The special comfort of a teddy bear doesn’t have to come wrapped in birthday paper or given only when a child is sick. Sometimes, it comes best packaged in the hands of a police officer or medical personnel.
From now until Wednesday, Dec. 17, you are invited to contribute to the comfort and well-being of Coast children during the holiday season through the Connections Teddy Bear Drive at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s Jefferson Davis Campus in Gulfport. The annual drive is part of a national effort called Operation: Bear Hug (www.operationbearhug.com), which entails collecting stuffed bears to distribute to local first responders.
Organizer Kay Bethea, an instructor at the Jefferson Davis Campus, and Connections members will be collecting thousands of teddy bears of medium size (between 12 and 24 inches seated) for the campus to donate to the Gulfport, Biloxi and Harrison County police and sheriff departments.
“For children across the Coast who may witness a traumatic event in the next year, the Teddy Bear Drive means an unconditional hug from a soft, cuddly teddy bear when it’s needed most,” said Bethea, developer and co-sponsor of Connections, the JD Campus student-to-student mentor program. “The emergency responders will carry them in their vehicles to give as comfort to children in bad situations. But even if we give 10 times more than we ever have, they’ll run short.”
Policemen, firefighters and EMT units carry the bears to give to distraught children when the kids must be taken out of traumatic situations, explained Bethea, who has coordinated the Teddy Bear Drive for nine years, sometimes donating more than 900 bears at time to emergency responders on the Coast. “These situations can occur at any time of the year, but home and auto accidents, house fires, and, most of all, domestic and child-abuse incidents seem to increase enormously during the holidays. Policemen tell me that giving a terrified child a soft, huggable bear to keep works miracles in calming and comforting the youngster.”
Although drive organizers welcome all bears, especially new ones, used bears should be handled with special care before donating. “We simply request that they be washed and, if necessary, repaired before being donated,” Bethea said, adding that organizers are asking for only teddy bears to be donated. “Frightened children need something to hold onto that doesn’t hurt and that seems to love them.”
Look for collection boxes in the Jefferson Davis Campus Commons area located at the front of campus and in the Learning Lab located just south of the fountain. For more information about the Teddy Bear Drive, contact Bethea at 228-896-2513, kay.bethea@mgccc.edu.
