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The Event: ZooLA, a Zoo Live Auction, the annual benefit for the Lincoln Park Zoo held by the Women’s Board, took place on Nov. 12 at a private club in Chicago.

The boutique fundraiser offered 125 guests rare luxury packages for raffle and auction, as well as the opportunity to name the zoo’s newest arrival, a baby colobus monkey. Part of the Black-and-White Colobus Species Survival Plan and the first one born at the zoo since 2004, the infant primate joins its mother, Kuitaka, and father, Keanjaha, currently on exhibit inside the Helen Brach Primate house.

The mission of the 90 dedicated women who make up the Women’s Board is to help keep the zoo free, aid to enhance its animal care, and enable the zoo to continue offering unparalleled wildlife experiences through its education, science and conservation programs.

Cause Célebre: “We’re dedicated to our zoo. It is a gem in the city and we are looking forward to this evening to support it,” said Vasiliki Weiden of Chicago, event co-chairman. Weiden explained that funds raised at ZooLA also go towards the polar bear and penguin habitats at the zoo.

Recently, Lincoln Park Zoo was awarded top honors in international conservation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums for its chimpanzee conservation efforts in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park.

“One of Chicago’s great treasures,” is what John Ettelson of Glencoe, chairman of the board of trustees, called Lincoln Park Zoo. “The only free zoo in the country which is privately supported.”

Bottom Line: ZooLA raised more than $225,000 dollars with the privilege to name the colobus monkey going to Women’s Board member Beth Herrington Stamos. See lpzoo.org