Busch Gardens Tampa Makes Good on "Wild" Wager
In the wake of last week's Phillies' World Series win over the Tampa Bay Rays, Donnie Mills, Executive Vice-president and General Manager of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, made good on his bet with Philadelphia Zoo President & CEO Vikram H. Dewan by donning full Phillies garb to greet (and get booed by) guests arriving for Busch Garden's recent nighttime Halloween event.
Rather than bringing Mr. Mills to America's First Zoo to carry out the terms of the wager, both zoos agreed to "go green" and donate the money that would have been spent on a plane ticket to conservation initiatives, making animals and the environment the real winners of the bet. Because the Phillies won, the cost of the airfare will go to the Philadelphia Zoo's "Footprints" Carbon Offset Program, an integrated approach to addressing global climate change, which includes tree-planting programs in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park and on the island of Borneo. The latter project is part of a broader effort by the Zoo to protect Borneo's endangered orangutans and pygmy elephants.