PEMBROKE – River Milena Chavis is getting two new ears.

The 6-year-old from Pembroke, who has a twin sister, was born with a condition called microtia of the ear.

This congenital deformity can range from minor structural issues to the complete absence of the external ear. Those who have microtia may or may not have accompanying hearing loss.

In her case, River cannot hear.

The child is severely deaf.

“She’s excited about getting a new set of ears,” her mother said Thursday.

River’s twin sister, Ivory Sage, is fine, said their mother, Miranda Chavis. There is nothing wrong with her.

“During pregnancy, everything was OK. When I gave birth to her,” she said of River, “they rushed her in the back. She was born with microtia of the ears where the ears didn’t develop fully. She has the hole – which is like the hole in the ear – she has that. But inside your anatomy – where that hole goes to your brain so me and you can hear – somewhere between her anatomy is closed, and man can never change your anatomy. It is what it is.”

When the twins were born, Ivory weighed 11 pounds; River came into this world at 4 pounds, 11 ounces.

“When she was coming up, I always told her she was beautiful,” Miranda Chavis said. “She doesn’t let it bother her. She even glued earrings on her ears. I said, ‘You go girl!’ She has good self-esteem about her appearance.

River, who tends to stay to herself, is a very quiet little girl, her mother said. “Very smart. She’s a very lovable child who loves mermaids and Barbie dolls.

“She’s a mama’s girl. She’s a shadow,” Chavis said with a laugh.

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“She’s very excited about the event,” she said.

“The event,” as Chavis put it, is planned for Feb. 2. That’s when a live pro wrestling match – “Wrestling With a Purpose” – is scheduled for Pembroke Elementary School as a fundraiser to help cover River’s mounting medical expenses.

“Roar for River,” it’s being called.

A pre-show match and a half-dozen actual wrestling matches are scheduled. Featured wrestlers will be “Pembroke Pitbull” Baron Bullard, George South, Tre G, Johnny Smooth and Chief Red Thunder.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and bell time is set for 7:15 p.m.

Admission is $10 with children ages 5 and under admitted free.

Food and refreshments, including the ever-popular Robeson County chicken bog, pizza, hot dogs, nachos, chips and soda will be sold during the benefit. Homemade cake, too, is going to be available.

“I am looking at a good crowd,” the 43-year-old Chavis said of the upcoming fundraiser. “We were going to have it at the (Pembroke Rescue Squad). My principal and the teachers just love River. The school’s nickname is the Bumblebees. They said she’s one of the Bumblebees, and we’re having it at our school. I’m looking for a big event there.”

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Lumberton Children’s Clinic is where River goes for such pediatric visits as her shots and wellness checking. But all her neurologists, kidney, lungs, audiologists, speech, throat doctors – everyone is in Chapel Hill, she said. Those medical visits and the surgeries prompted her to make the decision to resign from her job at Unilever in Raeford and focus on her child’s needs.

“So, these surgeries – she’s already got the Cochlear implants. She may have had that done two years ago,” Chavis said. “The older my daughter got, the more technology (has improved). She’s got two hearing devices.Every two months she has to go and get these devices checked up and rebooted. So I had to constantly go back and forth, back and forth.”

Cochlear implants are small electronic devices that allow people with severe to profound hearing loss to hear sounds.They help people to understand speech with less reliance on lip reading and to perceive sounds, online accounts state.

Chavis bought a utility trailer and a metal barn that she installed in her home. She started selling items. She likened it to a little thrift store in her house where she refills items on occasion.

“I quit my job for my daughter. I had to think about how and what would make money,” she said.

So, for nearly two years now, Chavis has been holding yard sales during the summertime. The winter, she said, is too cold to do it.

“I knew by the age of 7, surgeries would take place,” she said of her daughter’s medical schedule. “I knew I needed some help.”

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That help has come from 38-year-old Baron Bullard, who lives in the Union Chapel area of Pembroke and works in security for the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. A pro wrestler, Bullard is the man and the mind behind Wrestling With a Purpose.

Bullard said he has been wrestling for more than two decades all over the country. This has included appearances on “Midnight Mayhem” on the CW television network.

In 2017, he said he was born again and started up the fund-raising company, Wrestling With a Purpose. Since then, he has promoted and wrestled on behalf of, among others, school athletic departments, the Special Olympics and families in emergency need of help.

“He makes no money off this,” Chavis said. “He has sponsorships. Everything from the event goes to the family. I have been to three of his shows since I met him. His father introduced him to me. I have seen over 25 wrestlers at a show. It’s nonprofit, but they have sponsorships. Lots of places sponsor this gentleman.”

Bullard promotes himself as “God’s Favorite Wrestler,” “The Last King” and “The Pembroke Pitbull,” the last moniker he earned during a CW match. After all, we’re talking cartoonish, larger-than-life pro wrestling.

“I didn’t even know about her situation,” he said of Miranda Chavis and River. “My dad was talking to her when she had a yard sale set up. He gave me her number. I called her, and she told me her story. That’s what I do.

“I ain’t the smartest; I ain’t the best looking. But I can get beat up pretty good and help others at the same time,” Bullard said. “I guess that’s the gift God gave me.”

A week before Thanksgiving, Chavis met with six doctors in Chapel Hill. They had to make sure everything “was legit” for River to have the surgeries. Since she already has the Cochlear implant, the physicians will do a 3D image ear.

River also has a Cochlear Baha system device — which is defined as a unique, bone-anchored hearing solution that treats hearing loss.

After the next two scheduled micro surgeries on her ears in Chapel Hill, River will go home and recuperate from the 3D ear attachments.

The family is awaiting a call from “a candidate,” a specialty doctor and what Chavis calls “a perfect doctor,” who must not “mess up the Cochlear” that’s embedded in her skull.” It’s a tricky operation, but River is all in..

“She barely has any ears,” her mother said. “They’re going to give her a full set of ears.”