How Can I Help Penny Bear?
Workshop Volunteer
What does it take to be a Penny Bear volunteer? You need to be a child, or a teenager, a young or middle-aged adult, or a senior citizen…all are welcomed! Just bring with you an open heart, a compassionate spirit, and a willingness to help with the simplest tasks…coloring the bears' carrying bags, folding brochures, brushing and dressing (and hugging!) the bears, helping at our display tables and mini-workshops at events, packaging and mailing out orders, writing letters and articles…and many opportunities to make new friends!
There are always projects underway that require willing hands to help see our bears off on their special journeys. Most of them travel in bags that are uniquely decorated by the friends who come to help.
Whether you are new to volunteering…or a more experienced veteran…we'll be glad to have you join us!
Knitting
Every Penny Bear is dressed in a handmade knitted sweater. Volunteers sew small, rainbow-colored embroidered heart pockets on the sweaters, and a shiny penny is slipped into the heart whenever a bear leaves the workshop. The sweaters, rainbow hearts and pennies have become the recognized symbols of our Penny Bears.
If you are a knitter, or belong to or know of a circle of friends who knit, we welcome your help! Experienced knitters are encouraged to vary the basic patterns by creating cables and other special stitches, or incorporating stripes or other designs in complementary colors. To view instructions for each of our three sweater sizes, please click here.
We recommend Red Heart or other brands of 4-ply acrylic knitting worsted yarn. As most every knitter's technique is a little different, we suggest you click here to find the actual finished dimensions.
Imagine the smiles and the lifted spirits of whoever receives one of our special bear hugs dressed in a one-of-a-kind sweater! It's a wonderful ongoing project…and we certainly need your help!
Donations/Fundraising
As an all-volunteer non-profit company, to accomplish our missions on behalf of others, we must rely on the sales of our bears and books and on any donations we gratefully receive.
As an example of fundraising that was done on our behalf, students at a local Charter School volunteered at our workshop as part of their community service curriculum. After completing their time with us, the students held raffles to help us support the Marblehead Food Pantry, and they also purchased a case of crayon packs to be donated with our activity books for children in hospitals and family shelters.
We were honored by a student action group at a nearby community college who not only volunteered with us, but also voted to donate the proceeds from their spring bake sale to help us provide bears for a local counseling center. We surprised the students and helped them experience what it feels like to give unconditionally. Each of them was given one of the bears they prepared, with our request that they find someone "whose heart needed a hug", and to gift the bear to that person and observe the reactions. It became a touching, meaningful experience for both the giver and the receiver!
Young children at a Marblehead day care center earned pennies by doing simple tasks at home, and then donated their money to help buy markers and colored pencils for packaging with note cards and activity books for ill children.
Provide Supplies or Services
Here is a sample of supplies and services that would help make it easier for us to create our bear hugs!
We would love to have quantities of new skeins of yarn available to gift to current and future knitters.
The Penny Bear Company
6 Elmwood Road
Marblehead, Massachusetts
(781-639-2828)
email: bear@pennybear.orgWebmaster:Clifford Enterprises Web Design and Video Streaming
Annie Clifford email: annie@cliffordenterprises.com