2022 June Monthly Membership Luncheon

Join us on the 4th Thursday of every month for lunch and networking with fellow NKCBC members, as well as other North Kansas City business owners and representatives, community leaders, and elected officials.  In addition to lunch and networking, you will enjoy a presentation by our featured speaker. 

Our presentation this month will be, "The Kansas City Zoo and New Aquarium"  presented by Brian Stockinger, DVM, Associate Veterinarian of the Kansas City Zoo.  Brian will provide an overview of the zoo, it's history and development, and discuss recent changes and progress including the upcoming Aquarium set to open in 2023. 
 

Born and raised in New Jersey, Brian graduated from the University of Delaware with a major in Animal Science and minor in Wildlife Conservation. He then obtained his veterinary degree from Cornell University. Brian’s post-DVM training included a one-year rotating small animal internship at the Regional Veterinary Referral Center in Springfield, VA and a two-year zoological medicine internship at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha, NE. Upon completion of his time at Omaha he was hired as the solo Staff Veterinarian at the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend, IN where he worked for 14 months. Brian joined the Kansas City Zoo in 2012 as Associate Veterinarian and has remained in that position to date.

The Kansas City Zoo, a private non-profit organization, is operated in agreement with the Kansas City, MO, Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners, is partially funded by the Zoological District, and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.  Zoological District residents in Clay and Jackson counties receive four free visits a year, reduced daily admission and membership pricing, free Zoomobiles to schools or libraries, and free field trips.

In December 1909, the Kansas City Zoological Gardens officially opened with four lions, three monkeys, a wolf, a fox, a coyote, a badger, a lynx, an eagle, and other birds. Now a 202-acre nature sanctuary, with over 1700 animals, the Kansas City Zoo is the most accessible resource in the region for bringing urban and suburban families in touch with the diverse habitats, cultures, and animals of the natural world.
 
Over the past 20 years, the Kansas City Zoo has invested over $85 million in improvements and additions.  Currently the Zoo is embarking on its biggest project to date – the construction of a 600,000- gallon world-class Aquarium!  Scheduled to open in 2023, the Aquarium will dramatically enhance the visitors’ experience and open new pathways to ocean conservation, education, and research. For some, a visit to the aquarium may be their only experience with the ocean.