Friday, July 30, 1999
Bids on bears to brighten shelter for area homeless
BY TOM O'NEILL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
OWENSVILLE — A bridge of sorts is being built this week, all the way from the 150th Clermont County Fair to the rolling farmland of Adams County.
Today is the final day for bids on teddy bears that a group of kids from the Clermont County 4-H Club have been collecting all year from toy bear manufacturers and artists.
All the proceeds from the silent auction will benefit the Adams County Shelter for the Homeless in Blue Creek.
The shelter serves Adams, Brown and Highland counties. On Thursday, 22 of its 26 beds were occupied. Auction bids can be made today at the county fair in Owensville or via the Internet.
Most of the shelter's clients are children. One family currently there, for instance, has five children — and a sixth on the way. The number of children on both ends of this “bridge” is what has found a special place in the Rev. Ima Gene's heart.
“I love the fact that this is children helping children,” said the Rev. Ms. Gene, the shelter's director. “They have love in their hearts, and this is a wonderful thing. It seems like sometimes our children can show us the way.”
The collection effort began as the 4-H Club's “4-Leaf Clovers” program called “Collectible Project — The Art and Science of Collecting.”
They have turned it into the Art of Giving, with help that has stretched internationally.
Donations from toy manufacturers poured in. Teddy bears to be auctioned off include “Sir Koff-A-Lot” by Muffin Enterprises and “Bride and Groom Bears” from Basic Brown Bear Factory. One bear was donated from England.
In addition to the money from the auction, the kids also will donate about 150 teddy bears to the shelter. Donations of teddy bears are being accepted at the 4-H building at the fair.
“The kids have really taken to this project,” said Alex Keenan, who has two kids in the Clovers program. “They've just done a wonderful job. They deserve the credit.”
The Rev. Ms. Gene agrees.
“Toys always put a child at ease,” said the Rev. Ms. Gene, who currently doesn't have a congregation. “It's just the fact that we take in these families in trouble, try to help them get a new start. And the babies are the ones who are displaced the worst.”
The bears to be auctioned can be seen at the Web site: http://home.att.net/(tilde)
alex-lorra-keenan/Index.htm.
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