From left to right:  Pam Monseur, Claudia Steadman, Carl Burch, Jennifer Lindsley

On Saturday, July 5th, a married couple, visiting Metro Zoo claimed that the husband’s wedding band was in the Flamingo Pond.  Security informed them that the Flamingo Pond gets drained yearly by the bird department so they were referred to the Aviary.  Well, the aviary staff spoke to the zoo visitors explaining that the pond would be drained in October or November, but that they would volunteer to “look” for it.  As a result, on Sunday, Pam & Claudia (aviary keepers) spent some time wadding in the Flamingo Pond looking for the ring but had no luck.  Before the zoo closed, Randy from Animal Science used his staff resources and asked Jennifer of the Amphitheater if she would be willing to bring her underwater metal detector to assist in the search. The next morning, Jennifer was in the Flamingo Pond with the metal detector, but because the bottom, concrete floor of the pond has metal rebar, there was too much feedback to find the ring.  So, she asked for a mask and snorkeled the area – the Flamingo Pond!  Still, she had no luck. 

Subsequently, the couple returned to the zoo to see if the ring had been found, and staff took the opportunity to ask them to point out where in the pond the ring might be.  With that new information, Carl (Aviary Supervisor) tossed his wedding band in the pond so that Pam could feel for it with her feet, but that didn’t work.  So Pam used her hands to feel around, and she was able to recognize Carl’s ring (Carl got his ring back).  Now knowing what she is looking for, Pam hand feels the bottom of the Flamingo Pond (at times the water was so murky that she would fade as she was snorkeling the bottom) and comes up the RING! With tears in his eyes the zoo visitor said, ”I think you just saved my marriage.”   Congratulations, to these employees for going the extra mile to Deliver Excellence.