Roger Douglass, left, with the Seymour Young Marines collected 186 new stuffed animals and used monetary donations to buy more from Five Below in Columbus on May 27. At right is Heather Chapman with Five Below.
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Roger Douglass, third from left, with the Seymour Young Marines is joined by Duke Energy employees after he used a monetary donation from the company to buy new stuffed animals to distribute through the Stuffed with Love campaign.
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Bonnie Shehan did whatever she could, including wearing a dinosaur costume, to draw attention to the Stuffed with Love campaign while set up outside Five Below in Columbus on May 27.
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Roger Douglass, right, with the Seymour Young Marines was made an official honorary employee by Heather Chapman with Five Below in Columbus.
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A donation from Duke Energy put the Stuffed with Love campaign at 1,000 stuffed animals.
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Kylie Foster with Duke Energy holds a certificate presented to the company by Stuffed with Love for giving a donation to the campaign.
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Heather Chapman, left, with Five Below high fives Roger Douglass with the Seymour Young Marines for his efforts with the Stuffed with Love campaign.
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Drumroll, please.
The inaugural Stuffed with Love campaign recently wrapped up, and the final number of new stuffed animals collected was … 2,109.
Those will be split between Schneck Medical Center in Seymour and Columbus Regional Health in Columbus, which will give them to children admitted to the emergency room, outpatient surgery unit and pediatrics unit.
Some of the stuffed animals already had been given to the hospitals to give out as the campaign was still going on.
“Amazing,” Seymour Young Marine Roger Douglass said of his reaction to the project he initiated. “I’m surprised. It makes me feel good that I’m helping out the community and the community is helping.”
His grandmother, Bonnie Shehan, was a big help in organizing this project.
“It was awesome,” she said of the public’s response. “I’m telling you what, I’m so proud of this community and of Roger and all of the things that have been done. I’m just so proud.”
Douglass’ original goal was to collect 1,000 new stuffed animals by the time a celebratory event May 20 rolled around. He accomplished that well before the event, so the goal was increased to 1,500.
Since both of those goals were met, Shehan said she hoped to get up to 1,900. Again, that was accomplished as the campaign officially came to an end May 27 with a final collection event at Five Below in Columbus.
That day, 186 stuffed animals were donated. When Douglass and Shehan were outside the store one day in April, 258 stuffed animals were donated. Each time, monetary donations were used to buy even more stuffed animals.
“Any money that we collect that day goes right back in Five Below and we buy stuffed animals there, so both times while we were there, we collected over $300 in cash and we were able to go back in and buy 60-some stuffed animals,” Shehan said. “It was great.”
During the final time at Five Below, Douglass was made an official honorary employee and received a T-shirt.
“They’re excited. We’re excited. We’re going to do more things at Five Below,” Shehan said. “That’s part of what we want to continue to do is go to these places and be able to raise the funds because all of that money goes right back in.”
That’s just one example of the way businesses supported Stuffed with Love, as several others helped collect stuffed animals. Some companies and organizations provided donations, too.
Now, Shehan hopes to secure a fiscal sponsor so people can continue to make monetary donations and donate stuffed animals year-round until the campaign officially starts again next spring.
“It truly is a huge need all around because every hospital I’ve talked with, none of them have anything given to them anymore like they used to, so I really would like to find a fiscal sponsor that we can make these available year-round, have the stuffed animals available to hospitals around south central Indiana,” she said.
She also would like to make them available to a women’s shelter and homeless shelters.
“I think that’s another thing that we need to make it available for them, not in the volume that we will in the hospitals,” Shehan said.
She hopes to find a grant to start a nonprofit organization, too.
“A lot of people say, ‘Well, what do I do after this is over? Where can I take new stuffed animals because I’d like to continue to keep doing it?’” she said. “We just want to be able to make sure that it happens, so I’m fine if it’s through a hospital or through an individual company or whatever.”
For information or to help with the project, send a message via facebook.com/SemourYoungMarinesStuffedwithLoveCampaign23.