{"id":37217,"date":"2019-08-02T14:03:47","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T19:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=37217"},"modified":"2019-08-02T14:03:47","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T19:03:47","slug":"ravinia-festival-and-highland-park-charity-zacs-zoo-unite-to-provide-stuffed-animals-to-traumatized-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=37217","title":{"rendered":"RAVINIA FESTIVAL AND HIGHLAND PARK CHARITY ZAC’S ZOO UNITE TO PROVIDE STUFFED ANIMALS TO TRAUMATIZED CHILDREN"},"content":{"rendered":"

HIGHLAND PARK, IL<\/strong> \u2013 Zac Cohen of Highland Park was just 7 years old when he collected 10,000 new stuffed animals to send as comfort to the children devastated by loss in 2005\u2019s infamous Hurricane Katrina. Tragically, Cohen died last year in a motorcycle accident at age 20. His family started Zac\u2019s Zoo, in conjunction with local first responders, in his honor to collect new stuffed animals to give to children in trauma situations. Now Ravinia Festival has partnered with Zac\u2019s Zoo to be a collection point for the stuffed animals and to sell exclusive stuffed animals branded \u201cZac\u2019s Zoo at Ravinia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really wanted to memorialize the sweet and generous nature of Zac, who even as a child himself instinctively understood that kids going through a bad time needed to gravitate to something familiar and comforting. We started this charity to replicate the kindness he showed as a boy so that his generous spirit could continue to do good,\u201d said his mother, Ellen Cohen, who founded Zac\u2019s Zoo. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t believe the immediate acceptance and empathy we received from Ravinia, and we are beyond grateful for this partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exclusive stuffed animals come in two styles, a panda bear and a floppy-eared puppy, both dressed in a T-shirt bearing the \u201cZac\u2019s Zoo at Ravinia\u201d logo. The animals are sold in pairs, so that the customer keeps one of the animals and the other is donated to Zac\u2019s Zoo, to be distributed through local first responders who are meeting children in scary situations, such as riding in an ambulance or testifying in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, children must brave through all kinds of alarming events that even most adults aren\u2019t prepared to handle, and we\u2019ve learned that presenting them with a stuffed animal restores some sense of calm and diminishes the fear they may have of the first responders who are there to help,\u201d said Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering. \u201cI was happy to introduce Zac\u2019s Zoo and Ravinia and gratified that they quickly established this altruistic partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mix-and-match pair of stuffed animals is available at Ravinia\u2019s Festival Shop, while supplies last, through September 15. The cost is $25 for two animals\u2014$18 of which covers the cost of production of the animals, with the remaining $7 going to the Ravinia Women\u2019s Board in support of the not-for-profit festival\u2019s Reach Teach Play education programs. Reach Teach Play serves 85,000 people each year through such programs as Sistema Ravinia, which starts student orchestras by providing curriculum, teachers, and instruments for elementary schools with no music programs of their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hearts go out to the Cohen family, but we\u2019re all impressed and encouraged by the way they\u2019ve channeled their grief into this positive remembrance of Zac to continue this young man\u2019s mission of helping children through tragedy,\u201d said Marilyn Vender, Chairman of the Ravinia Women\u2019s Board. \u201cWe have a similar mission of brightening the lives of young people through music, so we are very proud to be able to help Zac\u2019s Zoo.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the animals for sale at the Festival Shop, volunteers will collect new-with-tags stuffed animals for redistribution at the Ravinia Festival information booth in the Martin Theatre Plaza, just inside the main entrance, at the following concerts: Pentatonix, Aug. 15; Laurie Berkner, Aug. 17; and the daylong Fiesta Ravinia, featuring a live orchestra playing the score to Coco as the family classic is shown on screens in the Pavilion and on the Lawn, Sept. 15.<\/p>\n

People can also donate their new-with-tags stuffed animals to Zac\u2019s Zoo at City Hall, 1707 St. Johns Ave.; Highland Park Fire Department, 1130 Central Ave.; Highland Park Police Department, 1677 Old Deerfield Rd.; Sunset Foods, 1812 Green Bay Rd.; Beanstalk, 654 Central Ave.; and Ross Cosmetics, 625 Central Ave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HIGHLAND PARK, IL \u2013 Zac Cohen of Highland Park was just 7 years old when he collected 10,000 new stuffed animals to send as comfort to the children devastated by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,40,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-news","category-breaking-news","category-this-just-in"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}