Stuffies for Seniors is a charity project aimed to donate stuffed animals to lonely elderly people. The project needs help from volunteers to get on track.
The initiative started in March 2015 and it was an idea of Larry McNamara, the Ottawa Citizen reports. He was visiting his mother in the Carefor Health and Community Services nursing home in Pembroke and brought her a stuffed animal. The idea was to help her take her mind off things. McNamara actually had brought a few more stuffies too, to leave around the nursing home.
“She was pretty depressed, but more than that … when I walked in the home, you’d see residents sitting in the chairs in the hall, and they’re staring at the floor. And that really, really bothered me. So I thought I could do something with my mother, and maybe there would be a little bit of after-effect”, he says.
Other seniors also liked the toys and were talking about them. So McNamara set out on social media to find donations of new or slightly used stuffed animals. He would give them to his mother who would then give them out to seniors in the home who need a companion or simply a smile.
And boy, did it have a huge effect on people. “The people that she had distributed them to, it was just like you’d turn on a light switch. All of a sudden, they’re animated, their eyes light up, they’re talking, they’re moving around. So I ended up doing some more, and some more, and some more”, McNamara says.
So then the Stuffies for Seniors started to match the toy to the receiver. For example a teddy bear in an army coat for a war veteran, or a cute singing stuffed pig for a famer. Currently more than 2000 seniors in the area have already received a stuffie via the program and are pretty happy.
Sadly McNamara’s old truck got damaged and with no insurance it may leave him with no way to collect the stuffies from the pick-up points. So there is a volunteer team of 15 people, but they need McNamara back on the road.
So on July 19th there is a fundraiser in which international author and speaker Cindy Teevens will offer a seminar on self-love and how to overcome adversity through shifting your state of thinking. But if you can’t attend or are not interested in the topic, you can always simply donate to Stuffies for Seniors.
So here is basically another proof that stuffed animals have a tremendous effect on people and can help you out in many ways and in tough times.
