Central Coast Zoo debuts play zoo at Noon Year’s Eve Celebration

By Camille DeVaul · Thu Jan 08 2026

Families ring in New Year early with new nature-based play space focused on creativity, empathy, and conservation

ATASCADERO — The Central Coast Zoo rang in the new year with its inaugural Noon Year's Eve event on Wednesday, Dec. 31. The event began with a ribbon cutting for their new Wild Journeys Play Zoo, a nature-based play space designed for young children that emphasizes creativity, empathy, and hands-on learning through outdoor exploration.

Despite some rain throughout the day, tons of families came out for the ribbon cutting and stayed to joyfully celebrate the New Year a little early with a countdown and sparkling cider toast at 12 p.m.

"We just opened [the play zoo] this morning, that kicked off our New Year's Eve event," Zoo Director Dr. Cynthia Stringfield told Atascadero News at the event. "Even though it's raining, we've had a great turnout. Kids don't care if it's raining."

The new play area features interactive elements such as sandboxes for digging like a meerkat, a pretend zoo animal kitchen and veterinary clinic, and other imaginative play features. The project was made possible through support from Service Systems America, El Camino Veterinary Hospital, and the Central Coast Zoo Foundation.

The Central Coast Zoo (previously known as the Charles Paddock Zoo) is owned and operated by the City of Atascadero. They receive additional support from the Central Coast Zoo Foundation, a nonprofit formerly known as Friends of the Zoo, which helps fund improvements and manages the zoo’s membership program. The foundation recently helped support the zoo’s new nature play area, a modest project costing about $3,000, made possible through community partnerships. El Camino Veterinary Clinic, led by longtime zoo veterinarian Dr. Steve Robinson, contributed funding for the veterinary-themed elements, while Service Systems Associates, which operates the zoo’s gift shop, also donated funds, with several play features inspired by items sold in the shop.

"I grew up playing like this, and it doesn't take a lot of money to have fun playing outside, and it was something that we could put together for not a lot of money," Stringfield explained.

The new nature play area is designed for young children to engage with the outdoors through hands-on, imaginative activities such as hopscotch, playing in a mock veterinary clinic by caring for stuffed animals, preparing pretend animal diets, and exploring a sandbox where plastic “bugs” are hidden for children to uncover, mimicking how meerkats forage.

Stringfield emphasized that nature play plays a critical role in early childhood development, citing studies that show outdoor, nature-based play supports key developmental stages and helps prevent challenges later in life. She shared that research also suggests that early exposure to nature fosters empathy for the environment, encouraging children to value conservation and grow into adults who want to protect the natural world around them.

"We did this in the house. We created it just, amongst us, staff, education curators, very involved in designing it. And so it's been really fun today to watch the kids play with it, exactly the way we were hoping," Stringfield said. "It's been a really fun day so far."

Learn more about the Central Coast Zoo and its future events at centralcoastzoo.org

Feature Image: Atascadero Mayor Charles Bourbeau (in blue) and City Councilmember Heather Newsom (far left) conduct the ribbon cutting Dec. 31 for the new Wild Journeys Play Zoo during the Noon Year's Eve event at Central Coast Zoo Atascadero. Photo courtesy of Central Coast Zoo