Zoo keepers Kelly Craddock, Lynn Yakubinis, Cheryl Lutz, Sarah Floyd, and Katie Patton replenish homemade desserts volunteers brought for the recent spaghetti dinner to benefit rhinos sanctuaries. Riverbanks Zoo executive director Satch Kranz , back.

While their fellow members of the American Association of Zoo Keepers (AAZK) were preparing for the annual Bowling for Rhinos, Riverbanks zookeepers laded up spaghetti. Lynn Yakubinis, gorilla and small mammal handler ex-plained “We wanted to involve the public to a greater degree so we decided to host a spaghetti dinner.”

Her colleague, Sarah Floyd secured the use of the kitchen and dining hall at her home church, Main Street United Methodist Church for the recent dinner. All proceeds from the meal and the silent auction are going toward the protection of rhinos and their habitats.

In recent years, the primary national effort to raise international awareness of the threats to rhinos and their habitats has been Bowling for Rhinos (BFR), hosted by AAZK chapters everywhere.

“It’s important that more people realize rhinos have lost habitat and have been endangered by ivory tusk hunting. This has made it essential that all five species be protected.” Yakubinis explained the efforts of at least 60 chapters in the US and Canada raise more than $100,000 annually for sanctuaries.

“There are sanctuaries in Kenya, Java, Indonesia, and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in Sumatra.”

Yakubinis and others at Riverbanks Zoo joined forces to put on the spaghetti dinner as a means of taking the message to a broader segment of the community.

“The same threats to rhinos are also threats to the smaller animals that share the habitats of the larger animals.”

For more information to to www.bfr.aazk.org.