The gates may be closed at the Weyburn Therapeutic Animal Park, but the work continues for its Board of Directors. Upon the retirement of Don Sealy, the board officially took full control of the park at the end of September, but they still have their work cut out for them this winter.

“We’re a new organization, so we’ve got all our bylaws, and all our insurances, and all of our stuff that we’ve got to get set up,” said Media Director for WTAP, Vince Sheldon.

He said the park will run the same, but now with a solid core of volunteers.

“With having a group of people we’re able to get so much more done, and we’re able to keep up with everything versus when it was Don trying to do everything by himself, it ends up being too much for one person, so with all of us we’ll be able to keep everything organized and we’ll just keep growing and keep the park going with the same direction that Don always wanted it to be,” he explained.

This summer was a transitional time, with the board working closely with Sealy, who worked as the primary volunteer for 35 years to maintain and manage WTAP. Read more about his retirement party HERE.

“He’ll always be a part of the park, of course, we’ll need his help throughout the years to come,” said Sheldon.

He said the season nonetheless went well.

“We had tons of visitors, we had tons of volunteers, we got a lot of the stuff that we wanted to start, with cleaning up the park, getting some old equipment moved out, really getting it organized,” he said. “We got tons of that done this year, so it was really great.”

He noted that volunteers were visiting twice a day to maintain the park.

“We’ll continue with that, and we’ll just get everything organized and ensure that all our animals are more than happy and more than well taken care of, of course, is our main goal, and keep the park clean and organized so that it’s welcoming and everyone can come and hang out and play with the animals and have a great experience.”

Currently, seven directors are serving on the WTAP board. No date has yet been set for an AGM. All of their meetings, however, are open to public.

Sheldon had this to say about the numerous volunteers who came out to help throughout the season.

“A giant shout-out to all of our volunteers, of course,” he said. “We had tons of people come, with all of our cleanups and all of our events, and everyone who did the weekly chores.”

“Words can’t describe how grateful we are to be able to start this, and it was a confusing year with everything switched over and our volunteers were really great at keeping patient and they were always helpful with everything, so I hope that when spring comes we can all our volunteers back and have another fantastic summer.”

Keep up to date with the board at their Facebook page HERE.