BEAR HUGS

In June, Resources for Health Roots & Shoots youth leader Jacob started a project called Bear Hugs. His goal: to raise enough funds to make and donate 100 asthma friendly teddy bears from Build A Bear along with 1,000 origami cranes to the Phoenix Children's Hospital . A $400 mini-grant from the Roots & Shoots Four Corners regional office got him started. Next he raised funds while teaching people how to make origami cranes at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market and at the Thomas D. Mangelsen Images of Nature Gallery. Jacob's homeschool group had a multi-family yard sale to raise over $800 for the Bear Hugs project! Other grants Jacob applied for and received to make Bear Hugs a reality were the Plum Grant from Do Something and a Disney Minnie Grant from Youth Service America. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America provided a gift of an additional 100 asthma friendly bears to the Phoenix Children's Hospital as well as 25 bear to the National Children's Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Whenever Jacob found an opportunity to enhance Bear Hugs, he seized it. When he learned about the Pay It Forward Foundation, he created a Pay It Forward Bear Story and applied for the grant. He received funding to pay for printing of the stories to attach to each of the teddy bears volunteers made. Volunteers wrote their names into the stories, adding a personal touch to the gift and promoting the idea of paying forward good deeds to others. Sixty youth volunteers helped fold origami cranes and to stuff 200 bears at Build A Bear on two dates in October, resulting in a grand total of 325 asthma friendly teddy bears and 1,000 origami cranes to cheer up hospitalized children. And Jacob says he's going to do it all again next year!