By ANEEKA SIMONIS
STAFF working at The Lodge Shopping Centre in Coldstream had an excuse to monkey around last Thursday as they took part in Wild Onesie Week.
Hosted by World Wildlife Fund (WWF), local businesses were encouraged to dress head-to-toe in an endangered animal onesie to help raise funds and awareness for dwindling species’ numbers.
IGA, Blooms Blooms florist, Purple Mist Hairdressing and Just Fake It Beauty were some of the stores who dressed up for the occasion.
Blooms Blooms owner Kerrilyn Bloom dressed as a cheetah with her mother, while Purple Mist Hairdressing was seeing spots as their owner, Gail Collins, dressed as a leopard, her team members a zebra and red panda.
Gail Collins said raising funds for endangered species was an important cause.
“If we lose them, we will never get them back. We need them for the eco-system … and they’re beautiful too,” she said.
Brave like a lion were those who wore their onesie in their professional workplace said WWF CEO, Dermot O’Gorman.
“If you’re passionate about protecting species be brave and ‘become one’ for a day or even the whole week and experience what it’s like to be an endangered animal,” said WWF CEO, Dermot O’Gorman.
“The money you raise by rising to this challenge will make a real difference to endangered animals.”
Animals in need of help include tigers, with the species decreasing by over 95 per cent over the past 100 years as well as loggerhead turtle who are down to their last few hundred.
The Lodge Shopping Centre shared the fun with Animal Aid and onesie-clad students from Coldstream Primary School.
