Animal Adventure Park, the home of world-famous giraffes April, Oliver and Tajiri, will host the third annual Ava\u2019s Little Heroes benefit on Sunday, Aug. 19. <\/p>\n
Ava\u2019s Little Heroes, an annual event at Animal Adventure Park, was inspired by the support offered to park owners Jordan and Colleen Patch in 2016, when their infant daughter Ava suffered complications from brain surgery. <\/p>\n
An eleven-day intensive care stay, plagued by uncontrollable seizures and fevers, prompted a new diagnosis \u2013 Ava had a rare form of Epilepsy called Aicardi Syndrome. She endured daily seizures that hindered her development until a successful, life-changing surgery in October 2017. <\/p>\n
Ava has been seizure-free ever since, and making incredible progress. She will always be Colleen and Jordan\u2019s little superhero.<\/p>\n
The support from around the community throughout Ava\u2019s tumultuous health journey flooded the hearts of the Patches. They\u2019ve decided to pay it forward by holding an annual event in their daughter\u2019s name to raise awareness and funds for selected local children battling serious medical issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo words will ever be enough to thank this community enough for the kindness and generosity they showed my wife and I when our Ava needed it most. It\u2019s our hope that the families we\u2019ve selected this year will feel that same level of love and support,\u201d Jordan Patch, owner of Animal Adventure Park, said. <\/p>\n
Four children have been selected to benefit from this year\u2019s event. <\/p>\n
The 2017 Ava\u2019s Little Heroes benefit was a tremendous success, raising more than $42,000, which benefited several children. Those funds aided five families at the time of the event, and four emergency situations after the event.<\/p>\n
The 2018 Ava\u2019s Little Heroes event will run from 9:45 a.m. to 3 p.m., and will be filled with fun for the whole family. Proceeds from all fundraising opportunities and 50 percent of every admission on Sunday will be donated to the cause. Guests are encouraged to dress-up and explore the park as their favorite heroes. <\/p>\n
Animal Adventure Park would like to thank the many generous local businesses who have donated their time and services to make this fundraising effort a success, including UHS, who is a major sponsor of Ava\u2019s Little Heroes 2018. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Animal Adventure Park, the home of world-famous giraffes April, Oliver and Tajiri, will host the third annual Ava\u2019s Little Heroes benefit on Sunday, Aug. 19. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":67342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whats-happening"],"yoast_head":"\n