“Caller ID says Newark police and I immediately think, oh god what did I do?” Robin Broomall said.
But it wasn’t the type of call she was expecting. Instead of her being in trouble, the Newark Police Department wanted her help.
A police officer had an idea to have teddy bears made out of his department’s used uniforms to give them to kids in tough situations. To execute his idea he knew he needed the best bear maker in his town.
“I knew Robin was making teddy bears and giving them to an orphanage in the Ukraine and she was organizing efforts for that. When I saw that she was doing that I realized the bears could work but there's no way I was gonna be able to figure out how to sew one of these things,” Lieutenant Gregory D’Elia with the Newark police said.
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Broomal got to work, first creating some prototypes and now turning out 30 bears that each take an hour and a half to make.
“She is a one person show, she is doing it all on her own and they take time they're labor intensive. Each one of the bears is made with a lot of material and a lot of care,” Lt. D’Elia said.
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And now those bears have a special mission to help comfort kids.
“Even as adults, as soon as you say the police we have an immediate tense reaction,” Broomall said. “If we can help small children get over that tension at any point and just soothe and comfort them, that's what it's all about.”
The idea is that when officers go to scenes and they're dealing with someone at their lowest moment, sometimes there are kids there witnessing it. The bears serve as a way to help offer some comfort to them.
D’Elia has two children and said he would want a police officer to have to help his children in a tense situation.
“Give them that level of comfort and give them something they can identify with and let them know the police are there. Our patch being on the front of this bear lets them know that,” he said.
The bears are now a part of police officer’s patrol vehicle tool kits.
“As long as they keep sending me the shirts I can keep making the bears,” Broomall said.
