Teddy bear charity comforts in times of need

It all started with a hug -- and a stuffed bear.

Sue Lucarelli was an elementary schoolteacher at the Churchill School and Center on East 29th Street in Manhattan when the World Trade Center towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001. The school, for children with learning disabilities, went into lockdown and Lucarelli was trying to console her students, some of whom had seen the towers fall on their way into school and many who lived in the area and had family working there.

Despite her attempts to help the children work through their feelings with writing exercises and arts and crafts projects, they were anxious and unsettled. At one point, a boy came up to Lucarelli and said, "All I know is, I need a hug."

Lucarelli obliged, and then handed him a teddy bear to hug, too. The stuffed bear was one of three that were passed around from student to student for the rest of the day.

"I told them if they were able to share the three bears that day, [that] they would all get bears," said Lucarelli, 71, of Manhasset. "It's just a gesture of comfort. It reduces anxiety and fear. There's something about a teddy bear."

That simple gesture led Lucarelli to create Hugs Across America, a nonprofit organization that has provided more than 750,000 teddy bears to children -- and in some cases, adults -- around the world since 2001.

The group is based in Manhasset and has about 200 chapters nationwide. The organization has provided bears to children and adults involved in every major tragedy since its founding -- and special needs such as illness or trauma.

Most recently, Lucarelli said about 6,000 bears were distributed after superstorm Sandy hit Long Island last October. A pair of them went to Myriam Neylon's two youngsters.

Neylon, 35, of Long Beach, said her son Morgan, 4, and daughter Megan, 2, were upset that they had to relocate to their grandmother's home in Freeport after the storm. Neylon's husband, Mario, 35, and Lucarelli's husband, Nick, both work in the automotive industry, and after hearing of the family's troubles, the Lucarellis personally delivered bears to the children.

"It was so devastating for my [son]," Neylon said. "He didn't know too much, but he understood. I was just really, really happy that they [the Lucarellis] did something like that to put smiles on the children's faces."

In Newtown, Conn., 2,000 bears were distributed after a gunman killed 20 children and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School Dec. 14, and another 2,000 were handed out after the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings that killed three and injured 250.

On the day of the Newtown shooting, the group was able to mail 500 bears to emergency workers there less than seven hours after the killings. All of the bears were meant for any children affected by the tragedy.

Lucarelli appeared on CNN in the days following and asked viewers to send bears to the community. The Newtown school board received 30,000 after the broadcast. They were given out at Sandy Hook and in school districts nearby, as well as at area community centers, crisis intervention centers and family service centers.

Hugs Across America responded similarly after superstorm Sandy. Each week Lucarelli and her husband filled their car with teddy bears and drove to the Rockaways to deliver them to the recovery center.

"There were mothers who came to the car and asked for the bears," said Nick Lucarelli. "The line was around the block."

Diana O'Neill, executive director of the Long Island Volunteer Center, said that in the wake of tragedies like superstorm Sandy, it's easy to see physical damage and forget the emotional damage that occurs. Hugs Across America fills that void, she said.

"It takes more than tools and equipment," O'Neill said. "It's a reconstruction from the inside out . . . What this group does is make sure people know they're cared about. They do it in such a beautiful way."

The work of many volunteers

The bears that members of Hugs Across America donate must adhere to certain guidelines. They must be new, measure between nine and 14 inches tall and be huggable -- that means no voice boxes or accessories.

Each bear is put into a clear bag and delivered to the recipient, usually by officials in charge of dealing with the disaster, including members of the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, International Aid and the U.S. military.

Volunteers, from children to senior citizens, write messages on tags, which are then attached to the bears. They say things such as, "A hug today will chase the blues away," and "Don't be sad, I'm here to love you."

Ally Speck, 15, of Manhasset, is one of the volunteers who write the messages. She learned about Hugs Across America through a family friend who serves on the group's board of directors, and said she can relate to the nonprofit's mission.

"I remember before my grandmother passed away, she gave me a bear," Speck said. "I treasure it very deeply now, so I thought that it could happen to another kid and it could help them a lot like it helped me."

Lucarelli, who attends the Sept. 11 memorial ceremony in Manhattan each year, said she monitors the news to keep tabs on when and where bears might be needed. In addition, members of chapters in other parts of the country will alert her when they learn about a person or group going through a tough time.

But the group responds to more than sudden tragedies. Every three months, Hugs members donate 130 bears to the Port Washington Fire Department for emergency workers to hand out to children in need. Each month, the pediatrics and palliative care units at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset receive about 40 bears from Hugs. They are given to sick children or those whose relatives are ill, and to children who have a new baby in the family.

"The idea behind it is that you're giving something to a child that's in an unfamiliar environment and they're scared and upset, and it's something that's familiar," said Nicole Rossol, director of patient and family relations at the hospital. "It can provide comfort to them in a time of need."

A rewarding experience

James Liu, 28, of Manhattan, has been volunteering with the group since graduating from college. For a few years, while he was still living in his hometown of Manhasset, he spent weekends handing out hundreds of bears to children at troop deployments on Staten Island.

He also gave bears to children at the Kings County Hospital psychiatric ward in Brooklyn who were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Seeing the children smile after getting a bear, and the long-term impact it had on them, was the most rewarding experience Liu said he has had with Hugs so far.

"I was giving bears to children who had seen their parents shot in front of them and killed," he said. "Years later, they're still clutching these teddy bears."

The 9- and 10-year-old students who were in Lucarelli's class so many years ago are still holding on to their teddy bears, too. Lucarelli keeps in contact with them through email and social media, and she said almost all of them reached out to her on the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks.

While it's fun and easy to volunteer for Hugs Across America, there is one caveat: Only a small number of volunteers gets to hand out the bears and experience the feeling that comes with giving a child a bear, Lucarelli said.

When asked what kind of feeling that is, Lucarelli pointed to a photo of a girl embracing a bear she had just received. Her eyes were closed and a smile spread across her face.

"It's that reaction," Lucarelli said. "How can you describe that?"