Community Education

Teddy bears from Peninsula High School students bring comfort to Ukrainian children

Posted on October 2nd, 2023 By: Christina T Henry

When Iryna’s family evacuated their home because of the war in Ukraine, they left in such a hurry that they left the little girl’s pink plush elephant behind. The one she’d had since she was a baby.

Now, she clings to a new favorite stuffie.

Iryna is one of hundreds of Ukrainian children who received a teddy bear sent with love from students of Peninsula High School’s Kiwanis Key Club. The shipment of bears — boxes upon boxes of them — traveled more than 5,000 miles over several months to reach the war-torn country, which was invaded by Russian in February 2022.

“The teddy bear became a real comfort for the girl, and now she is with it everywhere,” wrote Elzara Halimova of Voices of Children Charitable Foundation, the Ukrainian aid organization with which the Key Club partnered on what became known as Operation Teddy Bear.

Children at a support center in Kharkiv operated by Voices of Children Charitable Foundation made pictures of teddy bears to say “Thank you!” to members of Peninsula High School’s Kiwanis Key Club. The students collected approximately 1,000 teddy bears for children of Ukraine over the past school year (2022-23). The shipment arrived over the summer, and the bears were distributed in September.
Photos courtesy of Voices of Children Charitable Foundation

A symbol of support

A year ago, in October 2022, Kiwanis Key Club members launched a teddy bear drive on the suggestion of Spencer Abersold, one of the club’s advisors. Abersold hoped the gifts would encourage kids whose lives were upended by the war. He told Halimova a news report last year showing a bombed-out playground in Ukraine motivated him.

“I went for a walk shortly after and was near a local elementary school,” Abersold wrote to Halimova in an email. “I could hear the sounds of the children playing, yelling and making a commotion like normal children do and I then began to think ‘What if artillery shells or rockets started to rain down on them, like they just did in Ukraine?’ And it made me mad, sad, and it was a turning point for me.”

Abersold decided he “would not just stand by and do nothing.” He figured teddy bears were appropriate since they are a “symbol of calmness for children.”

Abersold also saw a highly teachable moment for Key Club members to have a personal stake in events unfolding on the other side of the world.

“I wanted our students to recognize the moment in history that they were about to become part of and challenged them to ask themselves: What role will you play in these events?” he said.

Little bears, long journey

The Key Club students readily embraced the challenge. Throughout the fall, they collected stuffed teddies at sites and events in the Gig Harbor/Key Peninsula area. They exceeded their initial goal of 100, thanks to the generosity of the community and several large donors. The drive brought in about 1,000 teddy bears and more than $2,000 to cover shipping.

In early February, they held a packing party. Students tied a blue-and-gold sash on each bear with a message of encouragement in Ukrainian.

“We send our love and prayers in each teddy bear for the children of Ukraine and hope our friendship and support keep you safe and protected in these dark times,” the message read in part.

At that time, they’d collected more than 700 bears. A post-Valentine’s Day collection campaign put them over 1,000 thanks to their strategic thinking that a few extra stuffed bears might be floating around after the holiday. They loaded boxes of bears into a trailer and transported to a company that specializes in international deliveries.

And so, the wait began as the war dragged on with horrific reports of bombings, including on civilian targets, in Ukraine.

“The delivery process, in my opinion, took longer than what was promised and gave me moments of sheer anxiety and stress,” Abersold said.

Members of Peninsula High School’s Key Club collected approximately 1,000 teddy bears for children of Ukraine over the past school year (2022-23). The shipment arrived in time to help the Ukrainian children celebrate a new school year. Voices of Children Charitable Foundation

Teddy bears deployed

In April, he learned that his position with Peninsula School District as manager of the district-owned KGHP radio station would be cut as part of a $12 million budget reduction in the upcoming school year. With that, his official affiliation with the Key Club was over. But he remained in touch with Voices of Children over the summer.

Finally, Abersold heard from Halimova that the bears had arrived.

Voices of Children was established in 2015 to aid Ukrainian families affected by the 2014 Russian occupation of Crimea. Their efforts to reach children traumatized by war expanded across the country with Russia’s invasion in 2022.

Voices of Children now operates 14 centers throughout Ukraine. Children receive counseling and other support, including access to educational opportunities when they can’t attend their regular schools. The group also provides humanitarian aid to help families cope with displacement.

Voices of Children staff distributed the bears to celebrate the start of the school year, Halimova told Abersold in an email. In mid-September, she wrote: “The teddy bears are now all over Ukraine! We sent them to all 14 children’s centers, and the children who attended our therapy sessions got it. Also, in Chernihiv, there was a massive rocket attack on the 19th of August and our colleagues presented the teddy bears to the children who were injured and are in the hospital.”

Small gift, big impact

Halimova, in a blog post about the shipment of teddy bears, relayed stories of the children on receiving their gifts from the Kiwanis Key Club students.

“Mykyta from the Kharkiv region is very grateful to the children who donated the toy to him,” Halimova wrote. “Now, the boy does not part with the bear because he feels safer with it.”

Some of the children couldn’t at first believe they got to bring their bear home with them. Parents, too, expressed their gratitude.

“The teddy bears cannot ease the pain of losing their home or restore the children’s sense of security, but they have become a valuable support,” Halimova wrote in her blog. “They showed the children thousands of kilometers away, on the other side of the planet, someone is thinking about them, caring and wanting to comfort them.”

Children in one of the centers in Kharkiv drew or painted teddy bears to thank the American students. Abersold last week visited the Key Club and shared photos of the kids’ artwork.

“I am immensely proud of our accomplishment,” Abersold said in an email to Gig Harbor Now. “Looking at the photos of the kids and getting some of the stories of their reaction will be something I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I only wish we could do more.”

“Ukrainian children receive help from many partner countries,” Halimova said. “But the story of the Key Club shows that support for Ukraine has no territorial boundaries and no age limits.”