A Derby PR agency has marked its decade in business and helped a much-loved zoo in its hour of need by adopting nearly half of its population of penguins.
Penguin PR has agreed to sponsor 10 of the 28-strong colony of its namesake birds belonging to Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire, which has been hit hard by the financial crisis caused by the coronavirus lockdown.
The zoo, which has reopened its gates to the public after restrictions were eased, offers visitors the chance to support Twycross by adopting an animal from its 500-strong collection for a year, including its popular Humboldt penguins, which cost £35 each to adopt.
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From left, Penguin PR director Simon Burch, social media manager Kerry Ganly and Penguin PR director Sarah Newton visited the Humboldt penguins at Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire after agreeing to adopt 10 of the birds to mark the company’s 10th anniversary.
Native to Chile and Peru, the penguins are considered vulnerable because their numbers are falling in the wild, but this year has seen a number of new chicks join Twycross’s colony.
Penguin PR was set up in 2010 by former journalists Sarah Newton and Simon Burch, who have already used the anniversary year to carry out a rebranding exercise but wanted to mark the occasion in a memorable fashion.
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Sarah said: “We all have memories of visiting Twycross Zoo as children and have each returned here with our own children who have loved seeing the animals up close, especially the penguins.
“We wanted to do something special to mark our first decade in business and, when we heard about the zoo’s plight, we decided that sponsoring penguins would be the perfect way to celebrate our achievement and do our bit to help a local institution.”
Last week the CEO of Twycross Zoo, Dr Sharon Redrobe, warned that Britain is potentially facing a mass cull of animals in its zoos and wildlife parks because the Government’s emergency funding measures are insufficient to cover losses incurred through limiting visitor numbers in order to meet social distancing rules.
Penguin PR works with a host of companies, schools and other organisations based in and around Derby and in the past 10 years has worked with big name brands including Lubrizol, Tenpin and Paddy Power.
For the past three years it has also supplied the PR for the much-loved Derbyshire County Show, which had to be cancelled this year due to the coronavirus outbreak.
To sponsor an animal or donate to Twycross Zoo visit www.twycrosszoo.org/donate
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For further information please contact Simon Burch on 01332 416228 or email [email protected]
