OGDEN — Here’s a different suggestion for spending a cold winter’s morning: Enjoy a morning beverage and visit with a wild critter — all while helping to raise money for a good cause.

The Ogden Nature Center’s first year of its Cup Hop fundraiser continues this week with another visit to a local coffee shop. The event will take place from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 12, at Grounds for Coffee, 111 Historic 25th St., in Ogden.

During those hours, visitors are invited to stop by the shop to visit with representatives from the Ogden Nature Center — including one of the center’s wildlife stars.

“We’ll bring either a bird or a tortoise, or one of our other animals — it’s different each time,” said Brandi Bosworth, public relations coordinator for the Ogden Nature Center.

The center will also have on hand a collectible Ogden Nature Center mug — while supplies last — available for purchase. For a $12 donation to the nature center, coffee shop patrons will receive a mug and a free fill-up of drip coffee, tea or cocoa.

“This is a first for us, and it’s been a little crazy,” Bosworth admits of the fundraising events. “People are really after our cute tortoise mugs.”

The fundraiser — which Bosworth actually calls a “friend drive” — began on the Friday before Thanksgiving at the Grounds for Coffee on Harrison Boulevard. Events were also held on Dec. 3 at Kaffe Mercantile, and on Dec. 7 at the Ogden Nature Center open house.

Following Thursday’s event at Grounds for Coffee in downtown Ogden, the final Cup Hop of 2019 will be held from 7:30-10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 20, at Coffee Links, 287 Park Ave.

Bosworth said the fundraiser has been so popular that it exceeded expectations. They’ve run low on their supply of mugs, but they have more ordered.

And Bosworth says they’ll bring the Cup Hop back again in 2020.

“The plan is — in subsequent years — to offer the same style of mug with different colors and animals,” Bosworth said.

For more information on the Cup Hop, call the Ogden Nature Center at 801-564-1981.