A Wish Come True

“My daughter is 10 years old. She has been obsessed with Elephants since she was very little. Her first stuffed animal was an elephant and her room is now covered in elephant pictures, animals, figurines, blankets, etc.

When she was just 5 years old, she woke up with 1/2 of her face, neck, and head swollen immensely. She spent 1 week in Children’s Hospital and they could not figure out what it was. Antibiotics decreased the inflammation, but it returned later. She has now had 4 surgeries to remove a cyst that continually grows. It was originally diagnosed as a Branchial Cleft Cyst, but now they have changed their diagnosis to Thyroglossal Duct Cyst. She will have surgery in the next few months to remove it again. This surgery is going to be much more detailed, with greater risks of consequences, including speech problems from the tongue nerve being affected. She has been really worried and stressed out about it since just before Christmas. I told my husband that I was going to find a place for her to ride an elephant, in hopes that she would at least temporarily forget about this stressful event. I checked all over the internet and found nothing about elephant rides.

Last week, I saw the ad for your Circus that was going to be near us. We had taken our 3 kids to the Barnum and Bailey Circus in last year and I was anxious to let her see elephants again. I asked a friend at work about the quality of these smaller traveling circus shows. She said that she always went as a child and really enjoyed them. She also mentioned that she did elephant rides while there.

When we got out of the car, she could only see the ponies and she was already excited. My other two children knew what was happening and they held her hands and covered her eyes until she was at the fence to the elephants. I’m sure you can imagine the look on her face! She was THRILLED! All 3 of them rode the elephant, Libby, at the same time. She was in total shock the whole time. I took over 100 pictures in that 7-8 minute ride and I cried the entire time. She has been talking about it ever since!
I just wanted to share this with you and THANK YOU for providing this, as it made life “complete” for my 10 year-old sweetheart. I promised to take her to your circus and back to ride the elephants next time it is near us.”

— S. Garcia