| Ashforth Organizes Third Annual Teddy Bear Drive to Support Area Hospitals for Children |
Ashforth Pacific, Inc. announced they will kick-off their third annual Little Santa’s Teddy Bear Drive starting November 26 and continuing to December 21. Ashforth Pacific in partnership with Entercom Radio Portland is organizing the drive to support local area hospitals for children. The collection of new teddy bears will be delivered to children staying at Providence Child Center, Legacy/Emanuel Children’s Hospital, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and Shriners Hospital for Children.
Led by Laurie Cunningham, Ashforth established the first Little Santa’s Teddy Bear Drive in 2006, collecting 1200 stuffed bears. Last year, 2400 were collected – double the amount. “This will be a tough year due to our economy but we hope to get continued support from our tenants and the community to help meet our goal of collecting over 4000 bears,” said Laurie Cunningham of Ashforth Pacific. Lloyd District Community Association also contributes their support and has collected several hundred bears each year since 2006. In addition to the tremendous support received from the tenants and their employees at Ashforth’s owned properties, Ashforth employees also get involved on a personal level. Cunningham explained, “We feel that this drive is a particular special event due to children giving to children. Our employees’ children and grandchildren volunteer to dress up in Santa costumes accompanied by Santa Claus and deliver the teddy bears to the children which brings a personal touch to each child they visit.” “We are really excited to help make the holidays a bit more enjoyable for children who unfortunately need to stay in the hospital during the holiday season,” added Cunningham. The first delivery of the season will be to Providence Child Center on December 12th and then Doernbecher Hospital on December 18th, followed by deliveries to other local children’s hospitals. The delivery process for Doernbecher will be special this year in that Ashforth is planning an exclusive collaboration with the nursing staff, Santa Claus and Ashforth’s little Santas. They all will be stationed on the 7th floor out-patient clinic so the children will be able to sit on Santa’s lap and receive a new teddy bear. Ashforth’s little Santas will be pulling red wagons filled with teddy bears around and delivering to other areas of the floor. Individual boxes of teddy bears will also be delivered to all other floors of the hospital. Entercom Radio will be providing radio and other local promotional event support for this drive. Ashforth Pacific is organizing the event, providing access to the drop off locations and personally delivering the bears to the children. New stuffed teddy bears can be dropped off at the following Ashforth locations in Portland:
Along with the above listed locations, the following KNRK Radio Station events will also be an opportunity for people to donate with incentives given by the radio station:
For more information about Little Santa’s Teddy Bear Drive please contact Laurie Cunningham, Ashforth Pacific, 503-233-2358 LCunningham@ashforthpacific.com. |
The
drive is held to help brighten the holidays for children
who will spend their holiday season in the hospital. Anyone
can participate in this great effort by donating and dropping
off a new stuffed bear to one of the collection barrels in
eight different locations around the Portland area. Six
of the locations are at Ashforth’s buildings in the
Lloyd District and downtown Portland.
