Enrichment Committee Facilitator: Meet Human Jill
By Jill Mullen
Hi, my name is Jill Mullen and I am co-facilitator of the Enrichment Committee with Alan Bergman. I have been one of the facilitators since spring 2018. I mainly focus on donations used for enrichment, daily enrichment, and the enrichment building where we store the supplies before they go to the chimps. Around Project Chimps, I’m referred to as Human Jill because there is also a Chimp Jill!
Trash to Treasure Donations
Project Chimps has amazing donors that bring, or send, items we use for making our enrichment. The chimps receive a morning enrichment, a themed enrichment, and evening enrichment daily. Many of these items are made from your everyday “trash” that we in turn treasure.
Donated items the Enrichment Committee uses are 16-20oz water bottles, gallon and ½ gallon jugs with handles, juice bottles, food boxes (cereal box size or smaller), shredded paper, pinecones, and newspaper. We also receive donations of gently used blankets, board books, stuffed animals, and hardy toys. If you are interested in purchasing toys or enrichment items, please visit our Amazon or Chewy Wishlist.
When we receive these items, everything gets sorted and confirmed that it is safe for the chimps. If an item is not safe for the chimps we either donate it to a local thrift store or the local animal shelters, depending on what it is. For example, if we receive a stuffed animal with beans inside we will donate it so a human child can enjoy it.
We also use enrichment that is reusable so we are able to wash, disinfect it and use again. One great example are Kong brand toys; yes they are dog toys but they also make great chimp enrichment! We use two different kinds of Kongs, the Classic Kong and Genius Mike Kongs, both can be viewed on their website.
Keeping the Enrichment Committee Organized
We have an enrichment calendar located in our chimp kitchen which announces what the morning and evening enrichments are going to be.
Our goal is to ensure the items are novel and that similar activities are not repeated too often. We encourage care staff and interns to design new enrichment because the more enrichment items we have, the more it is enriching for the chimps. If the chimps continue to receive the same enrichment daily or often, it’s no longer enriching and they may begin to not enjoy it anymore. (How many times do you put the same jigsaw puzzle together ore watch the same movie on repeat before you are bored?)
Everyone is Hands On
Kitchen volunteers, interns, and care staff make the daily enrichment. Every. Single. Day. With nearly 100 chimps, that is 200 individual items to make every day or 1,400 to prepare each week!
An instruction board in the kitchen hosts all the information needed to make the enrichment. Every morning I update the board for what enrichments need to be made that day. On my weekend another care giver will make sure the board is updated for the day. The enrichment is made at least one day ahead of when we need it. When possible we aim to be close to a week ahead of schedule just in case we do not have volunteers able to come in or if we have other projects that need to be completed in the afternoon. And remember, that’s over one THOUSAND items we have to make each week!
Themed Enrichment
There is a separate calendar for the themed enrichment which includes sensory, puzzle, box, technology, and tub days. Some examples of themed enrichment are bubbles, lava lamps (outside enclosure), maze puzzles, wobblers, box towers, hanging boxes, movies, music, flavored water tubs, and stuffed animal tubs. Themed enrichment is great because the care staff are able to be very creative with the enrichment.
We are fortunate to have a building specifically for enrichment. This building is used for storing donated items, and five freezers for completed daily enrichment that involves food. When I have a little extra time in the afternoon, I am in the enrichment building making sure that it is organized and neat. All blankets and stuffed animals need to be washed and bleached before it is given to the chimps. We also have a small workshop for building new enrichment which stores tools, nuts, bolts, etc. for making more elaborate puzzle toys.
I love to watch and hear the chimps enjoying their enrichment that myself, volunteers, interns, and care staff work so hard to make sure are safe and enriching!
If you are interested in learning more about the enrichment committee, please explore our enrichment pages here.