Woman Shows She Cares With Bears for Children in Kosovo

Roberta Sherman felt her heart wrenching as she watched small children and their weary mothers leave behind everything to escape ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.

The 27-year-old Thousand Oaks woman, who knows from her 2-year-old daughter how important small comforts are to a child, began to think of ways she could help relieve some of the suffering she saw daily on TV news reports.

Her membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and her calling as homemaking leader in the Thousand Oaks First Ward provided her with a way to make a difference.

Her effort is one of many by religious organizations around the county and beyond in response to Kosovo, Columbine High School or Hurricane Mitch--wherever help is needed.

“I asked women from the Relief Society of our ward to donate fabric, stuffing and their time to make comfort bears,” Sherman said this week.

The Relief Society is the church’s women’s organization, and comfort bears are simple 7-inch pieces of fabric cut into bear shapes, sewn up and stuffed. Sherman plans to get the young women’s program of her ward involved too.

Sherman also is seeking donations of clothing, bedding and personal hygiene items.

Deseret Industries in Los Angeles, a thrift-store arm of the church’s welfare program, will pick up the items earmarked for the Kosovo refugees.

From the Los Angeles unit of Deseret Industries, they will be taken to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they will be packaged and shipped to Kosovo.

Earlier this month, Mormon Church President Gordon B. Hinkley told 2,200 members of the World Affairs Council, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to educating citizens on issues of global importance, how his church is able to respond quickly to crises around the world.

Because the church does not have to go through bureaucratic red tape, he said, it has been able to quickly send tons of food, medical supplies, educational material and millions of dollars in cash to places such as Mexico, Bangladesh, China, Bosnia, Rwanda, North Korea, Central America, United States and now the Balkans.

The church sometimes works with nonprofit agencies such as Mercy Corps International, American Red Cross, Red Crescent, Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity and Catholic Relief Services, he said.

Father Mike Jennett of Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church in Ventura said that many of his more than 3,000 parishioners also have sought out ways to help those who have needed assistance in Kosovo, in tornado-torn Oklahoma and in hurricane-lashed Central America.

“Our kids, our eighth-graders, stood out in front of the church one Sunday and collected donations to help those who were hit by Hurricane Mitch,” Jennett said.

They decided on their own to take up the collection, he said.

Such collections are sent to the archdiocese, which forwards them to the bishops in the area of the crisis who can use them to purchase what is needed, he said.

Donating cash to the Red Cross or to Catholic Relief is also encouraged, Jennett said.

“I’m glad to say many of our members have been very generous and have sent thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to help people far away,” he said.

The Rev. Alan Gorsline, senior pastor of St. Paul United Methodist Church, has also felt the joy of seeing the generosity of the 475 members of the Oxnard church.

“Much of our congregation has known poverty,” said Gorsline. “But they gave over $400 to an offering to be sent to Church World Services.” Such money usually would be used to assist those in need locally, he said.

But Kosovo has struck a chord, he said.

“I think most churches have taken up some kind of an offering,” Gorsline said. “Kosovo is so far away, but what is going on there is very close and reminds us what can happen if people hate and distrust others because of religion or race.”

Many relief agencies prefer cash donations. But those like Sherman, who hear about tragedies and want to create their own projects, can call Deseret Industries and set up a pickup appointment.

“We have service project guidelines describing what is needed that include patterns for wooden toys and instructions on how to crochet bandages for lepers,” said Phyllis Driggs, president of the Thousand Oaks Stake Relief Society.

Hygiene kits with soap, towels and other necessities and school bag kits that include pencils, erasers, paper, scissors and other items are also needed.

But what Sherman is doing came from her own creativity and compassion.

“I know what we’re doing is not even a drop in the bucket, but it’s better than doing nothing,” said Sonya Erickson, 29, who helped make the bears. “The kids who will get these bears had to leave home suddenly and probably don’t even have a toy.”

FYI

Anyone interested in organizing a service project or sending used items in good condition to places around the world may contact Deseret Industries in Los Angeles at (800) 427-5597 from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. Trucks are sent to Ventura County weekly. Items may be designated for certain destinations or sent to the warehouse to be distributed as needed.