Townley Presbyterian Church
829 Salem Rd.
Union, NJ 07083
Update: April 2008
Sheryl Tangowski – Receives the Presidential Service Award for her effort in establishing a thriving Hugs Chapter at the Townley Presbyterian Church in Union, New Jersey. Sheryl and her fellow congregates have collected over 100 bears for the NJ National Guard which deployed in Oct. 2007 and 400 more are being collected for the troops which will be deploying in June. Teddies have also been sent with the troops for children in Iraq, sent to the Union County Child Advocacy division of the NJ Prosecutor’s Office and to families known to the congregation that have suffered loss. Future plans include teddies for hospital pediatric units and the Interfaith Homeless Network. Many Presbyterian churches in NJ are joining their effort as Sheryl continues to pursue her goal of comforting frightened and hurting children through the hugs of teddies with messages of care and hope.
Sheryl is a remarkable young woman and we are VERY PROUD of her! …as are her parents Bruce and Lois Tangowski and her minister, Rev. Chris Taylor. Thanks to all !!
Hugs Beginnings
After meeting Sue Lucarelli at St. Paul’s Chapel and learning of her effort to give teddy bears to children in crisis, our church decided to start a Chapter of Hugs and join in the mission. I bought a copy of Sue’s book, “T. Bear’s Tale: Hugs Across America” and told our minister about the idea and he was delighted to start collecting teddy bears.
We collected over a hundred bears and invited Sue to come speak about Hugs at our church. We all had a wonderful time and the first bears went to children of our troops in Iraq. We will surely collect more bears soon and begin to distribute to our own local counseling center and shelter as well as help with National issues. The bears looked so great peeking around corners in the church that we already miss them!
