news-record.com

ASHEBORO — The N.C. Zoo Society received $1 million Friday to go toward acquiring and preserving land for its resident wildlife.

The donation came from the estate of Juanita Lamport Spalding of Greensboro. Zoo director David Jones and Russ Williams, the society’s director of planned and major giving, met Spaulding 10 years ago.

“The wonderful late donor described her intent to Zoo Director David Jones and me about a decade ago in her modest apartment near the Greensboro Arboretum,” Williams reported on his blog Saturday.

Spalding’s will said that the bequest was to be used to purchase and manage one or more wilderness areas to be maintained for the benefit of native North Carolina wildlife.

Jones and Williams are out of the country today and were unavailable for comment.

"The N.C. Zoo and Zoo Society are extremely pleased to have been chosen to carry Juanita Spalding’s love of nature forward by supporting the Zoo’s ongoing stewardship of North Carolina’s native habitats and wildlife,” said Cheryl Turner, interim executive director of the N.C. Zoo Society.

Spalding died May 17.

View her obituary here.

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