Being born and raised a Desert Rat, I became interested in marine life, at the age of 11yrs, when my father was stationed in Crete, Greece and a year later, at Homestead, Florida. The early 1970’s were weekends spent swimming in the clearest, warm waters of the Mediterranean to snorkeling in the cold waters of the Atlantic at Key Biscayne Bay.
My career took me into the field of Education. One of my mottos was to “Bring the Outdoors In.” So, the classroom became a menagerie of hamsters, a rabbit, newts, and Webster, our aquatic turtle who we still have to this day. My husband, being a Pisces, gifted me an aquarium. The pleasures and relaxation of watching angel fish went from the home into the classroom with a 2nd aquarium.
To this day, my husband and I enjoy being greeted by our rambunctious Koi in the den and living room, the mixture of Koi and shubunkins in our courtyard pond and the true silliness of observing the Koi in our backyard pond who do laps and race up when it’s feeding time.
Receiving the CKK from the KOI Organisation has been quite rewarding and fulfilling. This allows me to remain the educator no longer in the classroom of young, innovative minds, but to extend outwards to the numerous local and worldwide pond lovers.