A collection of two dozen hand-knitted teddy bears will be going to Port Moody children in crisis after making a quick stop at the Ioco United Church.
The bears, which were made by church member Lesley Ebenstiner, were blessed and commissioned into service as trauma bears during last Sunday's sermon, and were donated to the Port Moody Police department's victim services on Wednesday afternoon.
Rev. Sharilynn Upsdell said it was a passing mention of a prayer shawl she was knitting for a friend that got Ebenstiner thinking.
"She said 'I have all these bears and they're just filling up the computer room, and my husband is getting really tired of them,'" Upsdell said. She made some calls, and found the PMPD's victim services workers would happily take them.
Roselle McQuillan, the victim services co-ordinator, said the bears are a special tool when working with people who have been affected by crime or some other trauma.
"Especially for children, and not just children, actually, at a time of crisis having something like a bear or stuffed toy brings a little bit of comfort to someone going through a very traumatic event," McQuillan said.
The soft, plush bears are knitted in brown and grey wool, and sport sweaters of various colours; it took Ebenstiner about two years to amass the collection.
"If I'm watching a program or listening to music I like to keep my hands busy," she said. Ebenstiner crafts them out of spare yarn from other projects, "rather than have that yarn go to waste."
And now the bears and Upsdell's prayer shawl have inspired a whole new outreach program for Ioco United.
The kids in church the day Upsdell showed off her shawl were so captivated that they asked for lessons. A handful of church ladies happily obliged, and the kids have since been busy knitting squares that Ebenstiner will crochet together in blankets that will be donated to the cold/wet weather mat program for the homeless.
"It's exciting that this ministry has popped up out of nowhere because I was knitting a prayer shawl," Upsdell said.
