Steven Pro
04/14/2005, 05:22 PM
The Pittsburgh Marine Aquarium Society is celebrating its 10 year anniversary this month at our meeting Saturday April 30th. The meeting will begin at 6:00 PM at the Radisson Hotel in Monroeville in their Somerset Room. This is convienently located about one mile from the PA Turnpike.
This month we are pleased to host Rick Pruess as our guest speaker. Rick is the proprietor of Preuss Animal House; a family owned pet shop that has been in operation for 30 years, http://www.preusspets.com/. This store has the distinction of being one of the only MAC certified stores in the United States and that is what Rick is going to be discussing, The Marine Aquarium Council, http://www.aquariumcouncil.org/. For those of you who don’t know, MAC is a non-profit organization which is working to conserve coral reefs and other marine ecosystems by creating standards and certification for those engaged in the collection and care of ornamental marine life from reef to aquarium. While I have attended numerous seminars and presentations about MAC, these were always given by someone on the MAC payroll. Rick is unique in that his store paid to become MAC certified. As such, he is in a rare position to give an unbiased evaluation of MAC, its efforts to date, and its ambitious goals.
In addition to working in his store and with MAC, Rick has also given of his time and served on the board of directors of the American Marinelife Dealers Association http://www.amdareef.com/, an organization which has as its state ambitious goal the creation of a sustainable trade in living marine organisms for aquariums. And lastly, Rick has begun a program in which he donates and discounts aquariums to local schools in an effort to promote awareness and appreciation of the reefs. Clearly, Rick has taken an active and impassioned role in promoting the hobby and helping to create a better industry at large. We are pleased to hear his about his experiences and his thoughts.
And lastly, as part of our celebration, we are bringing back our mega raffle for this event, which last time had nearly 100 drygoods and livestock items. We are really hoping to get a nice turnout for this event. Hopefully, I will see some of you guys there!
This month we are pleased to host Rick Pruess as our guest speaker. Rick is the proprietor of Preuss Animal House; a family owned pet shop that has been in operation for 30 years, http://www.preusspets.com/. This store has the distinction of being one of the only MAC certified stores in the United States and that is what Rick is going to be discussing, The Marine Aquarium Council, http://www.aquariumcouncil.org/. For those of you who don’t know, MAC is a non-profit organization which is working to conserve coral reefs and other marine ecosystems by creating standards and certification for those engaged in the collection and care of ornamental marine life from reef to aquarium. While I have attended numerous seminars and presentations about MAC, these were always given by someone on the MAC payroll. Rick is unique in that his store paid to become MAC certified. As such, he is in a rare position to give an unbiased evaluation of MAC, its efforts to date, and its ambitious goals.
In addition to working in his store and with MAC, Rick has also given of his time and served on the board of directors of the American Marinelife Dealers Association http://www.amdareef.com/, an organization which has as its state ambitious goal the creation of a sustainable trade in living marine organisms for aquariums. And lastly, Rick has begun a program in which he donates and discounts aquariums to local schools in an effort to promote awareness and appreciation of the reefs. Clearly, Rick has taken an active and impassioned role in promoting the hobby and helping to create a better industry at large. We are pleased to hear his about his experiences and his thoughts.
And lastly, as part of our celebration, we are bringing back our mega raffle for this event, which last time had nearly 100 drygoods and livestock items. We are really hoping to get a nice turnout for this event. Hopefully, I will see some of you guys there!