A big THANK YOU to WAMAS from Charles Delbeek of the Waikiki Aquarium!

[copps]

First of all, I want to thank all of you who came out to the auction we had over the weekend to benefit the Waikiki Aquarium's upcoming Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) Exhibit. For more information on the auction see this thread. As I mentioned at the auction over the weekend, I've known Charles Delbeek for a few years now after originally meeting him at the Waikiki Aquarium. He's well known throughout the reefing community not only for literally writing the books on reef aquariums, but also for personally greeting diehard reefkeepers at the Waikiki Aquarium. He often has dropped whatever he was doing, offering a behind the scenes tour with all of the accompanying chatter that we reefkeepers do best! I always told Charles to let me know when and how I could give back, and after many times of asking for nothing he sent this request a few months back. I brought the idea of raising money to the officers of WAMAS and we ran with it.

 

This past weekend myself and other WAMAS members and vendors donated to a raffle with the hopes of raising $500. This amount would gain WAMAS recognition on a donor's wall... Well... we didn't raise $500... we raised nearly $1800! We'll be around $2000 when all is said and done!

 

Anyway, On Sunday I spoke with Charles for over a half hour, and he wanted me to pass on the thanks! Charles also sent me some photos of a model of the exhibit, which will be about 4000 gallons with a front glass pane of 12 feet long...

 

The exhibit will be going along this wall replacing these three tanks... the center one alone is 350 gallons...

 

 

Way to go WAMAS!

 

Copps

[Jager]

ok when is the wamas trip to tour that bad boy gonna be :P

 

congrats guys and gals, 2k s well over goal

[BeltwayBandit]

ok when is the wamas trip to tour that bad boy gonna be :P

 

congrats guys and gals, 2k s well over goal

 

 

Or we just set our goal too low!

 

Hey folks its not too late to donate. They still need $248,000 by my count to finish this project.

[Gatortailale]

Come tomorrow we will have idea from dhoch auction sales how much more we get from those. Like bandit said, not to late.

 

Thanks a ton to all those that donated & helped make it a success!

 

the Officers

[HowardofNOVA]

4000 gallons!

 

Talk about your Hawaii NANO!!

[Gatortailale]

$1995 was sent by WAMAS - via the auction donors - to Waikiki Aquarium. See attached. {no idea why it says July 18, 2006 - other than staff who sent form letter forgot to update date]

Waikiki.pdf.pdf

[BeltwayBandit]

$1995 was sent by WAMAS - via the auction donors - to Waikiki Aquarium. See attached. {no idea why it says July 18, 2006 - other than staff who sent form letter forgot to update date]

 

Are you telling me we couldn't pony up $5 more to make it an even $2,000..

 

On a more serious note. BZ to the WAMAS crew for stepping up. I'm glad to see this and our other recent initiatives towards taking a more active role in the public eye.

[YBeNormal]

BZ to the WAMAS crew for stepping up.

 

Just in case some of our non-military friends are wondering what BZ means: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bravo_Zulu

[OUsnakebyte]

Anyone hear that Charles is leaving Waikiki? He's going to help reopen Steinhart Aquarium.

[copps]

He's also expecting his first child in October! I had dinner with him in Waikiki in October last year and he was ready to leave Waikiki... he had the best commute in the world but to raise a family there is just too much...