wfn.org | UMNS# 05150-Huggable Friends

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Huggable Friends

Mar. 11, 2005	 News media contact:   Matt  Carlisle * (615) 742-5470*
Nashville {05150}

A UMC.org Feature
By Renee Elder*

April Harman's dad always tells her: If you can dream it, you can make
it happen.

Now, April is following that advice to help survivors of the tsunami in
South Asia. At last count, she was 12,320 stuffed animals closer to
turning her dream into a reality.

"I got an idea of what I wanted to do after seeing pictures on the news
of a little girl holding a dirty Barbie doll and standing beside a
stuffed animal that was squished in the mud," says April, 15, a United
Methodist in Woodstock, Ill. "I knew I wanted to do something for the
children."

That led her to initiate a toy drive she calls Operation Huggable
Friends. By the end of March, she expects to have 14,000 stuffed animals
ready to send to the region where 35,000 children are estimated to have
lost one or both parents in the Dec. 26 disaster.

Stuffed animals can be important tools in the emotional recovery of
traumatized youngsters, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics
Work Group on Disasters.
They promote feelings of security and stimulate imaginative play that
helps children work through their fears, the doctors say.

April doesn't need a scientific reason for her initiative. She simply
feels it is the right thing to do.

"Some of the children have just lost everything," April says. "A lot of
times, when a child has a stuffed animal, they can talk to it, even if
they can't talk to an adult. It is part of the healing process to let
out our emotions so they don't get locked up inside. A stuffed animal is
also something to hold on to."

April, who is home-schooled, first sought support for her project from
her mother, Janet, and dad, Harry Harman.

"I've been involved in the Boy Scouts," Harry Harman says, "and one of
the things we try to teach kids is that anything you can conceive of
doing you can probably get done, as long as you have the resources. So
even though I felt her idea was a little ambitious, we sat down and came
up with a game plan."

Part one of the plan was to get the message out to the community. April,
along with friends and members of her Venture Crew, a co-ed high school
division of Boy Scouts of America, began distributing fliers and setting
out collection boxes in public locations.
"We got the information out, and the response was slow at first. Then it
really took off," says Belinda Gonzalez, a junior at Woodstock High
School and a member of Venture Crew 159, which meets at First United
Methodist Church in Woodstock.

The fliers went out Jan. 15, and by early March, more than 12,000
stuffed animals had been collected.

April also called on her friend and former pastor, the Rev. Lana
Thompson Sutton, now on staff at the Wheatland-Salem United Methodist
Church near Naperville, Ill.

"I told her I think her idea is neat, and I encouraged her to call on
area schools, which might have a heart for collecting little huggable
friends," Sutton says.

The church set out boxes for the stuffed animals as well, so children
and youth attending Wheatland-Salem could make donations during the
season of Lent.

"In about two weeks, we had three big boxes collected," Sutton says.

Phase two of April's game plan involves sorting and packing the toys,
which are kept in a donated storage bin near her home.

"We look over every stuffed animal that we get to make sure it is in
good condition, as like-new as possible," April says.

April, Belinda and about a dozen other volunteers then pack the toys in
large plastic bags, with 25 animals per bag.

"We're doing that so they won't get too heavy to carry," April explains.
"If a doctor or relief worker was going into a distant area, he could
just throw a bag in his truck. It doesn't take up a lot of space."

Getting the toys to the stricken areas and distributing them are phases
three and four of the plan. The Harmans had counted on a military
transport program that allows civilians to take advantage of unused
areas in cargo planes. However, that program has been suspended due to
the high volume of military aid heading to tsunami victims, Harry Harman
says.

Operation Huggable Friends is seeking another way to transport the
stuffed animals, perhaps through sponsorship by a commercial carrier, he
adds.

Meanwhile, the Harmans are contacting embassies in Sri Lanka, Indonesia
and other affected areas, as well as looking into church-related
missions for a way to distribute the toys once they arrive. The task is
too important not to finish, Harry Harman says.

"Over there, you have tens of thousands of traumatized children who have
lost family members, classmates, playmates-people they would normally
turn to when they are hurting," he says. "No one can deny the value of a
stuffed animal in the hands of a traumatized child."

More information about Operation Huggable Friends can be found at
www.operationhuggablefriends.org.

# # #

*Elder is a freelance writer in Raleigh, N.C.
News media contact: Matt Carlisle, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5153 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.
This feature was developed by UMC.org, the official online ministry of
The United Methodist Church.

********************

United Methodist News Service
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