Members of Key Club, Student Council and National Honors Society will distribute teddy bears to nursing home residents after school on Valentine’s Day. The organizations will be taking donations of stuffed bears from students or club members.

“It’s a great service opportunity,” Key Club sponsor Kim Saunders said.  “We have done this project for many years, and we continue to do it because it has proven to be a blessing to the residents of the homes and to the students.”

As an incentive, club members can receive community service hours for donating and taking the teddy bears to the nursing home.  Anyone can bring donations to SCI 10, rooms 104, 210 or 233.

“I would love it if we had enough stuffed animals and enough volunteers to go to 2 or 3 nursing / assisted living homes,” Saunders said.  “I can tell you from past experience [that] a student is far more blessed by going than by simply purchasing.”

Students also visit with the residents while distributing the teddy bears. Some of the residents of the nursing home rarely receive visitors.

“The residents are super happy when you go to visit them and give them teddy bears,” senior Brayden Gill said. “It gives us the opportunity to spread joy throughout the community.”