The Annual
UBSCC Teddy Bear Run
The 2006Teddy Bear Run was on September 9th.
A report will be posted here soon.
Click
here to see photos of the 2005 Teddy Bear Run
THE TEDDY BEAR
RUN 2005 - Jim Messineo
Once again the Club
gathered together to bring some joy into the lives of the children
of the Sacramento Children's Receiving Home. UBSCC has been
doing this for some 7-8 years (forgot just how long we've been
going there!). For those of you who don't know what the Home
is, simply said, they "receive" children who are removed
from their "homes" due to abuse. They stay there until
some family (or someone) can be located. This can be as little
as 24 hours, or years. It is a difficult job, and my heart goes
out to those who work there. The unique thing about our support
of the Home is, our TEDDY BEAR RUN gets the children involved,
whereas many of the other events that raise money for the Home,
has no interaction with the children.
It starts out with the collection of donations from Club members
(a special thanks to the Sac MG Club for their support). Then,
the Christmas in October shopping tour begins. Kim and Ian joined
me as we "shopped till we dropped" collecting various
items we hoped the children would enjoy - think it is easy -
just what does a 12-14 year old girl want? (lucky Kim was able
to help, 'cause I am a total failure in that area). So, the
three of us, pushing and pulling 5-6 shopping carts, finally
arrive at the checkout, the looks we get - we often wonder what
people are thinking at that sight.
The day finally arrives and the group gathers at the assembly
point. This year we had a good turnout - about 10 LBC's (needless
to say there should have been MORE, but that's another story).
We pulled into the parking area and arranged the gifts in age
group order then prepared for the onslaught. The staff brought
out the children, Acorns first (that's the 4-6 years olds) all
the way up to the Oaks (14-17). There are about 100 children
at the home (a tragedy). Standing there and seeing these children
looking through these simple items, you feel totally lost. Each
child has a story, and none are good. The smiles and laughter,
even for the moment are worth the time and effort. The look
on a young child's face when they discover they can have choice
of any item there makes your life's problems suddenly seem so
petty. Even the older children, those teenagers trying hard
to be "cool" seem to be touched by our efforts. Also,
not to be forgotten, allowing them to get into our LBC's, beeping
horns and "driving" them in their imaginary world
brought smiles all around ( Ken Montgomery's DeLorean was taken
"back to the future" many times) . The shout "take
my picture, take my picture" was heard from little children
who could barely see over the steering wheel to those teenagers
who sat in them with a look that showed just how "COOL"
they were. Next year we'll have to bring more Polaroid film!
(pictures of the children are not allowed - security issues
- we used Polaroid film & give the pictures to the supervisors).
Finally all the children were taken back to their buildings
and a quiet surrounded us. The staff could not thank us enough
for taking time from our day to do this. This is one event al
the children talk about for long periods of time. Oh, don't
worry, we'll be back next year, and hopefully with MORE LCB"s
and MORE items to be given away. Hey, it's easy, all it takes
is YOUR SUPPORT.
|
