Welcome to our Events Page!

Our Upcoming Events
Visit the volunteers section if you
would like to help at any of these events.

Monthly Board Meeting - December 11th

Take Wing Thanksgiving Event - December 11th

Breast Cancer Walk - November 21st

YMCA Thanksgiving Dinner - November 21st

Make a Wish Anniversary Party - December 2nd

Balboa Park Holiday Carnival - December 6th

YWCA Christmas Party - December 24th

Notes From Previous Events
We do about 45 events a year.
Here are notes from a representative
sample or out past events.

Make a Wish Halloween Party
Our animals did double duty at the event. SB started out as Mama Bear and later transformed into Pooh Bear. Katie (Gail’s godchild) was the Chicken, and Pete was our Rabbit. Bruce began the day as Papa Bear and later in the day transformed into Pooh Bear for an outside activity. Mary Ellen started the event as Stripes and ended the event as our loveable Teletubby, Po. Helping on the floor whenever and wherever they were needed were Gail and Lorraine. Also attending the party were Carlee, Gail’s granddaughter, and Deryk, Lorraine’s son. Dave was our photographer and Lynn and Jerry made the buttons.

America's Walk For Diabetes
This event was short and sweet... Jerry Lynn and Phyllis made about 70 buttons of memories that the people will cherish for years... Shirley was a master with her handcraft at face painting... There were many happy painted faces... Dave donned the Pooh costume in which he posed for several pictures with many happy families.. One can not get enough of Winnie the Pooh Bear... Jodie and Patty were Papa and Moma Bear respectively.. They hugged quite a few small children and posed for a few pictures themselves.. One small child particularly wore a big smile around these two bears... It was hard to leave his happy face, beaming eyes, and ear to ear smile... SB was an animal trainer.. Frank and Honey made a guest appearance in the beginning to ensure all was well and Bruce came in on the end to facilitate a proper closure with his big smile and kind heart.. Yep, another wonderful event.. We were all well received and will be asked to come again.. Thanks Big Animals ya done did good!

Foster Care Event at Admiral Baker Field
The S.D. Foster Kids event on Oct. 16th at Admiral Baker Park was fantastic! The kids and parents just had a ball with all of us. I don't know who had more fun doing the Freeze dance. Kids? Animals? or Frank leading it? He was so great as always with everyone. Pete our Rabbit had a fun time dancing and peeking out behind all the trees at the kids. He's such a natural! A special thanks to Franks friend Terry who got to join us for the first time being our Pooh along with Mary Ellen as Stripes and Scott as Poe. They brought so much joy to all. Grossmont College donated all the film for this event which we're so grateful for. We had Trish & Casper join us for the first time also. Trish teamed up with Phyllis and Jerry as the photographer for the button making. Casper teamed with Shirley for face painting. They were such great assets to our teams. A special thanks for all your hard work Jody helping me get everything set up to keep our Animals dry in the rain and to Shirley for picking up all the costumes and tent. Home Town Buffet supplied lunch for all. Yum! Yum! We ended the event with our Animals leading the kids in a parade all around the park. A fun time was had by all! Thanks Jerry for coordinating this event. I'm so glad I got to be your back up making it all happen for these kids and their families.

5th Anniversary Fundraiser and Beach Party
we celebrated five years of making a difference in peoples lives! There was great music, lots of food, and a raffle for some fabulous prizes! Click here to see all of the fun photos!

March of Dimes
The March of Dimes event began early on Saturday, April 30th. We had eleven volunteers. Dave and SB took pictures while Phyllis and Jerry transformed the pictures into buttons. Mary put tattoos on the kids and Shirley painted their faces. Greg was Po, our Teletubby, Samantha was Stripes, Mary Ellen was Pooh, and Carlos was our Papa Bear. Lynn kept the cameras loaded and did whatever needed to be done. Several groups participated in the March of Dimes walk and each group designed their own T-shirts. The staff from the March of Dimes asked that our "animals" be the judges for the T-Shirt contest. Our "animals" gladly obliged and sat in front of the stage as ten groups modeled their T-Shirts. The Correia Crew (a family) took third place, K-Mart took second place and first place went to Paradise Valley Hospital. We all had a wonderful time and the kids did too. And a "thank you" goes to the March of Dimes for all they do to help bring healthy babies into this world.

Joan Kroc Village
There were 10 new volunteers. Shirley was tireless as the face painter. Francisco’s mom helped out with balloons. Mitch’s sister came all the way from Maine to be Mama Bear. (However, she forgot to bring along Papa Bear and Baby Bear.) There were 170 homeless people at the event.

Balboa Hospital Visit with Make a Wish Foundation
SB, Pete, Maria, Gail and Frank visited the kids at Balboa Hospital. There were about 15 children in various stages of recovery in the pediatric ward. We put a lot of smiles on kids faces.

Kaiser Hospital Visit with Make a Wish Foundation
This was our first hospital visit with the folks from Make a Wish. The program is called "Smilemakers", and the animals walked around the pediatric ward accompanied by the wonderful folks from Make a Wish. We visited with children from the age of 3 to 16. One young man was getting prepped for surgery and was a little worried, but a few magic tricks put a smile on his face. We were thrilled to be allowed to go into the neo-natal ward. We visited with families and their newborn babies. The newborns didn't even know we were there, but the brothers and sisters really enjoyed the animals.

Toys For Tijuana
The Big Animals were invited to participate in this year's Toys For Tijuana event. This is an incredible event and the animals provided entertainment for over 3000 underprivileged children. To read more about this amazing day click here. To view the photos from the event click here.

San Diego YWCA
The Xmas Eve event at the YWCA Family Shelter was a huge success! Twenty six teenagers from the San Pascal Academy dressed in the animal costumes,painted faces, and put temporary tattoos on the children at the center. We had a TRUCKLOAD of toys and gifts. You guys did an awesome job of collecting toys! Lorraine's kids asked their friends at school for toys and the response was large, and the school would like to make a toy collection for us next year, too. Thanks to all of you who collected toys, especially Jody, Mitch, Lynn and Dave, Gail, Randy and Donna, and Misty Douglas for their efforts. Santa Claus was busy giving out toys for well over an hour, most kids got 3 toys each time they saw Santa, and some of them returned again and again and again. Santa was played by our Big Animal Benefactor from Brooklyn, and he had a great time, too.

Take Wing
We made our 4th annual trip to Take Wing and they are looking forward to our return next year. Bruce put on the Pooh costume and Pete was, of course, our “wabbit”. Jody and Gail were our animal trainers. Jerry took the pictures while Lynn and Phyllis made the buttons. Dave came along too, but due to limited space did not get into costume. He “babysat” our belongings in the changing room. The buttons were something new for Take Wing and they went over really well. I think we made about 60 buttons. All we know is that Phyllis was really kept busy. We had some guests join us too. Jody, please pass on to Casper our appreciation for his face-painting. And Pete, please pass on our appreciation to Abby and Chelsea. It was great to meet them and wonderful to have them participate in our event.

Child Help Village
The Big Animals made another trip up to Beaumont, CA to do an event for the children at Child Help Village. Pooh Bear was there, Tigger the Tiger was there as well as Katie the Kitty-Kat. The kids were so sweet! They remember the animals from the last visits and asked for their favorites. Poor Tigger got so dizzy spinning kids around, he could hardly keep his feet.