Groups of students at Boulton Elementary School in Bountiful have been sending stuffed teddy bears to Ukrainian children as a form of comfort.
Going through the organization Dolls of Hope, 6th grade students from Boulton Elementary’s student council and the school’s Sunshine Club have been making stuffed bears for refugees in Ukraine. Within a month, the students already exceeded their goal of 50 teddy bears.
Kirsten McNeal, a teacher and student council advisor for the school, says that the kids meet for an hour before school and come in during lunch and recess breaks twice a week to work on the bears. So far, the kids have made at least 83 bears and even some retired teachers have thrown in their own bears to add onto the pile.
Believing it to be the perfect opportunity for her students to serve others, McNeal began training the kids on how to trace, cut, sew, and stuff the bears.
Some of the bears have already been sent over to Ukraine and have already made a big impact on some of the refugee children. McNeal says that a little boy went to the box, picked up a bear, and just held it to his cheek. McNeal then knew that making these bears was one of the best things that she and her students had ever done.
