Dear editor,
After providing ‘teddy bear relief? to the children of south Florida following Hurricane Andrew in 1992, I came to realize the importance of providing children with a stuffed friend to comfort them through every step of the rebuilding process following a natural disaster. Having one small, clean, comforting teddy bear of their very own means so much to children who have lost everything.
While of course, food, water, shelter and medicine are the supplies in greatest need, we forget to realize that the emotional needs of children who have survived a natural disaster also need to be met and that is what the donated teddy bears can help to do!
In some small way, having a teddy bear donated by another child that is thinking of you in your time of uncertainty means more than we can ever know.
So, the call went out! I phoned Dr. Jesse Baker at Stadium Drive Elementary, where my two children attend school and asked if he was nterested. Dr. Baker along with Karen Greening, the Family School Coordinator and Student Council Sponsor jumped at the opportunity to give the students at Stadium the chance to help.
And help they did.
Student Council representatives from each class put out the word and the students at Stadium donated over 5,000 teddy bears, and along with those teddy bears came an abundance of heart warming stories that will live with me forever.
Children have donated their entire beanie baby collections. Families have donated Christmas bears that they have collected for their children for many years. Another Lake Orion family searched craigslist and purchased over 500 teddy bears for Haiti.
It is these such stories and the generosity of the children and families of Lake Orion that make me proud to be a resident!
As of today, over 10,000 bears have been collected. Now the task begins of getting them to Haiti for distribution, which will be a feat in itself! But it is a challenge I am grateful for because through this amazing opportunity, I have been personally blessed to see the love and generosity of the town that I am so proud to call home!
Dawn Priebe