Rozanne Weissman got up close and personal with the giraffes at Giraffe Manor, a boutique hotel outside Nairobi, Kenya. Courtesy of Rozanne Weissman

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Bethesda retiree Rozanne Weissman had a lifelong desire to see the wildlife of Africa and Asia. After she returned from her travels, Weissman wrote a children’s book, Rozanne Travels to Africa to Kiss a Giraffe, utilizing her photos and experiences.

Weissman, who suffers from debilitating pain (polyneuropathy), says she’s perpetually young at heart and wanted to share her experiences with the children for whom she’s volunteered for years.

For the majority of her adult life, Weissman worked in the public broadcasting industry, speaking at many conferences throughout the country. Eventually, she launched her own public relations firm. She helped develop a marketing plan for the launch of Discovery Communications’ Animal Planet network.

Retiring early from a successful career was not in her life’s plan. But several years ago, a doctor who was treating Weissman for pain advised her to adopt a more active lifestyle, one away from computer screens and keyboards.

“I took this very seriously because I knew what he said was true,” she said.

Around that same time, Weissman’s mother died, and she met with a grief counselor. “She asked me the best question ever: ‘What aren’t you doing now that you would like to be doing?’

“I blurted out, ‘I want to go to Borneo to see orangutans in the rainforest, and I just can’t’ because I felt it was too far away when my parents were alive. She was so supportive of me going!”

So, Weissman flew to Borneo in 2014, a trip she calls her “first amazing wildlife journey.” She traveled with renowned primatologist orangutan expert Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas.

The following year, Weissman traveled to five countries in Southern Africa, where she spotted elephants, lions and elusive leopards.

But that wasn’t the end of her journeys. In 2018, after saving enough money and waiting for a room at Giraffe House Manor, a boutique hotel in Nairobi, Weissman traveled to Kenya to “adopt” a baby orphaned orangutan. On that trip, she also traveled to the tip of South Africa to see penguins.

Sharing travel stories with children

When Weissman returned, she decided to share the story of her journeys in a book for children, as she had always enjoyed watching wild animals as a child. She also had the experience of volunteer work with children for more than a decade, so she knew how to communicate with them.

With the Sierra Club, for instance, she took urban kids on nature walks. For three years, she worked with toddlers and at-risk middle school children at the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project in Washington, D.C.

Since 2016, Weissman has been volunteering at Jubilee JumpStart, an early childhood education center in D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood. While working at the center, which serves low-income families, Weissman developed a connection with its executive director, Dee Dee Parker.

“[She] had such a positive influence on me and my life,” Weissman said. “I discovered I loved working with infants and watching them grow, learn and develop.”

While working at JumpStart, Weissman first tested her book out on a real audience.

“When Rozanne returned from Africa and ran with the idea of sharing her story [in a book], she demonstrated her deep respect and commitment for children. She asked for their input and ran early versions past them for feedback,” Parker said.

“She also wanted the story to resonate at their developmental level. Rozanne embodies the way in which volunteers from the community can enrich the classroom experience for children simply by sharing their passions and interests.”

Published in 2019, the book describes three of Weissman’s journeys with close-up photos of many animals — orangutans in the rainforests of Borneo, penguins and, on safari in Africa, orphaned elephants and five leopards, including two cubs in a tree.

‘Be open instead of closing the door’

Weissman gives credit for being healthy enough to do the traveling necessary for the book to her team of doctors. “Without them, it would not have been possible,” she said.

Because she can’t type due to the pain in her hands and wrists, Weissman recorded the text for her book on an 18-year-old phone with a broken screen held together by rubber bands.

“I had to figure out a way to do it, and that’s the creative problem-solving approach, to be open instead of closing the door.”

During the COVID quarantine Weissman was concerned about the isolation children were facing, so she became a virtual visiting children’s book author.

She engaged schoolchildren through reading and storytelling in “an imaginary journey to rainforests of Borneo to see orangutans,” her website explains. She has shared her photos and read her book to elementary school classes in six states.

“I have done free virtual classroom visits because of my concern about both teachers and children,” she said. “I got great questions from children.”

School is out, but Weissman will restart these free Zoom sessions in August or September.

What’s next? In November, she’s headed to Canada to see polar bears. She hopes to see them on land before the ice forms and they migrate north. That trip will become the subject matter for her next book, she said.

Watch Weissman’s wildlife videos and “travel” with her on her YouTube channel. For more information, visit rozanneweissman.com/imaginary-wildlife-safari-journey-with-rozanne. Her books can be purchased on Amazon, Walmart.com and BarnesandNoble.com.