The Comfort Cub has opened a new chapter – in the form of a book! Recently, for Mi Escuelita School in Chula Vista, the school celebrated new beginnings at the graduation ceremony during Sheltering-in-Place with our very own Super Comfort Cub hero!
The wonderful costume was sewn by our newest Ambassador, Amy! Super Comfort Cub was a hit as were all of the heroes, the graduates themselves.
Check out the link to a news segment Channel 8 News (San Diego) featuring our “My Feelings” coloring book! Contact us to learn more about this at info@thecomfortcub.org.
The Comfort Cub has been in the press recently as we are Gifting Comfort Cubs to people who are going through severe stress due to COVID-19 and its ripple effects. Originally our intention was to give away 1000 Comfort Cubs to underscore our 20th anniversary milestone. Today we have earmarked many of those cubs to provide to medical workers, front line responders and affected individuals of COVID-19.
Please link here if you are in need of a cub so we may learn your story.
From Jane O.
I have a niece who is 27, single, working on the front lines of COVID-19. She is a registered nurse in the ICU at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She has experienced an enormous amount of trauma while seeing the devastation of this pandemic. She takes care of multiple patients during her long nightly shifts who are in tragic despair. Several have passed away and every one of them are alone. My niece’s heart is extremely heavy. She lives alone and is frightened. We are concerned about both her safety and well-being due to this horrible experience, it may very well have long lasting effects on her mental health. This comfort cub will be a saving grace to her in more ways than one.
Guest Post by Western Reserve Grief Services of Ohio
On February 5th, 2020, Western Reserve Grief Services’ staff and volunteers held a Forget-Me-Not Retreat at Kingsville Elementary School for students who have experienced the death of a loved one. One of the highlights of this day was the presentation of the Comfort Cubs.
The Comfort Cubs, which were generously donated by The Chad Corbin Starfish Foundation, are weighted teddy bears that provide therapeutic and emotional relief using deep-touch pressure to those who have suffered a traumatic loss. For these young students, the cubs helped them to cope with the death of their special person and remember all the hard grief work that they performed during the day. One student even named her cub after a volunteer!
A very special thanks to the Chad Corbin Starfish Foundation and the Comfort Cub Organization for their support. To learn more about the Comfort Cub Organization, please visit www.thecomfortcub.org.”
We are proud to introduce Nancy L. to all of you. Nancy has a history with our founder, Marcella, having known each other since their university days at UC Santa Barbara. As their lives intersected after graduation and as they became wives and mothers, they stayed in touch without skipping a beat, and eventually Nancy joined The Comfort Cub team as one of our first Ambassadors.
We are excited to list the amazing accomplishments Nancy has achieved in the past 12+ months.
A major accomplishment was getting our Comfort Cub program approved in the very first Ronald McDonald House in the country, located in Philadelphia, PA. This particular accomplishment meant a lot to Nancy as that is where her beloved Aunt Patty was from. We are in the process of shipping our single largest order ever to Ronald McDonald House, we are so grateful to Nancy!
Nancy established an amazing connection with the Bailard Foundation. Through them we are able to fund a cub program at Sutter Health-Mills Peninsula Hospital.
Secured a program at UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospital Oakland. We are now able to provide cubs to parents, siblings, grandparents who are bereaving the loss of child.
Re-installed our Cub program within the Kaiser Permanente organization. Within some of the larger organizations we have to work through the bureaucracy to have our cubs on the approved list. Nancy was instrumental in making that happen.
Nancy was invited as an Ambassador of The Comfort Cub to join St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church of Danville, California. Their Outreach Committee serves local non-profits in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our first grant resulted in enough funding to secure dozens of Comfort Cubs for their community outreach program throughout the Bay Area.
Nancy is newly working with Dr Wendy Zachary, M.D., Director of Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP). Wendy leads Alzheimers research and is interested in pursuing a pilot program using The Comfort Cubs as a therapy tool for Alzheimers patients. She leads their acclaimed ACE (Acute Care for Elderly) program.
We are SO thankful for Nancy and her amazing ability to partner with so many organizations and all of her tremendous achievements. Nancy has opened so many doors for the Comfort Cub. We can’t wait to see what she does next!
We are proud to have partnered with the Poway community for a number of years. The events in April 2019 only served to strengthen our sense of community and resolve. Below are a few examples of our partnership with Poway. We stand united and are stronger and better together.
At Poway Unified School District each of their schools (25 elementary schools (grades K–5), six middle schools (6–8); five comprehensive high schools (9–12); and one continuation high school) have Comfort Cubs to help students going through stress or trauma. Check out the video made by the school district after a presentation given by our founder, Marcella.
Last year we received a generous donation from the team at Poway Road Mini Storage after they learned about our weighted cub and our mission. Their generous donation enabled us to give dozens of cubs to those in need.
Pictured: Susan Heck, The Comfort Cub’s Program Director (L) and Myriam Villarreal (R)
In 2017 we partnered with the Poway Women’s Club. We shared our mission which is to bring comfort to anyone experiencing a broken heart as a result of a significant loss or trauma.
We have a deep relationship with the Poway community. Together we stand strong with Poway.
On Saturday, April 27, Chabad of Poway, a synagogue in San Diego County, experienced a horrible attack. Saturday was the last day of Passover, one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar. It was late morning when a lone gunman barged into the Synagogue.
Comfort Cubs were distributed within hours of the attack. The victims as well as the Hewbrew Children’s school received cubs.
All of us at The Comfort Cub are in shock. This is our community. This is our home. We have come to the aid of others outside our home in times of unfathomable tragedy. Now we are in our own backyard responding to those in mourning, questioning the safety of our loved ones in what should be a place of celebration and worship. To the victims in this senseless act, we open our arms with hugs of love and healing. We mourn for Lori Kaye and her family. Lori, age 60, was at the synagogue to pray for her mother who had passed away in November. Rabbi Goldstein, who was injured in the attack, said Lori stood between him and the shooter when she saw what was happening. Lori’s husband, a physician, rushed to the scene when he heard about the shooting. When he saw someone lying on the ground he immediately performed CPR. He fainted shortly afterwards when he realized that the victim was his wife. Known as ‘the City in the Country,’ we stand strong with Poway. 19 years ago we created The Comfort Cub to help parents of infant loss. Today we help anyone in mourning, suffering a great loss through trauma or tragedy.
To find out what you can do to support Poway, please go to this link https://bit.ly/2GIIBqV. You can also donate to the Comfort Cub to provide weighted therapeutic cubs to those in mourning.
How you can help
The Comfort Cub is grateful to the National Cheers Foundation who awarded us a grant that enabled us to donate these cubs to the Poway community. Your donations and those from organizations like the National Cheers Foundation, provide us with funds that help us distribute cubs to a community or individual in their time of need. We welcome your personal investment, please click DONATE to help us provide more cubs where they’re needed. You may tell us what organization or person you would like to receive The Comfort Cub.
With our new BLOG, we welcome any member of our community to write a post. Our goal is to publish and share information that educates and discusses how to deal with the loss of a loved one, how to work through grief, and the amazing power of hugs and love.
What can you do?
Anyone who signs in and becomes a member of The Comfort Cub community can send a submission. We love hearing from our community. Each of you has a wealth of information that can help someone going through a traumatic experience. Sharing IS caring.
Contact info@thecomfortcub.org if you would like to contribute. Your contribution can be a poem, a personal story, a photo – we welcome what you want to share.
Here’s how to do it:
Contact info@thecomfortcub.org
We will ask for a sample of your writing, photos or other media.
We will work with you to help edit and make your content shine.
Questions? Just let us know! info@thecomfortcub.org
