Stuffed bears hold a message for children

Students at Weymouth Consolidated School received a special package in the mail last Wednesday when village postmaster Earl Cook hand delivered a stuffed bear to the school.

“The bear was from the Karissa Boudreau memorial site outside Bridgewater,” explained Cook. “When it was decided that the stuffed animals at the site were to be given away, Canada Post volunteered to deliver most of the packages.”

At a meeting in Yarmouth last week, the region’s postmasters were asked to deliver the bears designated for the schools in their area.

Schools in Tri-County and South Shore Regional School Boards shared 108 bears from the site and Cook returned to Weymouth with ‘Karissa Bears’ for WCS and St. Mary’s Bay Academy.

Students at WCS learned the significance of the stuffed bear when principal Larry Kelly took it to each classroom at the beginning of this week and explained why the school had the bear.

“When the students see the Karissa Bear in the trophy case, they will be reminded of a child whose life was cut short due to violence,” said Kelly.

"All students were receptive to the discussion of the Karissa Bear. They understand the seriousness of such actions against children. The students are pleased to have the Karissa Bear at our school."

Several teachers also used the bear in their classrooms as a learning tool to discuss violence against children.

“Many of the students in our elementary school are aware of the Karissa Boudreau tragedy,” said teacher Gillian Boudreau. “This bear gives them the opportunity to talk about something very real that happened not far away.”

Karissa Boudreau went missing from her mother’s car at a shopping mall in Bridgewater in late January. Her body was found Feb. 9 and her death was labeled a homicide by police.

On the day Boudreau’s body was identified, Pleasantville businesswoman Nadine Sarty stopped on her way into Bridgewater and placed a five-foot sign at the site near the LaHave River along Route 331. The sign’s height was the same as the young girl’s.

“I travel that route so I left the sign at the site where Karissa’s body was found,” said Sarty. “When I came back out from town a few hours later, the sign had grown to about five feet on each side with stuffed animals, cards and flowers.”

The idea to give away the hundreds of stuffed animals came after Sarty realized everything at Karissa’s memorial site would be destroyed by weather.

It was decided that the bears would be given to places such as schools, police and fire departments, Red Cross veterinary hospitals and animal shelters.

“I made a sign and placed it at the site,” said Sarty. “It explained that we were going to give the stuffed animals away to places that would involve children in traumatic situations.”

Many businesses, stores and individuals stepped up to help make the project successful.

“Over 730 stuffed animals were professionally cleaned, inspected and tagged with a heart that read: ‘In Loving Memory of Karissa Paige Boudreau, 1995-2008’. We received donations of every kind from cleaning the bears to storage space in order to make the project work,” Sarty said.

“I told the media what was planned for the bears and that anyone could show up to help with the packaging.”

An empty store at a Bridgewater mall was opened for Sarty to complete the project and more than 60 people volunteered to bag, tag and package each stuffed animal.

“I didn’t know what to expect. It was wonderful and it gave people a chance to do something for Karissa.”

Sarty asked the different organizations to accept the Karissa Bears “for the love of a child” and use them to not only bring comfort to a child who needed it but to educate.

“There is nothing we can do to bring back this beautiful young girl, but we can try to soothe the heart of another child who may be troubled or placed in a traumatic situation.”