PELHAM, N.H. — In 2003, then 7-year-old Autumn Faucher saw a news report about Beau, a Masai giraffe with a life-threatening disease. She told her parents she was going to save Beau.
A resident of Boston's Franklin Park Zoo, Beau was diagnosed with giraffe wasting syndrome, which caused him to lose hundreds of pounds. He was expected to die.
But Autumn, now 13, was determined to save him, and she launched a barrage of fundraisers, raising more than $30,000 over the past five years. She helped Beau celebrate his 10th birthday last month.
The veterinarians and zookeepers devised a unique program to care for Beau, paid for, in large part, by the money raised by Autumn. The program included medicine and tree branches shipped from Florida.
Beau "looks like the picture of health today," said John Linehan, the zoo's president.
By contrast, the first year Beau battled the disease, "he was literally on death's doorstep," Linehan said. "He could barely support himself. He had lost 600 pounds."
Autumn raised money through recyclable can collections, with a canister at her parents' convenience store in Dracut, Mass., and a Web site on Zoo New England's Web page, Autumn's Giraffe Fund.
When Beau — who stands 18 feet tall and now weighs 2,600 pounds — celebrated his 10th birthday Sept. 21, Autumn was a guest of honor. She fed Beau a large helping of butternut squash, his favorite food. She also presented another check to Linehan, this one for $1,000.
"Beyond the money she has raised directly, Autumn has been an incredible inspiration to others," Linehan said. "She has served almost like a beacon to hundreds of others who have become donors because of her."
Autumn simply says she wanted to make sure Beau would live as normal a life as possible. "I just love giraffes," said Autumn, an eighth-grade honors student at Pelham Memorial School. "I wanted to help him because he needed help."
Her bedroom overflows with giraffes — piles of stuffed animals, including one that's 5 feet tall, drawings, T-shirts, even slippers.
But Beau is the star. Not only is he the picture of health today, he has outlived all other giraffes with the same disease, Linehan said. Before Beau, the longest-living giraffe with the same disease had lived to be just 18 months old, Linehan said.
He fathered two calves, Sox in 2004, Autumn in 2006.
Autumn's parents, Charlene and Paul Faucher, are proud of their daughter. Her mother said there is a strong connection between Beau and her daughter.
"Beau was born on the first day of autumn and my daughter's name is Autumn," Charlene Faucher said. "We all laughed about it, but that's what everybody says brought them together."
