Pembroke Hill Chapter
Pembroke Hill School
300 Belanger Dr
Pembroke, New Hampshire 03275

Contact: Grace Forest

 

Update: February 2011, Auction and Bears & Books Raffle
by Grace

Fall has been a busy time for our chapter. September brought the beginning of school and the start of our fundraising campaign. Our first fundraiser, held in November, was a raffle of six baskets of books and bears, which were donated by school staff and friends. Monthly dill pickle sales also began in November. Hugs Across America wristbands and miniature teddy bears are being sold at our school store. Fourth graders, who read beyond the school day and met reading goals set by their teachers, tagged bears.

 

In December, a gingerbread house, made and donated by staff member Meghan Hardy and her family, was raffled. December also brought the start of a new fundraiser. To honor a friend’s or loved one’s anniversary or birthday, or just to give someone a very special gift, our families may donate six dollars, which is used to purchase a teddy bear. The teddy bear is tagged with a caring message and the name of the gift recipient, and is then delivered to a child undergoing medical treatment at one of our local hospitals. A card of acknowledgement is sent to the gift recipient. During the holiday season, families and staff members purchased 50 teddy bears, honoring family members, friends, co-workers, and teachers. The bears were delivered to the hospitals, just in time for the holiday season. We hope to continue this fundraiser throughout the year.

Many thanks to all who support our fundraisers!

 

Update: January 2011
by Grace

 

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Update: June 2010
by Grace

The 2009 and 2010 school years were busy ones, filled with new fundraisers, lots of bear taggings, and plenty of excitement.  Teachers, staff, and administration at the Hill and Village Schools volunteered their time and efforts to produce our first ever Staff Variety Show.  Many parents and students enjoyed an evening of holiday entertainment, which included the playing of musical instruments, singing, dancing, skits, and a special performance by our schools’ mascots, Hank and Valentine.

Another new and exciting fundraiser was our Auction of Student Artwork.  Students donated pieces of artwork they had completed during art classes at school.  Our art teacher, with volunteer help from teachers and staff, mounted each piece of work and downloaded pictures of them onto our schools’ website.  The silent auction was held during an evening in April, in conjunction with our annual art show and circus. All of the artwork was sold, including a fourth grade group oil painting of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”

Two more fundraisers were tried during this time. “Paws for Pickles” and “The Pickles are Coming!” were common phrases heard round the Hill School.  Dill pickles were sold at snack time once a month.  Additionally, during Valentine’s week, third graders made and sold teddy bear bookmarks.

All money collected from these fundraisers was used to purchase teddy bears. Yearly, our chapter donates 480 teddy bears to children hospitalized at Concord Hospital and Southern NH Medical Center.

We’d like to give special thanks to the Road Race Committee for donating money to our chapter.  With their help, we were able to purchase 144 teddy bears, which enabled us to provide bears to those hospitals throughout the summer months.

Most importantly, we’d like to thank all of our students and families for their support of Hugs activities throughout the year, with special thanks and appreciation for our student readers, who tag all those bears!

Update: April 2009
by Grace

New pictures of all our efforts. They include fund raisers … the kids had a wonderful time making greeting cards, decorating the walls and selling raffles for our quilt. Of course writing out tags is a special activity, but hugging the bears while we put the tags on is our favorite. Then the bears are taken to Concord Hospital nearby and patients in the Pediatric Units are very thrilled to receive them. This is fun and we look forward to doing more.

Making Greeting cards

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Quilt raffles

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Decorating the Walls

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Tagging bears

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Our First Delivery to Concord Hospital

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Update: February 2008
by Grace

Three Rivers School raised money to purchase teddy bears for Hugs Across America by selling duct tape to students to tape their principal to the wall. The principal, Mrs. Bulkley, stood on chairs against the wall throughout all of the lunch periods while students stuck their pieces of tape to her. At the end of all four lunches, the chairs were taken away and Mrs. Bulkley was successfully hanging from the cafeteria wall! The Three Rivers Student Council tagged 36 teddy bears for children undergoing medical treatment at Southern NH Medical Center in Nashua.

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Update: November 2007
by Grace

I have lots of news to share. My wonderful class of 4th graders moved on to 5th grade. Unfortunately, they are in another school across town, so I don’t get to see them. However, they wanted to remain involved with Hugs, so I contacted some teachers I knew to see if they might be willing to help us out. The student council advisor expressed an interest in the project. Four of my former students were elected as representatives and spoke about Hugs.

The council voted to support our efforts for the entire year! They will make the next trip to the hospital. At our school’s open house, we sold ice cream bars and raffled a basket of back to school treats to benefit Hugs. Now, we are going to raffle a Christmas Tree lap quilt that was made by one of the teachers. We have several other fundraising ideas for the new year. One we hope to be able to do is to set up an after school craft club. Students will make sets of six all-purpose cards, such as a birthday card, a get well card, etc. Of course, the theme will be teddy bears, and we hope to have cards ready for purchase in the spring. We plan to have last year’s founding members come back to help us out. We’re still in the planning stages, but really do hope we can pull this off.

I am so thrilled that I was able to become involved in your wonderful project!

 

 

This chapter of 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders have already made a difference in the lives of patients at the hospital.

In their enthusiastic support of Hugs, they have written a book , started a program to read more minutes and thereby get to write out tags and hug teddies, and have gotten the parent committee ( PALS = Parent Action League For Schools) to involve the entire school in the project AND have already taken their first tagged teddies to the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center. The staff at the hospital is planning a special meeting with the students to help them understand the comfort teddies bring to young patients.

I have a feeling they understand that very well!

Congratulations to Mrs. Forest and her 4th grade class for their inspiring work!!

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