Petersen Medical Employees Cut 120 Bear Kits for the Utah Children's Justice Center.

At Petersen Medical, one of our core values is “serving others first”. As part of that value and our commitment to serve the community, we have committed to participating in at least one service project each month.

For April, our service was focused on the Utah Children’s Justice Centers and the teddy bears provided to children who have been abused.  The bears are donated by a volunteer group called the “Teddy Bear Ladies”

Utah’s Children’s Justice Centers provide a child-friendly atmosphere designed to help children feel safe and comfortable while they are being interviewed regarding alleged abuse.


Before the interviews by authorities, such as police officers and prosecuting attorneys, and examinations by doctors begin, the children, who have been physically or sexually abused, can select their own special bear to comfort them.

The Centers request over 50 bears a month from the “Teddy Bear Ladies” to provide to these children.  The Teddy Bear Ladies is a group of volunteers headed by Ruth Stringham, age 91.

Eighteen years ago, Ruth was fighting cancer.  Determined not to feel sorry for herself, she organized a group of friends from church to cut, sew, stuff, and decorate some bears for the Justice Centers.  What started as a one-time, simple service project has now become a monthly commitment.

Ranging in ages and sewing ability, the Teddy Bear Ladies meet each month to stuff and decorate bears, which have been tenderly sewn in the weeks preceding by volunteer seamstresses. Oh, and by the way, not all of the Teddy Bear Ladies are female!

Though the work can be tedious at times, the group has committed to keep making bears — as one woman said — "as long as there are children."

One of my neighbors is a Teddy Bear Lady.  She is one of the seamstresses who sews during the month.  When she told me about the service project and some stories about the children, my heart was touched.  And, I knew that Petersen Medical employees would jump at the chance to provide some help for this project.

Each bear takes about 4-5 hours to make.  Cutting the twelve-piece pattern and sewing require the most time, so Petersen Medical offered to cut bear“kits” for the Teddy Bear Ladies. Each bear “kit” consisted of twelve different patterns pieces.  The employee would pin the twelve pattern pieces on to a double-layered fabric of their choice, cut the pieces out, and separate the pattern pieces from the fabric.  The fabric pieces would than be placed in a plastic baggie to be handed to the seamstresses to sew.  Each kit will make one bear.

For this project, Petersen Medical set a goal to cut 100 bear “kits” for the Teddy Bear Ladies.

Petersen Medical has a total of 97 employees, which include part time personnel and drivers.  We are comprised of a corporate office In Orem, Utah and five retail stores in Utah—Orem, Roy, Logan, Vernal, St George, and Blanding and one in Cortez, Colorado.  The commitment was to cut one bear kit per employee.

While we knew some employees could not participate due to schedule constraints, we asked that others would pick up the slack and cut an extra one or two kits to compensate.

There was so much activity the two days designated for the project. It was difficult to keep track of all the employees who participated.  Some took fabric home with them and cut their bear kits at night.  Some cut kits at their desks; others were able to gather around our conference table to cut, chat and snack.  While I don’t have an exact number of employees who participated, I know that over half our staff was able to participate.

We took boxes of donated fabric to the corporate from which to cut kits, but the six retail stores purchased their own fabric and supplies.  The Orem retail store even purchased two big bags of stuffing to donate to this cause.  And, even though we had boxes of donated fabric from which to cut kits, several employees still had fun purchasing their own fabric to cut .

Before the project began, I estimated that we should be able to cut around 75 kits for the Teddy Bear Ladies.
BOY, WAS I WRONG!  We gave 120 kits to the Teddy Bear Ladies.

Funny thing about this service project—it started as a service to others; it ended as a great teambuilding opportunity for Petersen Medical employees.  Many expressed how much fun they had chatting with one another while cutting fabric.  It was fun to watch the camraderie grow.

We also have employees who want to continue to help the Children’s Justice Centers and Teddy Bear Ladies.  Several plan to continue to cut bear kits for this great cause.

I believe that the children from the Children’s Justice Centers were not the only ones who got bear hugs from this service project.