An initiative to help children in need, one stuffed animal at a time, is going to continue under nonprofit status.
Now known as The Teddy Bear Love Fund, the mission remains the same: Bringing comfort, joy and a sense of security to Indiana children facing adversity. That’s achieved by providing teddy bears and stuffed animals to children in need at hospitals, creating a source of comfort during challenging times.
What started earlier this year as the Stuffed with Love campaign, Seymour Middle School student Roger Douglass and his grandmother, Bonnie Shehan, spearheaded the effort that resulted in 2,109 stuffed animals being collected. Those were given to Schneck Medical Center in Seymour and Columbus Regional Health in Columbus to distribute to children admitted to the emergency room, outpatient surgery unit and pediatrics unit.
Under the 501(c)(3) that became official Aug. 10, Shehan said it’s being extended to Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health and Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at Ascension St. Vincent, both in Indianapolis, Johnson Memorial Health in Franklin and Ascension St. Vincent Jennings in North Vernon.
“It all came about with our Stuffed with Love program,” Shehan said. “We just had so many people that were interested hospitalwise because they just don’t get the stuffed animals like they did before COVID. Because we got so many larger people, like Riley and Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital, on top of the ones that we had before, we just decided to go ahead and start a 501(c)(3).”
There was one problem, though. Shehan discovered Stuffed with Love was trademarked, so she had to come up with a different name for the nonprofit.
“Originally, 28 years ago, Kim (Douglass, her daughter) did Teddy Bear Love Fund, so we’re just carrying on The Teddy Bear Love Fund,” Shehan said.
Kim collected 350 stuffed animals and donated them to police and fire departments in Columbus to put in their vehicles and give to kids who find themselves involved in emergency situations. The gesture helped keep the kids calm in the stressful situation.
Right after the start of that, Shehan said her son and daughter were involved in a bad accident, and her daughter was hospitalized in the intensive care unit for nearly two weeks and was very sick and had to be admitted several times over a year’s period.
As Kim told her son, Roger, about that earlier this year, he thought of his involvement with the Seymour Young Marines and wanted to do something to give back like his mom did. That’s how Stuffed with Love started.
The project also was special to Roger because he received a stuffed animal while in the Columbus hospital’s emergency room when he was younger, and he still has it today.
Roger’s original goal was to collect 1,000 new stuffed animals by the time a celebratory event rolled around May 20. 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.
Several other businesses supported Stuffed with Love by serving as dropoff sites, and some provided donations.
Once that wrapped up, Shehan hoped to start a nonprofit organization, and she went through the process to make that happen.
About a month after The Teddy Bear Love Fund was established, a website, teddybearlovefund.org, was launched.
“The goal for the rest of this year would be to bring in 10,000 more because Riley and Peyton Manning both need a lot,” Shehan said. “Seymour is starting to get a little low. Columbus, they are just doing 100 every three months.”
Shehan said she is looking for volunteers to help with a variety of tasks, including the website, fundraising and collecting stuffed animals.
“I want to make sure that if somebody gives us $3,000, I want them to be able to get something back in return for that,” she said. “So what we’re doing is we’re putting small tags on each one now that are saying, ‘Given with hugs,’ then ‘Teddy Bear Love Fund’ and the name of the donor. If they give us $3,000, we will put that on 600 stuffed animals because it still costs us $5 per stuffed animal for right now.”
For information or to get involved, call 812-603-5412, visit teddybearlovefund.org or email [email protected]. Donate a new stuffed animal with tags attached at ATI Physical Therapy in Seymour, Columbus, Franklin and Indianapolis.