Leaping Llamas! We Couldn’t Have Done It Without You
Llamas actually do love to outclimb each other! Our deepest thanks to Dr. Roger Ellis for educating us all on what Heifer International is doing to help families in need across the world through their gifts of animals. I cannot imagine having to decide which was more valuable - the life of a child or the life of a water buffalo if you only had enough medicine to save one.
Sometimes we need someone like Dr. Ellis to remind us how very blessed we are and how much we have to share with others. Thanks to all of you for embracing our “Buying a Llama” project with such compassion. An extra thanks to Calvin for his creatively artistic Heifer bulletin board, to Scott who spent days creating our adorable origami llamas, and to Joanna who drew our fabulously handsome llama that we covered with cotton balls representing donations. Your enthusiastic help has made the “Buying the Llama” project a special event and a huge success!
Why buy a llama? At home in rough, mountainous areas of Latin America, llamas and their kin, the alpaca, are a blessing to families living high above sea level. Not only are llamas remarkably disease-resistant and require little care, but also they are capable of carrying small loads for long distances over rugged slopes at high altitudes. Llamas eat the native scrub vegetation that other domesticated animals will not eat. Llamas and alpacas provide Heifer families with invaluable sources of transportation and income from the sale of wool, which is prized for making blankets, ponchos, carpet, and rope.