If you’re looking for something fun and new to do with the kids, River’s Edge at Saint Louis Zoo has added three animal habitats, opening June 7. Purina Painted Dog Preserve features African wild dogs, known for their distinctive patterned coats. Sun Bear Forest provides a home for Malayan sun bears, the smallest bear species in the world. And Andean Bear Range features a little-known species from the mountains of South America. All three are at risk for extinction and will be part of the Zoo’s cooperative breeding program.
The real-life Captain Phillips, portrayed by Tom Hanks in the film of the same name, was keynote speaker at the recent AAIM Employers’ Association conference. Richard Phillips, the merchant mariner whose ship was held captive by Somali pirates in 2009, discussed lessons on leadership. Held at the St. Louis Airport Marriott, the event drew more than 570 business leaders. Other keynote speakers were William K. ‘Billy’ Busch, founder of the Kraftig beer line, and Gabe Lozano, co-founder/CEO of LockerDome, a social network with more than 20 million monthly users.
The Battlegrounds at Cedar Lake, a permanent mud run and obstacle course in Wright City, recently partnered with Barrel Aid to collect 350 pairs of shoes for underserved children in Haiti. Barrel Aid cleans the donated shoes and sends them to Haiti in barrels, which then are refitted to capture clean rain water for drinking and cooking. Unusable shoes are recycled by TerraCycle, which donates 10 cents to Mission Haiti for every 25 pounds received.
St. Louisan Brian Taylor Urruela was one of the war veterans featured on Coming Back with Les Moore, a recent three-part series on Nine Network of Public Media that showed the struggles faced by returning vets. The Rockwood Summit High School grad lost a leg in Iraq, but that hasn’t stopped him from training for a spot on the basketball team at the University of Tampa, where he’s now a freshman on the GI Bill. His father, Eric Urruela, lives in Washington, Mo.
The Pulitzer Arts Foundation, formerly The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, will temporarily close in late August for construction of two new galleries. The galleries, on the building’s lower level, will increase programmable space by nearly 50 percent. The expansion is the first major alteration to the Tadeo Ando-designed structure since it opened in 2001. The Pulitzer, located in Center, will reopen in May 2015.