Traveling teddy bear educates toddlers

A small stuffed animal will soon share stories from across the United States with a local day care center.

Local resident Cathy Widder, who operates Ct's Tiny Tots Home Care in Fort Scott, will soon be the host of "Avery," one of two stuffed teddy bears that travel the country as part of the Teddy Bear Express program. The program was started in 2004 by Roxy Finney, an infant teacher at the Springs Valley Wee Care center in Indiana, and is aimed at helping local children learn about children in other parts of the country.

To accomplish that feat, the bear makes a five-state journey, starting in Indiana, which includes, this year, Ohio, Maryland, Wisconsin, New York and Kansas. During each of its stops, the box the bear travels in will be filled, by the host, with items relative to its current location, such as photo albums, a journal and other souvenirs. Also, at each stop, which lasts for a week, the host will remove and keep some of the items put in the box by the previous host. Other items from each stop remain in the box and travel back with the bear to its original location.

Widder said Avery should arrive at her day care center, located at 202 S. Barbee St., by March 19, which is the day area students begin spring break. The wait, Widder said, has the children at the day care anxious to welcome their fuzzy visitor.

"They check every day to see if the box has come," she said. "I keep having to tell them, 'You have to wait.'"

To become either a bearkeeper or a host of the bear, the day care center must be a Provider's Playground member, Widder said. Provider's Playground is a collection of day care centers that aims to share knowledge and experience on many day care-related topics and to provide support which will help newcomers as well as experience providers, according to the Provider's Playground Web site.

A detailed application must be filled out to get involved in the Teddy Bear Express program, which includes information about the day care and the people operating it. Widder said she tried to apply to become the Bearkeeper, the person who provides the bear and gets them ready for their journey, but she was told she was a "newbie." Widder has operated her day care for around a year and a half, she said.

Widder said she considers her day care facility lucky to get to host Avery this year, as the program has only made one previous stop in Kansas in the past.

The TBE program happens twice a year, in February and September. Teddy bears are sent around the United States and Canada amongst family child care homes, preschools, day care centers, and elementary schools to visit the children as a geography lesson.