Project bears out the kindness of teens

The teacher has promised the sheriff a steady supplyof cuddly 7-inch bears.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
CANFIELD -- Pssst. There's a tiny bear factory in town.
You'll find it down a hall past the cafeteria at Canfield High School.
Pause in the doorway of Terri Dance's Life Skills class and you'll see 7-inch bear patterns, bits of plain and patterned cloth (mostly felt), bags of stuffing, jeweled noses, ribbon bow-ties and appliqu & eacute; hearts.
There's also loads of those revolving plastic eyes that never seem to match.
You'll also see 21 girls and four boys sewing and stuffing bears for the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department.
Sheriff Randall A. Wellington thinks of the bears as a stress reliever.
Ever place a lollipop or toy in the hands of a crying child?
The diversion usually takes their minds off their troubles, if only for a while.
It's the kind of on-the-spot psychology grown-ups know instinctively.
It's now the kind of psychology Wellington said deputy sheriffs will use when they encounter children who have been injured in a car accident or witness domestic violence.
To ease the physical or emotional pain, deputies can now reach into the trunk or back seat of their cruisers and pull out a cuddly 7-inch bear and hand it to the child in distress.
Thanks to Dance's class, deputies have collected 96 bears -- so far.
'Good kids': Wellington beamed as he accepted boxes of the tiny creatures this week and expressed his gratitude to the boys and girls. The class has ninth- to 12th-graders.
"People complain all the time about teen-agers," Wellington said afterward, glancing around the miniature bear factory. "This is really refreshing -- it shows there's a lot of good kids out there."
Tiffany Sandrock said each student gets to pick the kind of material they want to use for the bears they make. The 16-year-old girl sewed blue felt ears together as she talked.
"I think it's a good thing to do for the kids. I don't know about boys, though, depends on their age," Sandrock said. Rethinking that, she said, "Anything would be good, even for boys."
Deputies Greg Taillon and Sara Rowney stood by as the bears were neatly boxed for transport. Taillon overhead a question put to 14-year-old Melanie Fagert about why the bears have no mouths.
"This way, they're good listeners -- they don't talk back," Taillon said with a grin.
Fagert, who specializes in eye and nose gluing, bow-tie tying and heart attaching, smiled. The real reason, she said, was lack of space on the small bear faces, already crammed with swiveling eyes and bejeweled noses.
The mouthless bears look serene. (Picture gingerbread men with ears.)
Long-term project: "It only takes a little bit of fabric to make the children feel better," Dance said, watching her class put the finishing touches on the deputies' first batch of bears. "I'd like to keep it going in the years to come."
She got the idea for the class project after seeing a picture of Wellington in The Vindicator a while back and reading about how pillows and bears are sometimes given to children who witness domestic violence.
Dance, a teacher of family and consumer science who needed a community service project, "put two and two together."
Popular with everyone: The boys in the class haven't been reluctant at all and, if nothing else, are learning the basics of sewing. They'll be able to hem a pair of pants and won't be helpless, Dance said.
While deputies collected bears at the front of Dance's classroom, Jim Likouris sat facing a wall at the rear of the busy workshop, sewing the beginnings of a black bear's body. At the next sewing machine sat Christa Rice, carefully assembling another.
Rice pointed to a midnight-blue piece of cloth lying on a cabinet next to Likouris and wondered why he didn't use it for a bear.
"I don't like that color -- it's girlie," he answered in a mock serious tone.
He then continued to construct his bear out of his more manly cloth.
Both 17-year-olds said they think the bears project is a good idea.
Danielle Terreri, 14, said sewing requirements for the class include pajama bottoms, a hanger caddy made from recycled blue jeans and at least two bears.
A reporter wondered if the students' grades are based on the quality of the bears.
"They're graded on participation," Dance hedged, smiling. "We had a couple of bears rejected that had to be sent to a sort of doll hospital."
Terreri, who had one bear that didn't pass its first inspection, nodded as her teacher explained the repair process for lumpy bears.
meade@vindy.com