Members from a Garland congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently joined together to provide service for the youngest in their community. The “Beary Comforting” project was organized by the Relief Society, the women’s auxiliary of the Church, to create teddy bears for distribution by the first responders in Garland.
Dedie Schlensker, Garland 3rd Ward Community Service representative, said:
“We will donate them as “comfort bears” to the Garland Fire Department and Garland Police Department. They will carry them in their vehicles to give to children whom they have to transport or remove from their homes. These departments expressed a great desire to have the bears. We wanted the bears to look “homemade,” have a simple design and carry a heart in order to communicate love to the children.”
Approximately 40 participants were put into nine teams of four. Each team was responsible for five bears. Materials were placed in a zip-lock bag and these went inside a larger white kitchen trash bag. One sister cut out fabric from a pattern made from poster board. The next sister machine-sewed the shell of the bear and turned them right side out. The third sister received a supply of fiberfill stuffing with her bag of bears. The fourth sister hand-sewed the top opening, cut out facial features and a heart from a trim bag included with the bear and hand-sewed these items on.
Involving those women who are homebound was a major consideration in the service project planning.
The Community Service representative added:
“All of our members need to feel a part and be engaged in meaningful activities. The team member in charge of stuffing the bears visited a shut-in to stuff the bears together. We found that the shut-in sisters enjoyed the visit for stuffing, but most of them were not physically able to do the stuffing.”
Forty-five Comfort Bears were competed, and now 45 young Garland residents will know that they are thought of and loved by those in their community in their time of need or distress.