River des Peres Trash Trap – In partnership with Missouri Confluence Waterkeeper and Blue2Blue Conservation, the Aquarium Foundation sponsored a trash trap in River des Peres located in Deer Creek Park. In 2021, it collected 896 items, with 46% being foam pieces and 32% plastic (see chart below).

A trash trap is a device made of a floating boom connected to each side of a river that collects debris as it moves down a waterway. In addition to catching litter and keeping it from entering larger waterways that lead to the ocean (in this case, the Mississippi River), our community hopes to learn more about where the litter is coming from to work on solutions.   

H₂O Friends Program – the “Help to our Friends” program provides free Aquarium admission, free education classes and programs, and free bus transportation to students and families in under-resourced communities. This program is funded through many generous donors, including the Kent Family Foundation, Enterprise Bank & Trust Foundation, Nance Frost, Dana Brown Charitable Trust, O’Loughlin Family Foundation, George Bauer, Chase, Ameren, First Bank, and many individuals like you! 

Virtual Education Programs – Our virtual education classes for K-12 schools were quite the hit this year! With most schools not being able to do in-person field trips, teachers were looking for unique learning opportunities for their students, and our curriculum-based classes featuring our Ambassador Animals met their goals. Overall we presented over 2,900 students with a virtual program, 46% of which were free through our H₂O Friends program.

The Foundation is grateful for the annual commitment of our Global Waters Circle and Aquarium Friends Circle members. We enjoyed celebrating you at the Members Night event in October.

Camp Fins & Friends Summer Camp – It was our inaugural year for our in-person summer camp! We were thrilled to welcome 144 kids ages 6 to 11 over eight weeks for a week-long camp. In addition to daily visits to the Aquarium, campers visited the behind-the-scenes water filtration systems and Shark Canyon to see how the biologists and engineers keep the Aquarium habitats in tip-top condition as the health of our animals is always of top importance! Campers also enjoyed other attractions at Union Station, such as the St. Louis Wheel, the carousel, mini golf, and a visit to the trains. See below under "Events" to learn more about signing up for this year's Camp Fins & Friends!

Volunteers - 81 volunteers logged 2,419 hours for the Aquarium Foundation in 2021! Nancy Suelflow impressively volunteered 100+ more hours than she did in 2020, serving over 950 hours this year! Thank you to Nancy and to all of our dedicated volunteers!

Interested in volunteering?

Learn more or complete an application here!

Inaugural Making Waves Gala – We were eel-ated to host our first gala in November with 325 people ready to celebrate under the sea to support the Aquarium Foundation’s mission and the Aquarium’s presence in downtown St. Louis! The event featured Jacques Cousteau's grandson and renowned ocean conservationist Fabien Cousteau and sold out two months before the event. Thanks to our event sponsors, auction donors, attendees, planning committee, Committee Chair Linda Hunter, and everyone who touched the event, we raised $385,000 to support our mission!

Essay Contest – More than 300 kids in grades Kindergarten through 12^th grade submitted essays for our Aquarium Essay Contest! Congratulations to the winners in each of the four age categories and to everyone who used their ocean knowledge to write creative essays celebrating why our ocean animals are so amazing. 

DJ, 2^nd grade

Pritish, 1^st Grade

Pearl, 2^nd grade

Adaleena (1^st grade)

August (5^th grade)

Conservation & Education Center (CEC) – In 2021, we welcomed 179,124 people to the CEC, and we hope you were one of them! If you haven’t been yet, we invite you to come check it out. The admission-free CEC is open the same hours as the Aquarium and is a great extension to your Aquarium visit with interactive exhibits about our local waterways, the effects of plastic on our rivers and oceans, and ways we can all make an impact on water conservation efforts in our community.

This past year, the Hunters did just that by making a gift to the Ambassador Animal Care Fund and the H₂O Friends (Help to our Friends) program at the Aquarium Foundation. Half of the gift provided for 18 underserved kids to attend the week-long Camp Fins & Friends for free! The other part of their gift provided for the Aquarium to add a kinkajou to its Ambassador Animals, which our animal trainers present to Aquarium guests to further engage them in understanding animals and the importance of water to their livelihood, and to inspire empathy and interest in the natural world. Linda explains, “When we learned about the Aquarium’s desire to acquire a kinkajou – and once we saw a photo of one – we were hooked! Bucky is a real cutie, endearing guests with his big eyes and inquisitive personality!”

Thank you to our adoptive parents for your support! The St. Louis Aquarium Foundation sends 25% of our Adopt-an-Animal funds to support the animals' river and ocean habitats. In 2021 our proceeds went to the Flamingo Gardens in Florida and the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. Take a look at the great work these organizations are doing!

George Sea Turtle Center – The St. Louis Aquarium received our sea turtles – Tsunami and Quasi – from this organization in 2020. They rescue injured sea turtles from the ocean, rehabilitate them back to health, and provide physical therapy to ideally reintroduce them back to the wild. In Tsunami and Quasi’s case, they were not able to be reintroduced to the wild, so we will be their forever home while they serve as important ambassadors for their species in the wild.

Flamingo Gardens – This is where the St. Louis Aquarium received our three sibling river otters – Thatcher, Sawyer and Finn – in 2019. Our donation was allocated to support their North American river otter breeding program and new Care Center that is being built. They also focus on providing a repository for endangered plant and wildlife species as well as a living library of specific taxa available for research and education.

Meet Bucky- one of the newest members of the St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station! He was added to his new home last October and has been adjusting wonderfully. Bucky is one of our smaller mammals, but what he lacks in size he makes up for in cuteness!

Bucky’s species belongs to the family of Procyonidae, which also include raccoons, ringtails, cacomistles, coatis, olingos, and olinguitos. Kinkajous typically grow to be 32 to 52 inches long and weigh between 3 to 10 pounds. Their short fur can range from several shades of tawny olive, brown, and yellow. The kinkajou is distinguished from other procyonids by their small, rounded ears, shorter muzzles, extensible tongue, and ability to grasp with their tail. You can find kinkajous in closed-canopy tropical forests of Mexico, southeastern Brazil, and Central America.

Because of their sharp teeth they are classified as Carnivora, but they mainly follow an omnivorous diet mostly of fruit. Bucky's favorites are bananas, honey, and grapes! Kinkajous have an extrudable tongue of five-inches, which help them scoop out pulp from fruit as well as seeds and nectar from flowers. Kinkajous plan an important part in seed dispersal and pollination.

Kinkajous are nocturnal animals and are usually the most active between 7:00 pm and midnight, and again before down. During the day, they sleep in shaded areas such as tree hollows or under tangles of leaves, avoiding direct sunlight. The average lifespan of a kinkajou is about 23 years human care! Bucky just turned one, and we are so excited to see him grow up and spend a long, happy life with us.

Thank you to the Hunter Family Foundation for their contribution to our Ambassador Animal Care Fund, making it possible to bring Bucky here to his new home to help educate our guests about a variety of animals and how they all contribute to the world's biodiversity.

Say SHELL-o to our

We would like to o-FISH-ally welcome our new St. Louis Aquarium Foundation Team member!