Chimp Haven Receives Award

Thu Jan 31, 2008

The Shreveport Bossier Advertising Federation presented its 2007 Image Award to Chimp Haven as part of its 58th Annual Image Awards on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008.  The award honors a person, company, institution or group that brought regional, national or international prestige to Shreveport-Bossier area during the previous year.

During 2007, Chimp Haven was in the media spotlight after the birth of a chimpanzee, Tracy, to Teresa, a female chimpanzee in her late 40’s, and father, Conan, a young 22-year old male chimpanzee that had received a vasectomy prior to his arrival to the sanctuary.  During the year, Chimp Haven was featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Fox Report with Sheppard Smith, MSNBC, BBC Radio, The New York Times, NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, and Fine Living Television to name just a few. Chimp Haven was also featured in local, state, national, and international publications as well as on the World Wide Web.  Articles on Chimp Haven in both Southern Living Magazine and the New York Times brought additional attention to the Shreveport-Bossier area.

The award presentation was held at the Federation's monthly lunch meeting at the Petroleum Club in downtown Shreveport.  Rick DelaHaya, former Public Relations Manager for Chimp Haven, Behaviorist Amy Fultz, and current Public Relations Manager Krissy Lawton all attented the luncheon and accepted the 2007 Image Award on behalf of Chimp Haven.  After the luncheon a video spotlighting some of the media attention that Chimp Haven has received in the past year was shown and was followed by a brief question and answer session with those in attendance.  

“This is really a big honor to accept the award on behalf of Chimp Haven,” said DelaHaya. “This signifies all the hard work we did as an organization and all the attention we were able to bring to the Northwest Louisiana area. It really is an honor to be recognized by your peers.”