Frank Shane knows what it is like to watch someone he loves spend day after day in the hospital waiting for cancer treatment.
“My sister, Raye, had cancer when she was little and had to spend a lot of time at Children’s Mercy Hospital,” he said. “She would spend days there for therapy, and I remember someone once gave her a little bear. I thought that was something nice I could do for someone else.”
So Shane decided to organize a small collection drive, called Project Valentine Bear, at St. Mary’s High School to collect bears for Children’s Mercy Hospital. The teddy bears and other stuffed animals will be given to children in the oncology department. But soon after, word spread to other schools in the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese. Our Lady of Lourdes in Raytown came on board followed by Holy Cross School, St. Peter School, St. Stephen and St. Thomas More, all in Kansas City.
“I was shocked that there was so much interest,” Shane said. “It grew so rapidly. We have done collection drives before, but no one really paid much attention. This one seems to have really caught on.”
All stuffed animals must be brand new, per hospital rules. In addition, the donations must be made through Project Valentine Bear or another approved organization. Shane’s original goal was to collect 250 stuffed animals through the next two weeks. This week is Catholic Schools Week. A national event, it is held each year to spotlight the benefits of a Catholic education.
But Shane believes that 250 animals will be collected at St. Mary’s alone. That does not include the other five schools in addition to a recent partnership with the University of Missouri-Kansas City, which is also participating in the collection efforts.
“We thought at first that we would only donate to Children’s Mercy,” he said. “But now, with so much success, I think we might look into donating some bears to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, which uses them during domestic violence calls as well as some women’s shelters. Everyone is just coming together with this, and I think that is great.”
The project touches Shauna Bauml, a senior at St. Mary’s High School, on a personal level. At 14, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and was treated at Children’s Mercy. She said she remembers how lonely it could be in the hospital sitting for cancer treatment and having a special gift such as a teddy bear meant so much.
