By STEPHANIE FARLEY

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sfarley@gctelegram.com

The Garden City Rotary Club no longer will head up Zoobalee, which means families will have to mark the traditional Fourth of July event off their calenders.

The announcement comes less than four months before the family oriented event was set to celebrate its 30th anniversary this year.

The event, which grew to include inflatables, carnival games, a dinosaur play land and other activities for children at Lee Richardson Zoo, was operated by the Friends of Lee Richardson Zoo for about 25 years before the organization handed the reins over to Rotary.

Troy Unruh, Rotarian and former Zoobalee chairman, said the club felt Zoobalee was an event that served the community, giving families a safe place to celebrate on the Fourth of July, so it was a good project for Rotary to take on.

But in January, Unruh said, the club started talking about the need for another chairman. Not that Unruh hadn't served the event well, but he'd been chairman for three years and is unable to devote the time this year needed to set up and organize the event. But there were no other club members who were able to meet the position's time commitment.

Unruh calls the event an extremely successful one but also very time intensive, saying club members felt if they couldn't do the event well, "we weren't going to do it."

Unruh said the club spoke to other organizations about possibly taking over the event from Rotary, but no one picked up Zoobalee. There also was talk among club members of hiring an event planner, but he said he was unable to find one.

He said the decision was a difficult one to make because he feels the event is valuable to the city, but the "time it takes is just phenomenal."

It takes about 125 volunteers to make the event run as planned, Unruh said, adding it's never been a problem finding volunteers to help the day of the event but that the club is unable to give the time it takes to organize the volunteers and the event in advance.

The announcement comes on the heels of when the club's planning of Zoobalee usually starts picking up.

There's always a debriefing after the July event to help the organization figure out how to make it better, and then monthly meetings start in January, then biweekly in April and weekly meetings around May and June.

The event's never been a huge money-maker for Rotary, Unruh said, but it also was never intended to be. Proceeds from Zoobalee's tickets -- $7.50 for adults and $5 for children -- are meant to supplement the Rotary's scholarship fund, which awards about $5,000 to Finney County students to further their education.

Unruh said the club never reached it but came close to the $5,000 mark of Zoobalee profits back into the scholarship fund. The rest of the revenue from Zoobalee went to funding the event, which Rotary financially covered on its own, never asking for donations. Unruh said the club's scholarship fund isn't in jeopardy without Zoobalee because the event only supplemented the fund.

Garden City resident Bob Sperling is one of many who've volunteered for Zoobalee.

"I just help wherever they need me," he said.

Sperling said the event was important to the community because it provided a safe place for families and children to celebrate the holiday. He said he volunteers to help out and also see the kids' enjoyment, adding it'd be a "terrible" loss if the event didn't continue.

Zoobalee's future is uncertain at this point -- no one's claimed the event this year, and Unruh doesn't foresee Rotary picking Zoobalee back up next year. Unruh has talked to Beverly Schmitz Glass, executive director for Garden City Downtown Vision, about possibly extending that organization's Fourth of July activities beyond the planned parade.

Glass said the parade, set to include floats, decorated vehicles, patriotic music and a pet parade, was meant to complement Zoobalee and honor veterans. She's sent word out to her board of directors suggesting that while it wouldn't be a budgeted item, the board might consider trying to extend activity from the parade through the morning and possibly part of the afternoon.

It wouldn't be anything comparable to Zoobalee, Glass said, but might be some celebration for those staying in town for the holiday weekend. She also stated Downtown Vision would be willing to help if another organization picked up Zoobalee and ran with it.