Schroeder’s Hometown Getting Into Christmas Picture

--A video Christmas card is in the works for artificial heart patient William J. Schroeder. The card will feature residents in and near Schroeder’s hometown of Jasper, Ind., sending their greetings to his Louisville, Ky., hospital bed as he nears his second Christmas on an artificial heart. The project is sponsored by the Indiana Health Care Assn., said spokesman Robert S. Birge of Jasper. The videotaped Christmas greetings and recorded telephone holiday messages will be played for Schroeder on Christmas Day, Birge said. “He hasn’t seen a lot of these faces or heard a lot of these voices for a long time,” said Birge. Cameras will be recording Dec. 21-22 at the St. Joseph Church, the Northwood Good Samaritan Center and at Huntingburg Memorial Gymnasium during the high school basketball game between Jasper and host Southridge. Telephone lines with answering machines will be open both days for anyone who wants to send a message. Schroeder has suffered three strokes since receiving the implant Nov. 24, 1984, and Birge said of the family and the videotaping: “They thought it just might be the boost he needs for Christmas.”

--President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, attended a benefit concert for a Washington children’s hospital and joined in singing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” at the end of the show. The concert, with performers including Pat Boone, Natalie Cole and Amy Grant, was taped for broadcast later in the evening. The President and his wife came on stage at the National Building Museum at the end of the performance, and joined in a Christmas carol sing-along. Before the show, the Reagans put two teddy bears--one in a black tuxedo and one in a white dress with red ribbons--under the tree where guests of the program placed gifts for the hospitalized children. On Tuesday, Mrs. Reagan is to present a check to the Children’s Hospital National Medical Center, donated by NBC and the sponsors of the program.

--A disaster drill with a light, holiday air? That was the idea when a message came to the emergency room at Guadalupe Medical Center in Carlsbad, N.M.: An explosion at a store full of Christmas shoppers, broken bones, burns, hysteria. But in this case, the “victims” were played by 13 teddy bears. Humans usually play victims, but hospital personnel decided stuffed animals, rather than groaning, ketchup-covered people, would be more in the holiday spirit. “They were treated just like we would have treated real people,” hospital Administrator Al Gorman said. The bears were donated to needy children after being nursed back to health.