A MOMENT CAPTURED

Tiffany Brown, Las Vegas Sun

Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007 | 1:52 a.m.

Alongside a nearly 40-foot Christmas tree adorned with red lights fading to green, Tiinkerbell the Clown carefully draws a red spider web on the face of 8-year-old Zach Trone, transforming him carefully and meticulously into Spider-Man.

Zach, with his mom, Sara, and younger brother, Jake, happened upon Tiinkerbell while strolling in Town Square, the new retail center on Las Vegas Boulevard South, across from McCarran International Airport.

The Trones were there to shop; Tiinkerbell was there to, well, clown around. She is Alma Elizabeth Aragon Piedrabuena Herrera Mandei del la Cerda.

Born in Mexico, she began clowning 28 years ago. "I got dressed up because I wanted to give my daughter a surprise for her birthday, and I dressed up like a clown. But the surprise was for me because the kids started asking for me and I haven't stopped ever since," she said. "My daughter is married and I have grandkids - and I am still clowning around. I just love it. I don't take it like a job, I take it like a blessing. I feel like a woman that has her dreams come true."

She travels internationally clowning with various ministries and writes songs in Spanish and English for the children she meets around the world.

"I feel like this is me! I feel like I have found the reason why God brought me to this world. And these little ones keep me very young. I can play with the kids. I'm 62, but I feel young, young at heart."