When emergency situations happen, frightened children need something to hold onto. For the past 10 years, the Connections Teddy Bear Drive at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s Jefferson Davis Campus has successfully placed hundreds of teddy bears in the hands of police and medical personnel for distribution to these frightened children.
From now until Friday, Dec. 11, you are invited to contribute to the comfort and well-being of Coast children during the holiday season through the Teddy Bear Drive. 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.
Organizers Elaine Davis, Angela Frazier and Denise Maggard, instructors 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. Frazier, Maggard and Davis are co-sponsors of Connections, the Jefferson Davis Campus student-to-student mentor program.
“Emergency responders will carry the bears in their vehicles to give as comfort to children in bad situations,” Maggard said. “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. “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,” Maggard said.
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,” Maggard 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 Elaine Davis at 228-896-2547, elaine.davis@mgccc.edu.
