I would like to start with the story of “what inspired us to start the Teddy Bear Love Fund”. In 1995 my children Kim Shehan Douglass and Josh Shehan “as well as a 4-year family friend that Kim was babysitting for” were involved in a serious accident here in Columbus. They were both taken to Columbus Regional. Josh was treated and released that day, but Kim was placed in the ICU and was hospitalized at CRH for many days due to internal injuries.
While in the hospital Kim started thinking about how scary it was for her, her brother, and the other little girl to be involved in an accident like that and she decided she wanted to do something to help other kids that are in similar situations to feel safer. So, with the help of many friends and family Kim started the Teddy Bear Love Fund. We had a raffle and a dance “which Kim missed because she was placed back in the hospital the night before due to complications”. Overall, Kim was able to Collect approximately 350 stuffed animals which were given to the police department and ambulances to give to children at accident scenes.
Fast forward 28 years later, in March 2023 Kim was sharing her story with her “at the time 12-year-old son” Roger. Roger was very intrigued and decided he wanted to do something similar, so he came up with Stuffed with Love, his goal was to collect stuffed animals to give to children when they go to the hospital to help them feel safer and have a “friend” to help them through their tough time. Roger and his Young Marines troop collected an astonishing 2,109 stuffed animals for CRH and Schneck. Due to a discrepancy with the Stuffed with Love name, we had to choose to change the name back to Teddy Bear Love Fund. My husband and I also wanted to help Roger with his dream, so we stepped in to help with the Teddy Bear Love Fund and found that it has also become a passion for us as well. Since we are both retired, we have had the extra time to help with the fundraising events, starting and setting up the “new” stuffing parties, and have greatly enjoyed being a part of this amazing organization.
We have received a lot of publicity over the last year and other hospitals have been asking how they could be recipients of our stuffed animals also, so we decided to file for our 501c3 status which we recently received. We currently furnish new stuffed animals to CRH, Schneck Medical, St. Vincent Jennings, Riley Children’s Hospital, and Peyton Manning Hospital. Currently, our animals are shared through ERs, outpatient surgery, and admitted to the Peds unit. Also, as we get to know the needs of each hospital, we have started adding sensory toys and books to our donations.
We have gotten most of our animals through sitting in front of stores and small donations. We are a very small organization but with community help, we are keeping up with the donations. We have recently started a community program to have stuffing parties. We purchase unstuffed animals and all supplies with sponsorships, and we invite the community to stuff, these events have been a huge hit, and we plan to have many more. We have an average of 100 volunteers at each stuffing party, we are very excited that we see generations of families making memories together while helping others. We will be having parties in all counties of our participating hospitals. Hope to see you there Bonnie Shehan