The We Care Bears Project Announces Service Plans for 2016 Make A Difference Day
Student Volunteers from Wolf Lake Middle School to Participate in Largest National Day of Community Service.
The We Care Bears Project, led by Wolf Lake Middle School student, Jessica Carscadden, today announced plans to take part in Make A Difference Day, the largest national day of community service. TEGNA and Points of Light have joined together to sponsor Make A Difference Day, which has been celebrated for more than two decades annually on the fourth Saturday in October. This national day of community service connects people with opportunities to serve, increases the strength of communities and promotes civic engagement. Through Make A Difference Day, the We Care Bears Project is joining hundreds of other organizations around the country that are engaging their community in service.
Jessica Carscadden
On Saturday, October 22nd from 10:00 to Noon students at Wolfe Lake Middle School will gather together and create bags of We Care Bears to donate to local first responders. This culminates a week long teddy bear drive bear held by the school. Students will be tagging each bear collected, bagging them, and creating a note to attach to the bags.
The We Care Bears Project was founded by 13 year old Jessica Carscadden when she was just 9 years old. Her project started in San Diego, CA. with a simple teddy bear donation to her local fire station. Then she set a goal of providing 10 bags for all her neighborhood first responders. Since then her organization has provided more than 3,000 bags of bears (about 30,000 bears) to first responders all over the nation. When a first responder has a stuffed animal for young person they encounter on calls it makes their job easier (by calming the child and the scene) and makes what is often a very scary situation for the child a little bit less so.
Jessica began her life as an orphan relegated to a dying room because of a severe cleft lip and palate. She survived and was adopted by her parents when she was five years old. She has endured 5 major surgeries (with number 6 and 7 to occur this summer) and understands how calming a stuffed animal can be when you are in a tough situation
Jessica Carscadden is Peace First Fellow and 2014 Make a Difference Day Honoree, and a 2016 Care Bears Caring Ambassador– you can read more about her project and awards at wecarebears.com.
