Flanked by more than a hundred people clapping at a fundraising event Saturday for Devin Funck, the 11-year-old stood in the center of a semi circle and looked down to the ground.

The media attention — including national coverage on the “Early Show” on CBS of Devin’s alligator attack this summer that left him with one arm — seemed to be overwhelming. Not true, his mother Kim said.

“He’s just tired,” she said later, dismissing notions that he was wary of the accolades. “The attention? He loves it. He’s just a ham. But he’s been working at this event for two days. He’s exhausted.”

Devin Funck with a clown at his fundraiser Saturday. (Staff Photo by Matthew Penix)

The event, dubbed “The Living Legend” fundraiser, complete with a clown, auction, live band and vintage car show at the Northshore Harbor Center near Slidell, raised $18,000 to offset costs for Devin’s prosthetic arms.

One arm costs between $6,000 for the basic model and more than $100,000 for advanced versions, his mother Kim said. Devin will have to be outfitted once to twice a year because he’s still growing, she said.

Devin barely escaped alive during the tragedy July 30 when an 11-foot, 500-pound alligator attacked him as he swam in a pond near his Slidell home. Devin pounded the alligator, nicknamed “big Ben” by the locals, on its nose and eventually broke free to stumble to shore and collapse.

He was rushed to Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans for treatment and later, when authorities caught, killed and sliced open the alligator to rescue the arm, doctors couldn’t reattach it.

He was permanently disabled, the doctors told Kim.

But in the months since the attack, Devin has remained optimistic. He still spends his days playing the video game RuneScape on his computer and is looking forward to returning to school around Christmas, his mother said.

On Saturday, he also showed no signs of slowing down. While the band Animal Crackers jammed rock songs and others bid on artwork, including many pieces depicting alligators, Devin darted in and around the crowd, playing with friends who rode to the event on bikes and posing for pictures with well wishers.

Like a rock star at his own party, he was hard to track down.

Then Jesse Motes stopped him.

Motes, a Slidell native, lost his arm in a conveyer belt accident in 1967. He thought his life was over. He worried he’d never fish or hunt again. He worried his days of employment were behind him.

Then he mustered up the courage to survive, and for 21 years he worked for a concrete company and devised new ways to fish with one arm.

Motes attended the event alone. His one mission was to find Devin and offer advice.

“Right now, he’s got all the potential to do whatever he wants if he wants it bad enough,” Motes said. “I thought he could take advice from someone like me.”

It seems Devin did take advice, at least for a few moments when he settled down. The two posed for a picture, and Motes said, “Keep your head up.”

Devin nodded and then rushed off again, promising to return soon.

It was his time to give away plaques, 47 in all, to emergency personnel who helped saved his life, including one to Ben Godwin, a St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office deputy who carried Devin a half mile to safety before collapsing in exhaustion.

One by one, as Devin handed out the plaques, Kim started to cry.

“It’s indescribable how people came here,” she said. “Is this real? Does this really happen?”

Cory Dunn, the event’s founder and emcee, also shed a tear. He placed the microphone behind his back to mask his voice.

“I can’t imagine what it was like,” Dunn said later. “If that would have happened to me, at 34, I probably would have froze and drowned. He’s had his moments of frustration obviously, but putting this event together, to have everyone here tell him how brave and great he is, it helps him emotionally.”

Dunn is facing his own personal tragedy. His daughter Alissa, 11, has a heart condition that nearly killed her.

Doctors said she had an 80 percent chance of living, but after surgery she survived and now Dunn is flying to Phoenix to be by her side during another surgery.

“I’ve been there,” he said. “I’ve gotten that phone call. I know how his parents felt. I know what its like to be helpless.”

With that notion, Dunn organized the event, complete with a vintage car show, auction and live band, the Animal Crackers, dressed in Halloween costumes playing rock classics. The radio station 94.7 also broadcast live from the event.

Sen. A.G. Crowe of Slidell also spent part of his Senate salary to rent the center.

“It wasn’t that long ago that this event happened,” Crowe said. “It’s going to be a long, long road ahead for Devin, and we’re going to be behind him all the way.”

Indeed, the community lent a hand. Kaye Daniels, an area orthodontist, donated free braces if he ever needs them. Community groups gathered more than $1,500 in donations, and Instagator Ranch, an alligator farm, offered a lifetime membership.

Will he go? His family isn’t sure yet, but they don’t seem to have any hard feelings to the wild reptiles.

Kim bid on three art pieces during the auction, all of which depicted alligators. She focused on one picture of an alligator with a “bum eye,” she said.

“Our whole house is alligators now,” she said, smiling. “We used to collect reptiles, but now it’s alligators after (Devin’s tragedy).”

With that she stuck her number in the air, increasing the bid for the picture. Then she ducked behind the person in front of her and giggled.

“One more (bid) to go,” she said as Devin ran up to her, smiled, then darted away again into the crowd.

His party was not yet over.