Sometimes you

just need a bear hug.

And that's

what the ladies of Fayetteville Church of Christ are giving children in

Fayette Community Hospital's emergency room.

The "bear

hug" program, as it is known among the church women, provides 11-inch,

hand-made stuffed bears to children who come into the emergency room,

and sometimes older adults benefit as well.

Children come

into the emergency room frightened, in pain, and confused, says Ann Van

Remmen, pediatric RN in the emergency room. It's not enough to treat the

little patients physically, she says.

"We love

this program," she says. "It helps make for the overall warmth

and care that our pediatric patients receive. We love that we can always

count on the supply of these bears being there and the heart that was

put into them."

The bears are

used in a variety of ways, says hospital spokesman Ryan Duffy. Sometimes,

the nurses and doctors have trouble examining a child who is upset.

"If you've

got a screaming child, sometimes it's hard to listen through a stethoscope,"

says Duffy. A bright cuddly toy can calm a child and allow the examination

to go on, or can comfort one during the sometimes long waiting period,

she says.

Making sure

that anytime there's a child who needs to be comforted there's always

a cuddly bear available is not an easy task.

Thirty-five

teams of women cut, paint, sew and stuff the bears, and 17 women work

alone, making whole bears a total of 71 women and two men participate.

The program's coordinator, Betty Jo Nash, provides the final touch, tieing

a color-coded ribbon around the neck of each bear.

That's a lot

of effort, but a lot of bears are needed. The hospital gave away 300 a

month during the past year, the first year the program has been in existence.

And during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season last year, more than 500

bears were given.

Church members

check regularly to make sure the ER never runs out of bears.

The program

is not original to the Fayetteville Church of Christ. One of the ladies

visited a church in Florida, saw the program in operation there and brought

the idea home.

It's been in

operation here for about a year.

Duffy says

from the project's inception, the church members have been ready and willing

to do whatever was necessary to make it successful.

"They

were very careful to come and check with us to find out how to prevent

infection, and learn about issues of health and safety ... they've just

been great," she says.

Hospital volunteers

recently had a luncheon to thank the church ladies for the help they've

received from the program, and Wal-Mart has been so impressed that the

store has set up a monthly contribution to help pay for materials.

"The responses

from the recipients make this project worth the few cents and time it

takes to develop it," says coordinator Betty Jo Nash.

As for why

the church ladies are willing to work so hard, Nash quotes Matthew 5:16

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good

works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (KJV).