"Trauma bears"

[CaptainGonzo]

Does your FD hand out "trauma bears" or other stuffed animals to young children involved in medicals and MVA's, and if you do, do you have a special name for them?

We started giving them out two Chiefs ago. The Chief's nickname from his days as a jake was "Skee", so they were called "Squeezie Skeezies". The next chief's last name was Kyle, so they then becam "Kyle's Kritters".. now that we have a new Chief, we have to come up with another name for them... maybe the "Adams Ark" collection? ;) :D

[spearsm]

Yes, indeed!
The only one that we try to keep is the "Sparky" on the dash of the Rescue truck.

We don't really have any names. I guess we haven't really thought about it.

[IACOJRev]

I keep a box of bears in the trunk of my car (I travel to incidents in my POV). They don't have names -- if I name them, I'll get attached to them and want to keep them ;)

[fireguy919]

Yes we do. We have a couple of the guys buy them here and there. We only go throught a couple a year (thank god) due to us being small town

[skyraider]

We keep a variety of zoo critters (bears, snakes, cats, dogs, tigers, etc.) on the ambo to appease boys, girls, and kids of different ages. I, like the Da Rev, keep some in my POV as well. Must admit...I did keep one to myself (but will part from it should I need to)! :p

[jerrygarcia]

Yes we do. The attached website will describe our program. It is called
'Sarami Bears' here. Sarami was the late daughter of a Battalion Chief on the KCFD, since retired, and it was her idea to give out her stuffed animals to hurting, frightened children.

Sarami Bear Program (http://www.sarami.org/)

Sarami Bear Program - KCFD (http://www.kcmo.org/fire.nsf/web/sarami?opendocument)

:cool:

[SSTONER]

Does your FD hand out "trauma bears" or other stuffed animals to young children involved in medicals and MVA's, and if you do, do you have a special name for them?

We started giving them out two Chiefs ago. The Chief's nickname from his days as a jake was "Skee", so they were called "Squeezie Skeezies". The next chief's last name was Kyle, so they then becam "Kyle's Kritters".. now that we have a new Chief, we have to come up with another name for them... maybe the "Adams Ark" collection? ;) :D

We have a group of retired ladies who make bears for us to give to children at fires or EMS calls. We also receive donations from the public every now and then i.e. beanie babies etc....

We usually let the child name the bear/stuffed animal.

[MalahatTwo7]

Yes, we do (or "they do" LOL) The Rescue truck carries a min of 4 bears at all times.

[Plattsfire2]

There is a local church group who made about 200 little teddy bears about a year ago, and presented them formally to the F.D. Was real nice, until we got to take a peek at some, and wouldn't you know it, they were the ugliest bears I've ever seen. Not trying to be rude, but they were really unattractive. We all sucked it up and showed our appreciation anyway, but now the bears are in a bag shoved in the corner of the mower shed. :eek:

[jerrygarcia]

We usually let the child name the bear/stuffed animal.


No different here, just the program is called 'Sarami'.

:cool:

[JackTee09]

That is a great program. Never heard of it before but sounds great.

[SSTONER]

No different here, just the program is called 'Sarami'.

:cool:

I cant view links that are outside of firehouse forums/website - they have locked us down pretty good here at work - we get this site and local newspaper online and thats it!

I usually have to wait til I get home to check out everyones links - the only other problem is that I live out in a Rual area and I only get dial up :( and some links to videos I have to not bother trying to view.

[Weruj1]

we have one right in our Pedi bag .........we let the child name the critter...........and get them mostly donated ............I am sure we would buy them ourselves if needed. Luckily as previously stated, we dont have to give out to many.

[lvwrench]

:) Got them here too Cap and they are just called the Hug-A-Bear program. No individual names.

[mcaldwell]

Yes, indeed!
The only one that we try to keep is the "Sparky" on the dash of the Rescue truck.

We don't really have any names. I guess we haven't really thought about it.

We also have one Sparky the fire pup left, and it too stays on the dash of the Rescue Engine.

We have about a half dozen little bears left that we hand out to the kids. they originally came from a power company/fire dept collaboration several years back, but I don't think they are distributing them anymore. We will have to find a new one soon.

[CaptainGonzo]

Our "names" are just what we call them... for example, "hey probie... get a few more Kyle Kritters out of the medical room!"

The last bunch were donated by a furniture store in town.. they dropped off a large bag full of Ty Beanie Babies!

[BFDLT32]

Short answer is yes. All medic units carry a varity of stuffed animals. All are/have been donated by local residents and businesses.

[hwoods]

I have no clue where the name came from, but they're called "Care Bears" here, and yes, we carry them, and give out quite a few. They're donated by several local groups.

[Dave1983]

Yes, indeed!
The only one that we try to keep is the "Sparky" on the dash of the Rescue truck.

Cool! We have a Taz on the dash of our first out rigs. :cool:

My FD has a bunch of stuffed animals. We've had bears donated by State Farm, then we we have a bunch that some of the FF's wives have bought at local thrift stores and garage/yard sales. I know my wife picked up 2 large garbage bags full from Goodwill for about $20. :)

[Medic9914]

In NE we have the "Medi-Tedi" program. HHS gives agencies teddy bears. When you give one out you send in a card and they send you another.

[batchief99]

We carry them and went real simple for a name. Boo Boo Bears. They work well in patient eval with scared kids. Show me on the bear where you hurt. Calms the kids, helps us out and the kiddos get treated quicker.

We get most of them (the bears not the kids) from service groups. We did get a bunch from the local Hallmark store one year. They had some stuffed dolls they couldn't move so they moved them out to us. Very nice of them.

[LACAPT]

We have recently purchased dalmations with a fire helmet on. Put out a contest to the kids in town last Fire Prevention week and had our dogs named "Courage". They work just about as good as entonox. :D

[martinm]

In the UK they're known as "Trauma Teds". Many services cary them and our excellent Benevolent Fund sells them as fundraisers.

[arhaney]

We don't have names for them. But we do keep a good supply on the rescue unit. The local Girl Scout troop raised money and bought them for our use, which I thought was really nice. :)

[sbfdco1]

:) - We have the Beanie baby bears as well. I think they're a great idea. Come to think of it though, I'm not sure who actually suppleis them. They just always seem ot be there. And no, we don't name them, at least not to my knowledge.

[Firefighter2230]

We keep them on all of our apparatus and hand them out like everyone else does that has posted. It was something we kind of did for a while but two years ago my aunts 18 month old son died and since then we hold a toy drive every year in december since thats when he died and collect stuffed animals for that reason as well as other toys that my aunt and her husband give out to familys who need it.

[Buzz363]

We carry Trauma Pups on our rigs. They're nice to hand out to kids who've lost their toys in a fire or just been in an MVA.

[firenresq77]

We got em, but no name for em......... I think the ones we have right now are lil stuffed Rhinos in a coat and helmet.....

[FB1138]

We have small teddy bears. A local resident sews t-shirts for the bears with our name on them. We also have an assortment of stuff animals that the local stores donate or the local schools collect for our use.

Great tool to help a child through an emergency.

We also carry a soft foam-like bear that we hook oxygen to. This works well when the child won't keep a mask on.