Students stuff bears for sick children in Israel

Students sewed, stuffed and decorated bears for children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses Wednesday night at the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center.\n"Build-a-Dov" -- Dov, meaning bear in Hebrew -- was a social-action program, co-sponsored by Hillel, Mitzvah Corps, Rosh Chodesh and Hoosiers for Israel. After putting the bears together, students wrote get-well notes in Hebrew and tied a Hershey's kiss around the bears' necks.\nThe bears will be sent to Camp Simcha, a supervised, medically-staffed camp in New York, to be distributed to the sick children, and eventually make their way to Israel. Many of the children will leave their hospital beds to attend the camp and take part in different activities, such as music, dancing and swimming, in hopes of lifting their spirits.\n"We hope the children will love these bears," Hillel Assistant Director Jessie Mallor said. "We decided to do this program to raise awareness about various children's issues and help out kids who need a boost and who need to know that someone's thinking about them."\nAt Hillel's national conference, successful programs are submitted and distributed for other Hillel centers.\n"When I heard about this program, I decided to pick it up," said Sonya Weisburd, senior and Mitzvah Corps co-chair. "It sounded like a great idea. I hope that people had fun making these bears and learning more about the kids and Camp Simcha. Hopefully they will become more involved in even more of our programs."\nWhile students came to the program for many reasons, the underlying issue was to help out the children.\n"I came here to help these sick kids because I want to give back to those who are less fortunate," sophomore Elizabeth Rosenberg said. \nSocial-action programs aim to raise awareness about the community and issues facing the world. \n"Hopefully our program was able to show that social action is fun," Mallor said. "Students can make a big difference in someone's life. It's as simple as making a teddy bear to show sick children that they are not alone -- that people they may never have even met are wishing that they get better."\nIn addition to the bear-making, the program also held a short informal discussion.\n"We address the issues of other ways students can get involved in the community here, issues in Israel and other things we can do for sick children," said Joanna Blotner, sophomore and Mitzvah Corps co-chair. "We have plenty of community service programs such as the winter clothing drive and repackaging food at Hoosier Hills that students can get involved with. We hope that even more students will come down and get involved."\nWhile on a college campus, getting involved in community service can sometimes be difficult, but it also has some of the best rewards.\n"I came tonight to do something that can really benefit the kids," senior Alana Berland said. "When I was younger, I had the benefit of being healthy and having toys, and by doing this, we can give these sick kids something to be happy about"