Teddy bear hugs for pediatric heart patients
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This article was published 28/12/2021 (527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Siena Caterina Smith is on a mission to collect 100 new teddy bears to donate to pediatric heart patients. So far this year, she has collected 70.
In 2012, on Siena’s first birthday, she received open heart surgery to correct a congenital heart defect. While at the B.C. Children’s Hospital, she received a teddy bear that was a comfort to her during her surgery, recovery and her trip home to Winnipeg. As Manitoba does not have a pediatric cardiac surgical program, the Children’s Hospital Heart Centre in Winnipeg transfers approximately 100 children each year to other provinces for their heart surgery.
Now 10 years old, Siena told me that “when I was little, I had heart surgery, and I got a teddy bear. I had the idea that other kids would like to get one, too.”
That is why Siena has created a fundraiser called I ♥ Bear Hugs. She would like to collect a teddy bear to give to each of the children who will travel to have surgery, in order to ensure that each of the “heart heroes” (as the family calls them) receives a teddy bear hug to provide comfort.
Siena’s parents, Mark and Sabrina Smith, say that, “as parents who watched their daughter go through heart surgery and receive her teddy bear, Luna, following the surgery, we have seen the impact of giving another child a teddy bear to hug and love. Siena wants these bears to provide comfort to other children as they travel and go through a scary time in their lives.”
So far Siena has collected teddy bears from family, friends, and her Grade 5 class at Balmoral Hall School.
Her goal is to continue to collect 100 bears every year, in order to continue to provide a ‘teddy bear hug’ to every pediatric heart patient as they travel. All bears collected will be delivered to the Children’s Heart Centre for distribution.
If you would like to donate a new teddy bear to Siena’s I ♥ Bear Hugs fundraiser, or if you would like to donate money so that Siena can purchase more bears, please contact the Smith family at: ilovebearhugs@shaw.ca
Wendy Hrynkiw is a community correspondent for East Kildonan. Email her at wendyhrynkiw@shaw.ca
Wendy Hrynkiw
East Kildonan community correspondent
Wendy Hrynkiw is a community correspondent for East Kildonan. Email her at wendyhrynkiw@shaw.ca