The students at R.C. Longan Elementary School collected and donated 450 stuffed animals this past week to the Teddy Bear Brigade. This collection all started when two students, Alex and Sam Hurst, saw the devastation that recent tornadoes had brought to the children in the Midwest. They decided that they wanted to collect stuffed animals to give to children who had lost everything. They wrote a letter to their principal asking permission to collect at the school. This is what they wrote:
Dear Dr. Hall,
Last week there were some very bad tornadoes near our Aunt Grace’s house in Indiana. Some kids lost all of their stuff. We wanted to find a way to help kids like them. There is a group called the Teddy Bear Brigade. They collect stuffed animals for kids suffering after natural disasters, wars, and sickness. We e-mailed them and they said they would help us run a collection at Longan. We are asking for your permission to start our own Teddy Bear Brigade at Longan .If you approve our plan we would go on the morning announcements and ask kids to bring in new or gently used stuffed animals to donate. We would need a collection space at Longan for kids to drop them off. Our mom would drive us to drop them off at Teddy Bear Brigade Headquarters. If you let us do this, we would like for you to put it in the Longan Letters and send a call to all Longan families to tell them about the collection. If we get your approval we would like to announce it at the PTA meeting March 15. The Teddy Bear Brigade Group said they would give us some flyers , posters, and banners. We hope you will consider letting us collect donations to help kids around the world, it would mean a lot to us. Thank you.
Your students,
Alex and Sam Hurst
Thanks and congratulations to Alex, Sam and all the students/staff at R.C. Longan Elementary School for their desire to reach out and make a difference in the lives of children.
