The Surfin’ Raccoons were swinging, the kids were dancing and making hats from newspapers and the parents danced, made hats from newspaper, and everyone signed the birthday banner. Some had their faces and arms painted with miniature octopuses, fish, green moray eels and green sea turtles. And then at 1pm, they all had cake.
Aug. 29, 2009 was a very nice day for The Pier Aquarium to celebrate – and commemorate – 20 years in St. Petersburg.
"We have grown with our local marine research community,” said E. Howard Rutherford, president and CEO. "What you see today on the second floor of The Pier is just the tip of the iceberg of our community involvement in marine education.”
The aquarium’s two-hour Surf-n-Turf school program has kids at Spa Beach collecting sea critters and then touring the tanks to see some of the same animals inside. A traveling touch tank, "Ocean in Motion,” temporarily moves to a school or community center with a complete curriculum to teach children and adults animal husbandry, water quality, habitat and conservation.
Vinnie the Big Red Fish, President/CEO E. Howard
Rutherford and Board Chair Mark Luther
Back to the party, however, it was not necessarily about fish as the free festivities were held in The Pier’s Dockside Activity Room, on the first floor off the Food Court. Scheduled from noon-2pm was the very busy station where volunteers fashioned hats directly on heads out of St. Petersburg Times newspapers and strips of masking tape and a birthday card making table. Anyone who made a card received a poster. Special guests included Shrimp Louis from Bubba Gump’s and Mermaid Kendra.
Guessing the correct number (or number closest to the amount) of goldfish crackers in a 10-gallon plastic water bottle won Michael Thiel a Family of Four membership to the aquarium. Other prizes were awarded in games of Fishy Bingo, where players matched the sea critters on the cards to the clues read out.
The birthday cake, actually three sheet cakes made by Bonnie Schaefer, owner of Cakes by Carolynn, decorated with fish illustrations designed by The Pier Aquarium’s Artist-in-Residence Kathy Taylor Zimmerman, and another round one dubbed "the crazy cake,” were the hit of the party. "The crazy cake,” a multi-tiered green-checkerboarded and yellow concoction that looked like it had stepped out of a Dr. Seuss tale, was created by Baker Beth of the Eagle Park Publix.
Bonnie and Kathy cut the cakes and cake was served by volunteers, beauty queens representing different pageants. We have to agree: Both cakes passed the excellent cake taste test!
The action didn’t stop at 2pm but moved out to "the Tubes” in The Pier Lobby. There guests were treated to a performance by Pizazz Song and Dance Troupe of the St. Petersburg Little Theatre and saw an original routine, the Baby Shark Dance. The dancers formed a conga line, invited all to join in and then headed out the front door.
Still more to come, Pizazzers met up with the 27-member Mt. Zion Drumline and Color Guard and danced in place while the drummers drummed and then followed them in a parade around The Pier building.
But wait! There’s more…the party continued upstairs in the second floor aquarium with more crafts and science activities and prizes for the kids until 5pm.
Our many thanks to all of our staffers who volunteered hours to make this milestone birthday happen: Susan Sawyer, Drew Glaser, Kendra Oliver, Sara and Lisa Ziegenfuss, Dawn Formica, Celeste Behret, Emily Stehle, Butch Ringelspaugh, Cynthia Fox, Cindy Clairy, Laurie Zakaroff, Danny Lopez, Patty Zimmermann and Howard Rutherford and aquarium volunteers Justin Gunnells, Anna Chandler and Storm Kwick.
Thank you Partners and Community Volunteers
Beth the Baker, Eagle Park Publix
Bill Cason, Localshops1.com
Mark Felix
Mark, Jane, Ilsa and Philip Luther
Deb and Randy Orner
Mt. Zion Drumline and Color Guard
Pizazz Song and Dance Troupe, St. Petersburg Little Theatre
Bonnie Schaefer, Cakes by Carolynn
Shrimp Louis, Bubba Gump Shrimp House
Mike Stehle
The Surfin' Raccoons
The Beauty Queens
Kathy Taylor Zimmerman, Artist-in-Residence
Patrick Zimmermann
and last, but not least, Caroline Smith of CSE Photography for our capturing our memories of this 20th birthday celebration at www.csephoto.com.
This journal entry is from the Fall 2009 issue of Fresh Fish Quarterly.
The 16th Annual Fish Head Ball
Oct. 3, 2009
Click on the postcard for the full story and photos by Caroline and Evan Smith of CSE Photography!
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discovery day. 
Our participating partners: Southwest Florida Water Management District,
4H/Mote Marine, Keep Pinellas Beautiful, Lost in Time, Nature's Academy, Pinellas County Ext. Florida Yards and Neighborhoods, Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, Suncoast Sierra Club, Tampa Bay Watch. 
Thank you to our wonderful sponsors: the Southwest Florida Water Management District, Pinellas County Cultural Affairs, the City of St. Petersburg, The Pier, Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater and media sponsors the St. 
Petersburg Times and the Weekly Burg Blast. Door prize providers were Windworks, the Weekly Burg Blast, CE, Ceaco, D & D, Geckoz, Mistco and Wild Republic.
The cause: May 9, A Sustainable Collaboration at The Glass House, the downtown St. Petersburg penthouse residence of Robert Glaser and Rob Bowen, to benefit The Pier Aquarium (PA).