The next meeting is Thursday, April 25th, 6:30p.
Meeting Location: South Conference Room at the HGMS Ed Center, 7901 Bailey Cove Road SE, Huntsville.
Welcome to April! We have a wonderful program for you this month. Dee and Mike will discuss minerals in the home – granite, marble, and quartzite – and how they are formed! Bill will present maps and compass. Angela will present this month’s birthstone – the diamond! And she has samples for take-home. It is going to be a “can’t miss” meeting!
We had a wonderful field trip today (Saturday, April 13th) to Wolde Flooring. Katie
Ziolkski hosted a very educational field trip through the “quarry” and the whole process from earth to our homes. She spoke on her entire stock of quartzite, marble, soapstone, granite and “man-made” stone, where each stone is mined and the journey from the earth to where the gigantic blocks are slabbed, polished, reinforced with a fiberglass backing, packed, shipped, received at the showroom, selected, cut, repolished (as needed) delivered and installed in your home.
This will satisfy the Future Rockhound Earth Resources Badge requirements for a field trip, minerals in the home and collecting everyday objects and the minerals that went into them.
We had five Pups attend this morning and everyone left with all of the different stone they wanted! Note that in the photo below the Pups are holding their prized collections! The Pups in attendance were (left to right) Eden, Tala, Lincoln, Lily, Mike, and Emmaus.
Note: Katie will host a repeat performance in two weeks on Saturday, April 27th. Again at 8:30AM and finishing before 10:00AM.
Thanks for all who participated today!
Your Pebble Pups Team – Mike, Angela, Dee, Theresa, Scott, and Bill
Meeting Schedule
We’ll meet at the Ed Center in the South Conference room every 4th Thursday through October 2024 with alternate dates for November and possibly December 2024. If you are half as excited as I am about Pup Power in 2024, I know that you will make every effort to attend every meeting and add to your mineral, gem and fossil collection!
About Pebble Pups
The Pebble Pups is a program for youngsters to learn more about the world around us, concentrating on rocks, minerals, fossils, and geology. We offer field trips, too. Interested children and grands of members, ages 8 to 18 years old are welcome to come join us to investigate and discover rocks, minerals, gems and fossils. For contact information, please email hsvgems@gmail.com.
More information about the Future Rockhounds of America program can be found at AFMS Juniors – FRA Badge Program (amfed.org).
Did You Know?
April: Diamond – The hardest gem of all is made of just one element – carbon. Diamond is valued for its colorless nature and purity, but pink, brown, and blue diamonds are also prized. Most diamonds are over a billion years old; formed deep within the earth. Source: 
