Ernie’s Journal

With his own voice and through his own eyes, Ernie the Donkey tells of a lifetime of wonder and service. He was born on a farm in Onondaga County, spent a short youth as a barnyard animal of the old Syracuse Zoo, and then was sent to a horse pasture with 40 other animals. The Youth Group of Plymouth Church found him there, borrowing him each year for a Palm Sunday walk in downtown Syracuse. When they learned he was to be sold, they raised the money and bought him. One church family was convinced to keep him in a pasture across from their LaFayette home. The rest is history. Ernie spent a long career appearing in Palm Sunday walks, Christmas tree lighting ceremonies and live Nativities, and in the neighborhood "Posada," a tradition learned from the villages of Nicaragua. He lived to a ripe old age of 38, as far as we can count.