Volunteer at the Zoo's Asian Lantern Festival: Into the Wild

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Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens is hosting our much-anticipated return of the Asian Lantern Festival !

If you aren’t familiar with this event, the Asian Lantern Festival is the only event in Central Florida celebrating the culture, art, and beauty of traditional lantern festivals celebrated throughout Asia for centuries. This event was created in partnership with Tianyu Arts & Culture, Inc., an international event design and manufacturing company headquartered in Zigong, Sichuan, China. The Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens has been transformed into a dazzling evening experience 3/4 miles long featuring more than 30 larger-than-life displays of illuminated sculptures depicting animals, plants, and traditional Chinese elements. In addition to the hand-made LED-lit lanterns, festival attendees will get to enjoy local food and beverage options, live music, and authentic artisan crafts. This event often sells out, so volunteering is a great opportunity to experience the event and give back at the same time!

In order to make this event wildly successful, we are looking to volunteers to assist across 50 select event dates from November through January. Grab a group of friends, family, colleagues, or alike, and join us in making these evenings an unforgettable experience for our guests!

The dates we are hosting the event are November 14th-17th, 21st-24th, and 25th. December 1st, 5th-8th, 12th-15th, 16th-22nd, 23rd, and 26th-31st (modified hours on December 31st). January 1st-5th, 8th-12th, and 15th-19th.

We need at least 7 volunteers every night to keep the event running smoothly but can accept up to 20 each night. Volunteers will be assisting with directing and engaging with guests. We need volunteers from 5:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., although you may get out earlier. We have some great food sold on the property at the Zoo if you need food provided.

We do allow children ages 13 and up to volunteer. However, if they are under 18 years old, we will need 1 chaperone per every 1-2 children because you would be split up and we want to make sure they have an adult with them at all times.

There will be two options to sign up for the event:

• If you are an individual volunteer or you have a group you are bringing and would like for them to sign up themselves through us, you may sign up for the dates you are interested in using this link: https://www.volgistics.com/appform/973218159 . Please keep in mind that this sign-up is on a first-come, first-serve basis.
• If you have filled out this Zoo Crew form before, you do not need to do it again, you can sign up using your email and password on this site: https://www.volgistics.com/vicnet/184169
• If you have a group that you’d like to manage the sign-ups for and tell us your total count to reserve: Please email us to let us know how many you’d like to sign up, the age range of the volunteers, the day you’d like to bring the volunteers, and we will confirm your group from there.

It'll be so much fun, and we'd love to celebrate with you! Please let me know if you may be interested in bringing your group and if you have any questions.

Thank you for all your support for our Zoo!