and significant expenditures,” the release stated.

Fairman said the harbor seals, Bubba and Action, have been at the Aquarium of Niagara in upstate New York since late June, and will return to their home at Roger Williams Zoo in November.
Reconstruction of the exhibit is planned to begin in the next few weeks.

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