VOA · Arts & Culture
Intermediate · B1–B2learner speed4:402025-03-06public domain
The Arts & Culture beat covers music, film, museums, food, and traditions from the United States and around the world. The reports are short, vivid, and full of everyday descriptive language — great for learners who want vocabulary beyond textbooks.
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01A llama at a North Carolina recreational camp for sick children has been declared the world's oldest llama in captivity.
02His name is White Top, and he is 27 years old.
03The Guinness World Records declared him the oldest following the death of the llama called Dalai Lama.
04Dalai lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and had been declared oldest shortly after his 27th birthday in 2023.
05White Top was donated to the Victory Junction camp in 2006, just two years after race car driver Kyle Petty and his family opened the camp.
06Victory Junction was established in honor of Petty's son, Adam, who died in 2000 at just 19 years old.
07He was killed in a car crash while training for a race.
08The camp sits on 34 hectares in the Petty family's hometown of Randleman, North Carolina.
09It is designed for children with conditions that include cancer, kidney and heart disease, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, and other neurological and physical disabilities.
10Their attendance at the camp is free of cost.
11White Top has become known there for his easy, sweet, and loving way.
12He lies still while campers pet him, which can comfort children.
13The activity provides the young people with important sensory experience, said Billy Davis, the camp's barn director.
14White Top really gets to help campers come out of their shell, she said.
15He can be kind of intimidating at first, but once they come over to him and love on him and pet on him, they just realize how sweet he is.
16White Top likes to roll in fresh wood chips, eat wet alfalfa, and pose for selfies.
17If you try to take a picture of him from the side, he's not into it, Davis said.
18Davis credits White Top's long life to great medical care and exercise, as well as simply loving his job.
19The Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance says llamas live an average of 15 years.
20White Top has developed the disease arthritis, but otherwise is very healthy, said Davis.
21The only time the llama seems unhappy is when he is left alone by his friends, Gus Gus, a small cow, and Jed and Jethro, two small donkeys.
22Thirty-three-year-old Stephanie Wilkerson first went to the camp's family weekend event in 2006, after she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
23She was a little nervous around White Top at first, but, she said, she soon realized petting him and giving him hugs made her feel better.
24With White Top's new fame, the camp has started selling clothing covered in images of White Top wearing sunglasses.
25All the money made from sales goes to supporting the camp.
26I'm Katie Weaver.
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