Watertown’s zoo postpones its 100th birthday party

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - Zoo New York in Watertown has decided to postpone its centennial gala until 2022.

Mayor Jeff Smith and his wife, Milly, were set to host the event to celebrate the zoo’s 100th anniversary in conjunction with the mayor’s ball.

Zoo officials say they decided to push it back due to an uptick in the number of COVID cases.

“We didn’t want to endanger anybody. We didn’t want to celebrate and have people have to wear masks or have to have the whole vaccine conversation. So, we just decided that we are going to push it off until 2022, kind of take the Tokyo Olympics model. we are going to take our 100th anniversary and push it back a year kind of like the Olympics did,” said Joshua Baughn, zoo marketing director.

Baughn says event officials will reconvene at the beginning of next year to decide when the gala will be held.

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