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New class pets swim into Poland Union
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Students at Poland Union stood by their new 55-gallon saltwater aquarium. The Union students were excited about the aquarium and stop in to look at it every chance they get. (L-R) Parker Ogden, Vander Bodine, Demetri Kindinis and Bryan Minehart.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.One of the donors, Nadene Vrabel, stood with members of the PTO around the new aquarium at Poland Union. Pictured, from left, are Vrabel with PTO members Beth Bodine, Vicky Kindinis and Carrie Ogden.
By ALEXIS BARTOLOMUCCI
Poland Union is the new home to a 55-gallon saltwater aquarium. Donations from the PTO, Rob Rupeka, Nadene Vrabel, and Todd and Debbie Bury made the idea of having something unique and interesting be put into the school for the students to enjoy come to life.
Several volunteers helped put everything together that was needed to make the aquarium a suitable home for fish, hermit crabs, starfish and snails. Reef Breeders donated the LED light for the tank and has also offered to donate coral.
Harbor Pets in Boardman is were the majority of the items were purchased. Employees of Harbor Pets volunteered their time to come to the school to set up the tank and with that came a good partnership between Union and Harbor Pets. Harbor Pets is also planning on coming back to the school to speak to the students about how to care for the fish and any other pets.
The tank was set up before the students left for winter break, which gave the water time to cycle itself to become an appropriate home for the sea creatures. The first fish was added on Jan. 11 and now there are five fish, 30 hermit crabs, seven snails and eight brittle starfish.
Principal Michael Masucci is hoping to have nine to ten fish in the aquarium.
Bryan Minehart, one of the students at Union, has a father who has helped out drastically with getting the aquarium ready. Minehart also donated gallons of water for Union to use in their tank.
“I’ve been here only three months and I am so impressed with the creative environment that the staff and everyone here has taken upon themselves to encourage these students to broaden their horizons, learn as much as they can about as many things as they can, and I think this is a wonderful endeavour for these kids. They’re going to learn so much,” said Nadene Vrabel.
A program called “Aqua Dogs” will soon start with the Poland Seminary High School students and the students at Union. The high school students will come to Union after school and help the students with maintaining the aquarium.
Union is working on using technology to help the children interact more with the fish. They will be able to vote of what kind of fish they want to add in the tank next and also vote on names. Masucci is working on getting a camera installed in the library, where the tank is located, so they teachers can open a live stream of the aquarium on their Smart Boards so they can watch the fish from their classrooms.
“It’s like having a classroom pet for the whole school,” said PTO chairman Beth Bodine.