SEATTLE - Woodland Park Zoo will hold its Chairman’s Conservation Dinner tonight, May 16, at the Seattle Four Seasons Olympic Hotel. The annual fundraiser kicks off the zoo’s Annual Fund Campaign and raises more than $250,000 toward ensuring the zoo’s core mission of excellence in animal care, exhibitry, wildlife conservation and education.

Highlights of the fundraiser will include the presentation of a conservation award to the International Snow Leopard Trust (ISLT) and a tribute to Dave Towne, who recently retired as executive director/CEO of the Woodland Park Zoological Society. In addition to the Zoo Society’s Board of Directors, more than 300 business leaders and civic philanthropists will attend the fundraising dinner.

The ISLT will receive the zoo’s 2002 Conservation Award for its dynamic work in and commitment to helping preserve the highly endangered snow leopard, numbering only 4,500-7,000 in the wild. As the world’s leading organization that is working to protect the species and its fragile mountain ecosystem, the Trust over the past 20 years has been implementing programs in the field that work to conserve the Himalayan ecosystem while taking into consideration the needs of the people who live there. Helen Freeman, then-curator of education at Woodland Park Zoo, founded the Trust in 1981.

The annual Conservation Award recognizes individuals or organizations that are actively involved in conserving wildlife and habitat; promote wildlife conservation education; advance scientific knowledge of the natural world; and inspire environmental awareness and action. Past recipients include Jane Goodall and Helen Freeman.

The zoo will honor Dave Towne for the role he has played at the zoo and Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation over the last 33 years. Under his leadership, the zoo has become heralded as one of the world’s best zoos and, today, it is one of the community’s most cherished resources. Overseeing the zoo’s revolutionary 1976 Long-Range Plan, Towne brought to fruition spacious, award-winning exhibits for gorillas, elephants, orangutans, grizzlies and more.

Towne will remain available to the zoo to assist with transitioning the zoo’s new President/CEO, Deborah Jensen, who joined the zoo last month. A nationally recognized conservation scientist, Dr. Jensen is former Vice-President, Conservation Science Division, at The Nature Conservancy’s worldwide office in Arlington, VA. Towne also will assist with the zoo’s shift from City of Seattle management to nonprofit management.