Bear Givers Program

Bear Givers (formerly Bears 4 Kids) was founded and developed by Joseph B. Sprung as a nonprofit organization committed to bringing joy and hope not only to individuals in need but to children who can learn how to improve our world.

Bear Givers is an empowerment program developed to teach children with and without disabilities to give charity and show kindness to others with special needs. Through the program, children personally send Teddy Bears to others in need all over the world.

The gift of giving is something that we here at SLCD experience each time we receive a donation from a kindhearted person. It is also a lesson we are sharing with our students. In an effort to teach them what it feels like to give to others we've partnered with the Bears 4 Kids Foundation.

With this in mind, SLCD joined the Bear Givers Empowerment Program in 2008-2009 school year. Each student involved gave away a bear and they were rewarded with one for themselves. Every class chose a geographic location to research and they selected a charitable institution to receive their bears. The classes kept a journal on why they selected a particular organization and what it felt like to give a teddy bear to someone in need.

Recently, students wrote letters and sent the bears to soldiers at Iraq.

Here is the letter we received from Task Force 38 at Iraq. Click here for another picture from Task Force 38.

here is the podcast about the Bear Givers Program.

Click to view the Bear Givers Brochure and find out more about the program.