The Quad

Issue date: 10/29/07 Section: Features

Imagine losing your home to a fire or a flood. Imagine having to spend the holidays in the hospital. Now imagine that this has happened to a child.

During times like these, it is sometimes difficult to comfort a child; however, giving a child a teddy bear can instantaneously bring a smile to their face. For one moment, a child can forget his/her negative experience and be a kid again.

Because of this impact, new, soft and cuddly teddy bears are wanted. Now its the eleventh annual year, a committee of West Chester University students and alumni are busy planning events to help collect thousands of teddy bears to give to children in need.

Bear Fair month is the entire month of November and is looking for support from students, faculty and the community.

This student-run project started in 1997 and has grown over the years. It is coordinated by a student committee through the Office of Service-Learning and Volunteer Programs.

They collect on campus in academic buildings, such as E. O. Bull Center, Ruby Jones, Sykes Student Union and Twardowski Career Development Center, and residence halls like Goshen, McCarthy, Ramsey and Wayne, and at a range of locations off-campus, such as churches, youth groups, and schools where alumni are teaching. In the past 10 years over 23,000 teddy bears have been given away.

The Bear Fair project collects teddy bears to provide comfort to children impacted by HIV/AIDS, as well as those in hospitals, shelters, and in need at holiday time.

Numerous hospitals and other charities have provided thanks to the organization for their hard work.

"On behalf of the Chester County Hospital many thanks to you and your organization for the wonderful donation of teddy bears," a spokesperson from the Chester County Hospital said. "We use the teddy bears in pediatrics, the emergency department, and the outpatient lab. A soft cuddly teddy bear helps a lot when a child is facing a blood test."

Chester County Community Hospital is not the only area reaping the benefits of Bear Fair.

A spokesperson from the Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic said, "A child barely over a year old needed to be transported immediately by ambulance to Hershey Medical Center. When she left with her mother, the child was tightly holding one of the teddy bears. Thank you for your teddy bear donations...your gifts brought joy to lots of children who undergo long and painful craniofacial surgeries."

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