Volunteering Community

In November 2022, I applied to the Build-a-Bear Foundation's Hearts and Hugs program for 200 bears. At the time, I was working as program coordinator for a youth shelter. On February 14th, 2023, 50 of the bears went to the adolescent shelter programs for the organization I worked for and the for remaining 150 bears, I delivered them to the Seattle Children's Hospital and Atlantic Street Center's domestic violence program. I created a website for the bears with blog posts I had written describing the complex value and purpose of the bears, such as the bears being a symbol of care and love for children who often do not have family or a support system to receive hugs from or recieve their own personal items that don't come from a trash bag of other pre-used belongings. Teddy bears are also historically given to children who are going through traumatic experiences by police officers, firefighters, and other first responders. Each bear was adorned with a ribbon with a handmade tag that has a Bear Hugs logo that I designed for the project and a QR code to the Bear Hugs website on the back. This was especially meaningful to me because at nearly 2 years old, on February 14th, 2002, I underwent successful open heart surgery to repair an atrial septal defect (a hole between the top chambers of my heart) at the Denver Children's Hospital. Having the ability to give something back to another Children's Hospital exactly 21 years later as a result of the successful lifesaving operation I recieved is something I will treasure the rest of my life and I am hopeful to be able to continue to do things like this many more times in my life. (Pictured is roughly 20 of the finished bears with their handmade tags before they were distributed to each location)