From the Sherman Herald-Democrat, Wednesday, August 21, 2002
Prayer Bears for Soldiers
BY GARY CARTER
From the Sherman Herald-Democrat, Wednesday, August 21, 2002
Janelle, Terry & Kris head to Fort Sill, Oklahoma with 100 bears for our troops in Afghanistan.
The stuffed bear, clad in red, white and blue, smiles back at Terry Krawitz as she gently lays it in a box. It’s destination? To Fort Hood, Texas, to help brighten the day of a soldier being shipped off for Operation Enduring Freedom.
Krawitz, along with a dozen volunteers, have been assembling what they call “prayer bears” for weeks now, getting a shipment together for the men and women in uniform about to go overseas to fight terrorism.
Tuesday, the van was packed with the bears, ready for a short trip to Fort Sill in Oklahoma. There, the local bear makers delivered 100 prayer bears to soldiers. “These are the guys that are being deployed to the Middle East,” Krawitz said.
This weekend, the volunteers will deliver 100 more to Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas.
Earlier this month, Krawitz and the other volunteers set up shop outside of Wal-Mart, seeking donations to build their bears. While they only raised a hundred bucks, “every little bit counts,” Krawitz said, promising more fund-raising endeavors in the future.
In fact, the prayer bears are in cyberspace. You can sponsor a prayer bear for a soldier, or a cancer patient, or other special people, by logging on to www.prayerbears.org.
