Courageous Bears help lift spirits, raise funds for young cancer patients

When Saratoga’s Pam Dunnett saw 200 donated teddy bears sitting idle in the American Cancer Society’s Alameda office, she knew she couldn’t let the stuffed animals go to waste.

Dunnett, who works with the American Cancer Society, decided along with fellow volunteer Donna Adam, formerly of the Stanford Cancer Center Patient and Family Advisory Council, to start a donation campaign with the bears, selling them for $100 to help raise funds for childhood cancer research. Dunnett and other volunteers deliver the bears to local hospitals like Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Kaiser so that pediatric cancer patients are met with a friendly – and cuddly – face when they first arrive for treatment.

Volunteers deliver the teddy bears–clad in plastic bags to keep them sterile–to patients with a note that reads, “Sending you a bear hug.”

“They’re the most cuddly bears; just immediately you cuddle it,” Dunnett said, adding that volunteers have heard “just how great it is to have something to give to the patients when they come in. It’s just so comforting.”

The Courageous Bears campaign, is also raising funds to help put on Courageous Kids Day – a longstanding annual event at Great America in Santa Clara on Mother’s Day that offers a day of free access to the amusement park for young cancer patients and their families.

Dunnett said the event provides cancer patients and their families with a day to have fun and enjoy Great America, and to be around other families who are going through the same hardships.

“Over the years, I figure we have served some 70,000 families from all over California with this special day that we call ‘a day away from cancer,’” said Gay Crawford, founder of Courageous Kids Day.

Dunnett said the roughly 250 bears that she has helped distribute so far through the campaign have supported research for pediatric cancer, one of “the most unfunded cancers.”

“These bears have been a nice added focus for us; the kids get the bears, and the monies go to childhood cancer research,” Adam said.

Dunnett said she’s always looking for people who want to sponsor a set of bears or help deliver them to local hospitals. Contact her at pdunnett@me.com or Adam at donnabyc@gmail.com.