2013 Volunteer of the Year – Andrew Tepe
Andrew joined the Aquarium family in July 2012 and is being recognized for his role in the shark bite drill. As a new diver, he had never been in the shark tank and did not now about the drill that day. When the drill began another volunteer surfaced in the shark tank screaming. Andrew ran to shark top and without hesitation jumped fully clothed (and cell phone in his pocket) in the acclimation area to help. Again, having never been in the shark tank and under the assumption that Lisa had actually been bitten by a shark, Andrew leaned out of acclimation onto exhibit to pull Lisa to safety. He was fast and focused and worked together with the rest of the staff to get Lisa out onto dry land. When the drill was over and everybody was coming down from the excitement, Andrew pulled his cell phone out of his soaking wet pocket and said, “I’m glad I spend the extra money on the waterproof case!”. Hopefully an accident like this would never acutally happen, but if it did, we would want Andrew Tepe to be there!
2013 Volunteers of the Month
January 2013 – Jon Heidenreich
Jon Heidenreich joined our Aquarium family in May 2012 and has donated over 90 hours. On Saturday, Sept 22nd, the cast was overwhelmed with Sweet Pea’s Birthday and what seemed like about 1000 other special events. This volunteer diver finished the dive shift and stayed on to help. This volunteer assisted in flipping the theater for Radio Disney and then spent time on the floor interacting with guests. What an excellent volunteer!
February 2013 – Tom Simpkins
One of volunteer divers, Tom is always willing to help out. The first weekend of Sweet Pea’s birthday, Tom did a special dive show and then seeing how busy they were, the he offered to stay after the dive shift and help. Tom led mini Behind the Scene tours with VIP’s. Tom also helps WAVE with other events such as Crop for Conservation and Nauti Nite.
March 2013 – Kevin Taylor
Kevin does whatever work is needed (even if it is boring, cold or gross) and is willing to stay as late as necessary. But more than that, he has an eye for safety. On one day in particular, Kevin identified a potential safety hazard in the path of a BTS tour and immediately helped to correct the problem. Kevin also brought in some cut-resistant gloves used at work (to handle sheet metal), which may help to protect the divers’ hands from the surgeonfish scalpels, while still allowing dexterity.
April 2013 – Andrew Tepe
Andrew joined the Aquarium family in July 2012 and is being recognized for his role in the shark bite drill. As a new diver, he had never been in the shark tank and did not now about the drill that day. When the drill began another volunteer surfaced in the shark tank screaming. Andrew ran to shark top and without hesitation jumped fully clothed (and cell phone in his pocket) in the acclimation area to help. Again, having never been in the shark tank and under the assumption that Lisa had actually been bitten by a shark, Andrew leaned out of acclimation onto exhibit to pull Lisa to safety. He was fast and focused and worked together with the rest of the staff to get Lisa out onto dry land. When the drill was over and everybody was coming down from the excitement, Andrew pulled his cell phone out of his soaking wet pocket and said, “I’m glad I spend the extra money on the waterproof case!”. Hopefully an accident like this would never acutally happen, but if it did, we would want Andrew Tepe to be there!
May 2013 – Justin VerWeire
Diver Intern Justin VerWeire was a safety and guinea pig for trying to adjust the Dive Com sound equalization in the Theater. First he reminded Erin not to wear a weight belt on the cat walk above the shark tank. Towards the end of the dive they were testing the show & the lights went dark above the window, one of the Sand Tigers dropped like a stone to the bottom right where Erin was! Erin had no idea, except when she got a shoulder squeeze for “don’t move” turned into Justin pulling her into him all while Erin was ready the script. Erin looked around and saw a Sand Tigers face 2 feet away & right where she just was!
June 2013 – John Klear
This is John’s 4th time achieving this title. The definition of dedication is “self-sacrificing devotion”, and that is what John shows when he gave up his lunch break at his 9-5 job to drive across town and help with an animal outreach (& then drive back to finish his day’s work!) Outreaches require two trained animal handlers to be there to transport an animal off grounds & we were running out of time to find a second handler for an extremely important event. John is known to drop everything he is doing to help anyone at the Aquarium, & sacrifices his time to ensure our guests have a great experience with our animals.
July 2013 – Kathy Dye & Ed Zimmerman
Kathy (7/2001) & Ed (1/2000) are volunteer divers, who have been nominated as a duo for their participation they gave to a group of high school students on a career talk. They were exciting the shark tank when a group of students came up and watched. They instantly engaged the students before taking any gear off. Kathy & Ed were playful, fun and educational and told the students all about their experiences diving in the tank! They even took time to explain how the regulators worked and allowed the kids to feel how heavy their weight belts and tanks were! Simple acts like this take 2 minutes of time to make a longing impression on the visitors.
August 2013 – Larry Flinner
Larry is an excellent volunteer and has donated over 2,000 hours! Larry is always willing to go the extra mile to help. At the last minute, Larry was signed up to help out with an animal outreach program. Being at the aquarium before 7:30 am did not phase him at all. Even though it was much earlier than normal, Larry brought his “A-Game”, was energized and did an amazing job presenting that day.
September 2013 – Tim Martin
Tim always goes a step above and beyond. During summer camp, there was a child with an anxiety order. Tim was always there to reassure this camper that everything would be okay. The camper would not go on the Ride the Ducks unless Tim was there with him! This camper probably would have not had such a wonderful experience had it not been for Tim and his kind and gentle was of handling the situation.
October 2013 – Trey Burns
Trey donated many hours this summer and always gave 110% while here. Not only did he prove his infinite knowledge of animals but was able to convey that knowledge to a wide range of kids we taught. Trey always had the conservation message at an age appropriate level. He was always helpful across the board and willing to help with anything needed. Because of that whenever Trey was present the program seemed to progress smoothly. We were so lucky to have a volunteer like this who went above and beyond any expectations! We can’t wait to see Trey again next year at camp!
November 2013 – Ruth Niehaus, Jon Heidenreich & Andre Elkins
Their friendliness, love for the animals and what they do here is evident. During Nauti Nite they finished their duties they then jumped in and helped tremendously. After the party they immediately asked “what can we do?” They went around the entire exhibit floor removing all of the ice buckets and carted them to Rainforest to empty them in the drain. This was not expected but it showed the kind of thoughtfulness, teamwork, and selflessness that exemplifies the caliber of volunteers at the NAQ. Thank you is not enough.
December 2013 – Jon Heidenreich
Jon has shown what it means to be a STAR with his third Volunteer of the Month this year! He stayed to help with the Hannah Mermaid project & was friendly with the cast members he did not know. He has been a great addition to the DIVE crew & he will go out of his way to make any kids day! One day he was diving looking for shark teeth & saw a little boy through the glass and showed him the sandtiger tooth he found, this gave the boy the biggest smile. Jon didn’t stop there, he dried off in a hurry so he could go into the exhibits & find the boy to give him the tooth. Jon found the boy and clearly a memory worth repeating.
