Young sisters set up sloth fundraiser for East Sussex zoo on their doorstep
The young girls raised more than £100 to support sloths in the wild
Two young sisters opened a hot chocolate stand on their doorstep to raise money for sloths in the wild – just in time for International Sloth Day (20th October).
Jola and Sylvia Larribeau Wave, aged 10 and seven years old, wanted to raise money for Drusillas Zoo Park's charity of the year The Sloth Conservation Foundations (SloCo).
SloCo was founded in 2016 by sloth researcher Dr Rebecca Cliffe and aims to protect sloths in the wild through research and conservation initiatives.
As SloCo put it, its mission is to 'save the world's slowest mammal in a quickly changing world'.
As sloths are Jola’s favourite animal, the enterprising sisters decided to sell hot chocolate from their front doorstep and made their own posters that they put up in the local area to advertise the fundraiser.
"The first day of fundraising was not very successful, but the next day we made over £100! We also had to go to the shop and get more chocolate powder because we ran out," Jola said.
"I came up with the idea because my friend had recently run a stall to raise money for Raystede and that inspired me to want to raise money for SloCo," she continued.
"I love sloths because they are calm, sleepy and a lot of the time look like they are smiling."
Jola and Sylvie raised £128 altogether, donating the funds and letting the Park know what they had been up to when they visited Drusillas for Jola’s long-awaited sloth encounter.
Drusillas’ resident sloth expert and Zoo Animal Manager, Mark Kenward, praised the girls’ efforts: "It fills my heart with joy to hear of such young sloth enthusiasts! What great initiative and generosity they have shown, thank you!
"I may be biased, but there’s no creature quite like the sloth and the tropical rainforests they are so well adapted to survive in are decreasing in size every day, so SloCo’s work is vital to keeping them alive in the wild – any money we can raise for them will help their mission."
To celebrate International Sloth Day today, Mark will be giving a sloth talk on Drusillas' social media joined by Flash - the Linne's two-toed sloth he hand-reared at the Zoo in 2016.
Drusillas and SloCo will be sharing a live Q&A on their social platforms about sloth conservation.
The Park will also be giving away a sloth bundle of goodies including toys, tickets, merchandise, sloth artwork, and a VIP sloth adoption this week!
Sloth close encounters are one of Drusillas' most popular experiences, with places booked up well into 2022.
"The sloth encounter was amazing; my favourite part was feeding Helena and Sophocles. Next, me and my sister Sylvie are going to raise money for the lemurs at Drusillas," Jola said after her close encounter with sloths at the Zoo.