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Hospice Information
Through donations and sales, Penny
Bears and our Penny Bear's Gift of Love book have
been provided for Hospice organizations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
New York, and Florida, where they help staff members and volunteers
offer a special hug for patients and families in their care. Penny
Bears and our books are also used in Hospice-sponsored children's
bereavement programs and camp experiences.
Shelters
We
provide Penny Bears, as well as writing journals and activity books
created by illustrator Michiko
Eager, to shelters
in Massachusetts and Florida. To complete the circle of giving,
families and individuals living in the shelters decorate carrying
bags given with Penny Bears to others in need.
Assisted
Living & Nursing Home Residences
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Knitting sweaters
and participating in hands-on projects with our bears enables
otherwise healthy senior residents and the memory impaired
to find a continuing sense of purpose by helping us lift the
spirits of others.
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Community Outreach Programs
Therapists and counselors use Penny Bears with their clients to
encourage self-esteem, offer hope following tragedy, and to help
develop trust in themselves and others.
Family members, friends and neighbors, ministers, doctors, teachers,
classmates, emergency responders, and sometimes anonymous, caring
people provide Penny Bears to help individuals and families in crisis
as a way to show they care. A bear's gentle presence helps ease
fear and offers the promise of hope.
Our
Circles of Hope outreach program offers four separate
support circles: for those whose lives have been touched by cancer,
for people affected by mobility disorders, and another for people
moving through a time of bereavement. click
here for more information.
The
Penny Bear Friendship Club school program was created
to promote respect, kindness, and the importance of building meaningful
friendships among people of all ages. What began as a true-life
act of kindness by a small boy, coupled with a young girl's bereavement
journey following the loss of an adult friend, has become a wonderful
teaching and healing tool. Click
here for more information.
School, Scouting and religious classes learn how to help others
through what is often a first volunteering experience.
We welcome adults and young people challenged with learning disabilities
and other special needs.
We have encouraged families as they courageously struggle with turning
tragic personal losses into healing outreach and awareness. Our
"Hunter Bear" is an example of a Marblehead family trying
to create some kind of meaning out of an automobile tragedy that
took the life of their son. Along with a committed group of local
high school students and his family, we are partnered in a safe-driving-awareness
program at our local high school. Please
click
here to learn more about his and other
special family stories.
Camps for Critically Ill Children
Providing Penny Bears, writing journals
and, for one particular camp, many of their "wish list"
needs, have been challenging, rewarding experiences for our volunteers.
Since the summer of 1997, thousands of critically and emotionally
ill or grieving children in New York, Maine, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, North Carolina and Florida have received one of the
best kinds of medicine…love and a smile wrapped in a bear hug.
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Our most challenging
opportunity spanned a three-year period, when our bears and
illustrated personal writing journals helped thousands of
children attending actor Paul Newman and Charles Woods' Double
"H" Hole in the Woods Ranch in New York State. Our
successful and positive multi-state volunteer effort has been
transitioned to our former camp laision, who lives in New
York and who was a member of the camp's volunteer nursing
staff. She has now expanded our original concept and created
her own very similar projects on behalf of "Double H"
campers.
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Raising Awareness and Supporting Families by Helping
Other Non-Profit Organizations
We are honored that our Penny Bears are used
as opportunities to encourage people who struggle with difficult
challenges to heal themselves and to create hope for others. The
following programs are among many we have supported.
Among
other saddened communities we have helped over the years, Penny
Bears were sent to families following the Columbine High School
tragedy in Littleton, Colorado, the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks in New York, in the aftermath of hurricanes Wilma, Katrina
and Rita, and after the coal mine tragedies in West Virginia.
Roanoke
Valley CASA Foundation - Virginia - Court Appointed Special Advocates
represent abused or neglected children in court. Our Roanoke volunteers
provide bears for the advocates to use as a way to introduce themselves
and to give comfort and reassurance to the children during the court
process. (www.roanokevalleycasa.org/news.htm
)
Sponsored
a Penny Bear "Kids-Walking-for-Kids" walkathon fundraiser
to help the New England Medical Center's Floating Hospital for Children
in Boston, MA purchase new play equipment and staff the pediatric
oncology/hematology play room
Supported
a neighboring community's "Seeds of Hope" meals and sheltering
program to raise awareness about people who are homeless, hungry
and poor
Assisted
a young local friend in his dedicated effort to raise research funds
and educate people about Marfan Syndrome in memory of his younger
sister, who died at age four from complications of the connective
tissue disorder. (www.marfan.org).
In
partnership with the volunteer "Hope for Haiti" program
in Naples, FL, we donated 500 bears to an orphanage in Haiti.
Partnered
with staff members in creating the "Hug-a-Bear Club" at
Youville Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, Cambridge, MA - a program
designed to provide emotional support for children whose family
member has cancer and is a patient in the hospital's oncology unit.
The program's purpose is to facilitate communication between a patient/family
member and their child/children about dealing with the uncertainties,
hopes and fears that arise as the course of the adult's illness
unfolds.
Sent
Penny Bears and books to Ryan's Place, a nonprofit grief center
that provides emotional support for grieving children, teens, young
adults and their families in Goshen, Indiana
"Heart-to-Heart
Fund" - an organization founded by two young mothers to help
families of children undergoing cardiac treatments at The New England
Medical Center Floating Hospital for Children, Boston, MA. We provided
journals, activity books, and centerpiece bears for fundraising
events.
Participated
in a special activities workshop for the S.O.F.T. organization
(Support Organization For Trisomy 18,
13 and other related chromosomal disorders). S.O.F.T. is a nonprofit
volunteer organization offering support for parents who have a child
with this particular chromosome disorder, and education to families
and professionals interested in the care of these children.(http://www.trisomy.org)
MS Home - Collier County, FL - an organization started by two young
mothers living with Multiple Sclerosis that is dedicated to filling
the needs and improving the quality of life of families affected
by an MS diagnosis
North Shore Cancer Center, Peabody, MA - to help pass their time
during treatments, we offer a weekly mini-workshop for both patients
and their caregivers at the center. We also participate in their
annual "Celebration of Life" event for survivors and their
families.
Project HELP, Naples, FL Crisis center hotline and bereavement support
groups for people coping with all phases of complicated loss (murder,
suicide, etc.)
Penny Bears have helped participants in rehabilitation programs
for stroke patients.
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The
Penny Bear Company
6 Elmwood Road
Marblehead, Massachusetts
(781-639-2828)
email:
bear@pennybear.org
Webmaster:Clifford
Enterprises Web Design and Video Streaming
Annie
Clifford email: annie@cliffordenterprises.com
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