WHO: Carol E. and Ronald E. Sawyer, Watertown, docents for the New York State Zoo at Thompson Park.

Docents are volunteers for a zoo or museum who serve primarily as educators.

The Sawyers usually work with and care for the animals in the Education Animal Collection, such as the tiger salamander, ferret, chinchilla or painted turtle. They volunteer about 600 hours each every year.

Ron: "We're both pretty much animal people. I decided that I wanted to volunteer here when I retired. So I started in April of 2003."

Carol: "And I began that fall. But it goes back farther than that. We grew up here and brought our children here. It's been interesting to see all the changes from when they had monkeys and tigers to now having native animals in their natural habitat, which is hard to find in most other zoos."

Ron: "Being docents, we tend to do a lot of different things."

Carol: "Ron does a lot with the birds, the owls and different raptors. Neither of us had an animal background before. It's all new in that way."

Ron: "Working with the animals."

Carol: "I appreciate the educational part of it as far as children are concerned. Teaching them to respect the animals, conservation and those kinds of things. Enrichment is also a favorite part of mine."

Carol: "Enrichment is anything we do to improve the animal's well-being. It's a new scent, placing food so they have to forage for it, or putting in new furniture."

Ron: "It breaks up their day. They're in the same habitat 24/7 and it gives them something different. When you see an animal pacing back and forth, it's bored. It has nothing else to do."

Ron: "I happened to be here the day one of the elk was born. It was fascinating to see it try to stand up for the first time. It stood, fell and then stood again for good. It was really neat.

Carol: Since we have so many families from Fort Drum, we learn a lot from them and from their children because they've lived all over. The children will come in and say, 'We had these around where we lived before.'"

We had an opossum that was rescued when its mother was hit by a car and it seemed to have a problem with its back legs. I used to get him out and let him walk. I would build ramps and slowly increased the incline. The nurse in me comes through when we have an animal like that. I could never take the place of keepers, but it's really good for me, too.

Ron: "We went through a course that's eight weeks long, with one class each week. And that's just the basics. You don't start out handling the boa constrictor. The educational coordinator and animal curator have the final say on when you're ready. And it's a never-ending learning process. You have to make a commitment in time."

But there's a lot of volunteer work to do that doesn't require any training. Yard work, clerical work. If people can't commit time to training, there's other work to do."

Carol: "I like being up here in these surroundings. If you're here late, you see deer in the park part. It's a nice place to be."

Ron: "It's a great staff, too. They're very easy to work with."

Carol: "Zookeeping is such hard work. I've developed such respect for them. It's one of those things you want to keep helping."