SAN ANTONIO – A western lowland gorilla\u2019s birthday is turning into a community celebration that reaches beyond the San Antonio Zoo\u2019s gates and into a local children\u2019s hospital.<\/p>\n
San Antonio Zoo and Methodist Children\u2019s Hospital are teaming up to celebrate Ajari\u2019s 26th birthday with a Halloween-themed event Friday, Oct. 30, at Congo Falls. This month, patients at Methodist Children\u2019s Hospital and their families helped prepare for the celebration by creating handmade decorations for Ajari.<\/p>\n
Patients and loved ones decorated festive birthday bags that will be used as enrichment items during the celebration. The decorations also include a paper chain featuring the names of the children and hospital staff who took part.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrafts are very beneficial for our patients because they provide a sense of normalcy in an unfamiliar setting. They can provide a distraction during a difficult time and serve as a moment of fun when other times of the day can be scary or painful or full of things they don\u2019t want to do. It gives them freedom of choice and expression,\u201d said Katelyn Kane, a child life specialist at Methodist Children\u2019s Hospital. \u201cHaving collaborations with partners like San Antonio Zoo is helpful to give us new, exciting, and purposeful projects for the kiddos to enjoy or engage in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zoo officials said the project is part of an effort to bring wildlife-related experiences to children and families across San Antonio, including those who may not be able to visit in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cSan Antonio Zoo has always been a place where families come together to make memories, and we believe every child deserves the opportunity to experience that joy, whether they’re visiting us at the zoo or spending time in the hospital,\u201d said Tim Morrow, president and CEO of San Antonio Zoo. \u201cWe’re incredibly proud to work with Methodist Children’s Hospital to bring a little bit of the zoo to these amazing kids and their families. Knowing they helped make Ajari’s birthday special makes this celebration even more meaningful, and we hope it brings plenty of smiles along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The zoo said the birthday project builds on a growing collaboration with Methodist Healthcare that has included visits from zoo animal ambassadors and the zoo\u2019s mascot, Cowboy the Rhino, to hospitals across Methodist Healthcare, along with the Methodist Healthcare Health Walk at the zoo.<\/p>\n
The community is invited to attend Ajari\u2019s birthday celebration Thursday, Oct. 29, at 10 a.m. at the Lowland Basin habitat in Congo Falls. The zoo said the event will include Halloween-themed enrichment featuring the decorations created by patients and families at Methodist Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n
More information about the zoo is available at www.sazoo.org. More information about Methodist Children\u2019s Hospital is available at www.SAHealth.com\/childrens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO – A western lowland gorilla\u2019s birthday is turning into a community celebration that reaches beyond the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-479151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}