Kids part with bears for a good
cause
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
By JOSEPH AX STAFF WRITER
 For
Nicole Perrotto, 7, finding the right teddy bear to help lift the
spirits of a sick child was a simple task.
"I got a little brown Beanie Baby
wearing a green hat and holding a candy cane," said the Dumont
second-grader, who collects the bean-filled bears and calls them her
favorite kind of stuffed animal. "It's for the people that are
really sick at the hospital that need bears for the holiday."
Nicole, along with schoolmates from
kindergarten to second grade at Honiss School in Dumont, has joined
hundreds of others in donating time, effort and teddy bears for the
annual Bear Hugs for the Holidays campaign, run by the North Jersey
Media Group Foundation.
The drive, which will continue to
accept donations until Thursday, is in its ninth year, and the
foundation expects to distribute 28,000 bears to needy children and
hospital patients in Bergen, Passaic, Morris, Hudson and Essex
counties. More than 50 agencies and hospitals will receive the toys.
How to help
To learn more about Bear Hugs for
the Holidays, make a cash donation, sign up as a volunteer or find
drop-off locations for bears, visit northjerseybearhugs.org, e-mail
bearhugs@northjersey.com or call 201-646-4029.
North Jersey Media Group is the
parent company of The Record and the Herald News.
At the school Monday morning, bags
of brown, black, pink and white bears stood near the doorways of
seven classrooms, waiting to be picked up by volunteer parents.
Some had hats and bows; others,
scarves and jackets. There was an aviator bear, a police bear and a
leprechaun bear.
A few students, apparently, had
stretched the definition of "teddy bear"; a monkey and a few
reindeer shared space with their ursine brethren.
"I thought it was really important
that the children know the true meaning of Christmas, because we're
so spoiled and lucky, and they have so many opportunities to receive
but not so many opportunities to give," said kindergarten teacher
Meredith Drabinske, who had organized the drive for her class for
several years before extending it this fall to six other classrooms.
Before putting the bears in the
box, her students gave them hugs, hoping that the toys will pass
them along to their less fortunate recipients. Many had messages on
tags around their necks.
Cathrine Djelevic, 6, picked a bear
with pink fur -- her favorite color, to judge by her clothes -- and
drew a heart, butterfly and flower on the back of her tag. The note
reads, "Love, Cathrine," and has a drawing of her smiling face.
"I wanted to help the sick
children," she said.
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