About

Hi, my name is Terri Heffernan, CYW & RSW.

I am a Child and Youth Worker (CYW) currently working for a School Board as an Educational Assistant (EA).

How it all started

My husband and I lost our son Chad in January 2020 to a tragic car accident, he was 27 yrs old. After he passed, my husband and I continued to raise his son, our grandson, Lyland. We also have a beautiful granddaughter named Peyton who lives with her mother. Their names are where the L & P come from in the name. Both children were very young when Chad passed, Lyland, 2.5 yrs old and Peyton, 6 months old. While home working through our grief (and still do to this day), we took a trip out west just to take a moment to breath in the fresh air and find calm in the mountains. Chad always loved living in Alberta and was out there for a year. I thought by taking the trip I/we would feel closer to him. I wanted to show our grandson the place his dad loved and the places that he had been while there. We stayed in Banff for a few days and did all there was to do there. One of his favourite things was to travel up the gondola and have dinner on the mountain. The Cave and Basin was a lot fun and very informative. It was peaceful to sit at Bow River and listen to Mother Earth and admire her scenery. We went to the Jasper Ice Fields, the Hoodoo’s, and the Edmonton Mall. Lyland had an incredible time! While on our travels to the Hoodoo’s, we stopped at all the local attractions and we did many things the locals had to offer. The big ones that stick out are; The Tyrell Museum (which Lyland loved) and The Gigantic Dinosaur and Fossil World. While at Fossil World, Lyland mined for minerals and did an archeological dig for kids. I watched my grandsons eyes light up and he got right in there. He listened to every word the young lady was telling him as they looked for dinosaur bones. I began thinking "how can I bring this back to Ontario so my grandson can experience this kind of excitement all the time?" And that is how Fossil Adventure Discovery Dig (FADD) was born.

When coming up with the concept of this new adventure we knew we needed to make it COVID friendly. Due to these unprecedented times, we wanted to make sure children and families were safe while engaging in our fossil dig experience. This is where the individual kits came from. As a mother, grandmother, and consumer, I wanted to offer something others didn’t. I always struggled getting so many helium balloons in my car and thought "that’s what we will do, be a one stop shop." We decided we would also offer a balloon service and it spiraled from there. Now we bring chairs, tables, outdoor tents (if requested), at no extra charge and offer balloons for an extra fee.

That’s when L & P’s Balloon Treasure & Engraving & Fossil Adventure Discovery Dig (FADD) were born. We wanted to offer our customers a unique way to wrap a gift in one of our Stuffed Balloons and offer custom engraving to go with that unique gift. Also, we wanted to create a safe learning environment for families to discover, grow together, and share memories for a lifetime.

In Loving Memory,

This is our son Chad