Bearing up under the strain Clarkston’s Jody Foster reckons she has made 15,000 Hug-A-Bears to comfort traumatized kids Tri-State Memorial Hospital and given to young patients as comfort aids. ody Foster of Clark“They tell me the kids are ston ran the felt cut- really excited when they out of a teddy bear get them,” she said. through her sewing Her work with the machine recently to Hug-a-Bears began as a attach a heart to its chest. project with the service It’s just one step of organization the Telephone many in the approximate- Pioneers. She and other ly four-hour process she members of the group were follows to create a Hug-A- all employees of what was Bear. It’s a procedure she then Pacific Northwest Bell. and her trusty 1958 Elna “All the girls were parSupermatic have repeated ticipating in it, and through some 15,000 times over the the years — why — I kind decades. of ended up as the only one “It keeps me off the making them,” she said. streets,” joked the “Eventually I was the last 88-year-old crafter. “You old person doing it.” just can’t sit and watch the Over the years, the tube all day.” Telephone Pioneers also Foster doesn’t rememdonated bears to law enber exactly when she forcement agencies so ofstarted making the bears ficers could hand them out but said it likely was in to traumatized youngsters 1977 or ’78, and she has they sometimes encounter. maintained a pace of about Foster, on a tour through 30 a month since then. Do her basement crowded the math, and it works out with crafting equipment to more than 15,000. See BEARS, Page 10 The bears are donated to
By ERIC BARKER
J
FOR GOLDEN TIMES
August Frank/Golden Times
Foster is seen through mannequin heads wearing hats that Hundreds of Hug-A-Bears sewn by Jody Foster sit in tubs last month in her Clarkston home. she sewed.
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GOLDEN TIMES
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