Tucson’s Reid Park Zoo is one of the 12 zoos we have in Arizona. It started in 1965 as a very small zoo. Every year Reid Park Zoo puts up their lights during the holiday season to bring joy and fun during Christmas time. This year the ZooLights will be going from Dec. 4–23, with a break for Christmas Eve and Christmas, and then from Dec. 26– 30. Tickets are available for 5:30 p.m. or 7 p.m. at entry points. This year, numbers of people attending are going to be reduced per day due to social distancing, but now you can socially distance meeting Santa in the new North Pole Village!

 The Wildlife World Zoo is open after almost five months of being closed because of COVID-19. To celebrate this event, I interviewed Mickey Ollson, the founder of Wildlife World Zoo.

Ollson wanted a zoo from the time he was very young. When he was 10, he drew a map of his zoo. He had always loved animals, since he grew up on a farm with all sorts of farm animals, birds, and the family’s dogs. He even once had a pet alligator!

 In November, we participated in the Arizona STEM Adventure, which was planned by many local organizations. These groups included: SARSEF, Northwest Pima Community College, The STEMAZing Project, Office of the Pima County School Superintendent, the University of Arizona Office of Societal Impacts, Raytheon, IBM, and Thomas R. Brown Foundations.

 One day in early April my dad took my sisters and me to play softball at Joaquin Murrieta Park. As we were playing, a Mandalorian drove up on his motorcycle and asked if he could join us. Due to the COVID-19 we all wore masks as we took turns pitching, hitting and fielding. At the end of our practice, the Mandalorian gave us each a gift card and told us to be the kindness we wanted to see in the world.

Did you know that Legoland wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the poinsettiaplant? A poinsettia plant is a small Mexican shrub with large scarlet bracts. Poinsettia plants are native to Mexico and Central America where they grow in moist, wet, wooded ravines and on rocky hillsides. In 2002, Congress passed an act that made Dec. 12 National Poinsettia Day. That date was chosen because it was the day Joel Roberts Poinsett died.