If you missed our Early Bird New Year's Celebration, you missed a good time! We celebrated the Refuge's 78th birthday & our love of Whooping Cranes, as well as getting an early start on New Year's. Richard Gonzales explained what the Science & Spanish Club Network is, and told us of some of their accomplishments. FAMI President Fred Lanoue gave a brief overview of Friends of Aransas NWR & invited attendees to visit our Nature Store. Jennifer Brown, Environmental Education Specialist then gave a "State of the Cranes" address.

To get everyone in a party spirit, our Super Whooper danced to the Whoop song & then posed for photo ops. You can see a video here. We then counted down to noon for our early New Year's. After that, we sang Happy Birthday to the Refuge & attendees blew out the candles on the cake. Thank you to Richard Gonzales and the Science & Spanish Club Network for donating the punch and decorations.

Also on display was a door decoration created by the 6th Grade Science students at Blaschke Sheldon Elemetary School in Ingleside, taught by Robin Flures. It's a beautiful life size "Winter Texan" Whooping Crane. It was donated to the Refuge by the students and the Science & Spanish Club Network.

After everyone had cake & punch, the best plumage (white, black & red) was chosen. The winner, chosen by the crowd, was 21 month old Idalia Raschke.

You can see more photos by clicking on our Gallery. Click on the image to see it bigger.