ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 21, 1996 TAG: 9612230050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
THE COMMUNITY-MINDED KIDS BOUGHT 45 stuffed bears of all colors and sizes with $350 they collected in their homerooms.
Whenever seventh-grader Beige Bryant had a few loose coins in her billfold, she would drop them into the jar in her homeroom at Ruffner Middle School.
Her classmates chipped in with their nickels, dimes and quarters, too. Soon, the class had collected $60.
Students in other homerooms also made donations. Some gave $1 or $2. By this week, the Roanoke school had collected $350.
The coins turned into joy for sick children.
The students bought 45 stuffed bears for boys and girls in the Carilion Medical Center for Children at Roanoke Community Hospital.
They presented the bears and Christmas cards to the children Friday. There were bears of all colors - blue, white, pink and brown.
Scores of Ruffner students wanted to visit the children's ward to deliver the stuffed toys because the project had created so much enthusiasm and interest at the school.
But only a dozen could be accommodated without disrupting the children's center.
The students were accompanied by Principal Linda Bigger Brown and Gloria Randolph, a teacher and community service coordinator for the school.
Escorted by hospital personnel, the students went into the children's rooms in groups of three or four and personally gave the bears to the boys and girls. They talked with the children and tried to cheer them up.
It was the first time that many of the students, ages 12 to 14, had ever been on a pediatrics ward.
Hospital officials said they were impressed with the Ruffner students because they were so young to show such concern for sick children.
Most students who visit the center or bring gifts to the children are in high school or college, said Frances Gilbert, a member of the hospital's planning staff.
Janice Zack, child-life specialist for the children's center, said the bears will be an emotional comfort for some young patients. Some came to the hospital without bringing their own stuffed animals, she said.
Zack told the students that she will use the bears to get some children to act out their emotions. Some are reluctant to play-act with their own stuffed animals, she said, but they will respond to new ones to which they have no emotional attachment.
The students collected the money and bought the bears as part of a community service program to make them more familiar with community needs.
Each student is required to do 20 hours of community service a year and to keep a journal of the work. "We get every student involved and try to make them more aware of community needs," Brown said.
The students were allowed to convert contributions for the stuffed bears to credit for community service hours: They received one hour of credit for each $1 donation.
Eighth-grader Cherie Grubbs said the students had fun raising the money and buying the bears. "And the good thing is that it will help the children."
Tiffany Curtis said she kept a record of all contributions in her homeroom so students could get their credit for community service. "It created a lot of excitement and interest."
Almost every student was involved in the project in some way, Randolph said. Some made posters to put up in classrooms and halls, others helped collect the money, and still others went shopping to buy the bears, she said.
"And I had so many who wanted to come today," she said. "This has been a project of the whole school."
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART Staff. William Ruffner Middle School studentsby CNBTiffany Curtis and Sanket Mistry deliver stuffed toys to 3-year-old
George Smith, who is a patient in the Carilion Medical Center for
Children at Roanoke Community Hospital. The teens delivered the
heart-warming friends as part of a community project. color.