For Those Of You Who Are Motorcycle Riders, Come Help Out The Teddy Bear Run. It Is A Worthwhile Cause.
Teddy Bear Run will benefit child advocacy center
By ALYSSA HARVEY, The Daily News
Motorcycles will cruise Bowling Green this weekend to raise awareness of April as Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month and of services offered by the Barren River Area Child Advocacy Center with the 12th annual Great Teddy Bear Run.
“Preregistration has been particularly high this year,” said center executive director Dawn Long. “We’re expecting a large turnout.”
Registration will begin at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the Warren County Justice Center, and the parade will leave at 11:15 a.m. The riders will be escorted by the Bowling Green Police Department along the 16-mile parade route, which will continue to Veterans Memorial Lane, Campbell Lane, Lovers Lane, Cemetery Road and Cumberland Trace Road to Harley-Davidson Bowling Green.
Cost to ride in the parade is $10 and a teddy bear or an additional $10 donation in lieu of a teddy bear per bike. Proceeds benefit the Barren River Area Child Advocacy Center, which provides support and services to victims of child sexual abuse and their nonoffending family members and caretakers in a child-friendly environment.
“We give teddy bears to children coming in for medical exams. We give them to siblings, who are often too young to understand what’s going on,” Long said. “We share them with social services and law enforcement for kids who are being removed from their homes.”
Last year’s Great Teddy Bear Run raised more than $15,000. Attendance was down a bit because of weather, Long said, but the funds are a great help to the center.
“Over the years we’ve come to depend on them as a huge part of our budget. We receive limited state funds,” she said. “We couldn’t remotely serve all 10 counties if we didn’t have the Teddy Bear Run or our new gala event that is in the fall.”
The money raised from fundraisers “covers anything and everything,” Long said.
“It’s paying for lab fees for a child’s exam to utility bills to supplies for exams and our other services we provide,” she said. “We want to keep our mission and services moving forward. If we have budget cuts, these are the funds we’ll have to live on.”
In the center’s fiscal year, which ends June 30, the center will have seen between 350 and 400 children, Long said. There have been years that the center has seen as many as 500 children.
“Kentucky continues to lead in child abuse statistics. We continue to see a large number of kids,” she said. “Outlying counties use the center just as much as Warren County. We’re very much a regional center.”
The local Sun Products Corp. is a new sponsor for the Great Teddy Bear Run. The company’s Snuggle Bear will be at the event. Holly Nesbitt, community outreach coordinator for the business’s Bowling Green location, said for the last couple of years, different Sun Products locations have picked charities in the community to support. Nesbitt’s mother, a social worker for many years, told her about the Barren River Area Child Advocacy Center.
“I got on the Internet and checked out the website,” she said.
Nesbitt said the event is for a good cause and appeals to Sun Products’ local employees.
“We have quite a few motorcycle enthusiasts who work here. This is really something good,” she said. “We can work with this group and help them out. I think this is something we’ll do every year.”
— For more information, call (270) 783-4357.
By ALYSSA HARVEY, The Daily News
Motorcycles will cruise Bowling Green this weekend to raise awareness of April as Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month and of services offered by the Barren River Area Child Advocacy Center with the 12th annual Great Teddy Bear Run.
“Preregistration has been particularly high this year,” said center executive director Dawn Long. “We’re expecting a large turnout.”
Registration will begin at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the Warren County Justice Center, and the parade will leave at 11:15 a.m. The riders will be escorted by the Bowling Green Police Department along the 16-mile parade route, which will continue to Veterans Memorial Lane, Campbell Lane, Lovers Lane, Cemetery Road and Cumberland Trace Road to Harley-Davidson Bowling Green.
Cost to ride in the parade is $10 and a teddy bear or an additional $10 donation in lieu of a teddy bear per bike. Proceeds benefit the Barren River Area Child Advocacy Center, which provides support and services to victims of child sexual abuse and their nonoffending family members and caretakers in a child-friendly environment.
“We give teddy bears to children coming in for medical exams. We give them to siblings, who are often too young to understand what’s going on,” Long said. “We share them with social services and law enforcement for kids who are being removed from their homes.”
Last year’s Great Teddy Bear Run raised more than $15,000. Attendance was down a bit because of weather, Long said, but the funds are a great help to the center.
“Over the years we’ve come to depend on them as a huge part of our budget. We receive limited state funds,” she said. “We couldn’t remotely serve all 10 counties if we didn’t have the Teddy Bear Run or our new gala event that is in the fall.”
The money raised from fundraisers “covers anything and everything,” Long said.
“It’s paying for lab fees for a child’s exam to utility bills to supplies for exams and our other services we provide,” she said. “We want to keep our mission and services moving forward. If we have budget cuts, these are the funds we’ll have to live on.”
In the center’s fiscal year, which ends June 30, the center will have seen between 350 and 400 children, Long said. There have been years that the center has seen as many as 500 children.
“Kentucky continues to lead in child abuse statistics. We continue to see a large number of kids,” she said. “Outlying counties use the center just as much as Warren County. We’re very much a regional center.”
The local Sun Products Corp. is a new sponsor for the Great Teddy Bear Run. The company’s Snuggle Bear will be at the event. Holly Nesbitt, community outreach coordinator for the business’s Bowling Green location, said for the last couple of years, different Sun Products locations have picked charities in the community to support. Nesbitt’s mother, a social worker for many years, told her about the Barren River Area Child Advocacy Center.
“I got on the Internet and checked out the website,” she said.
Nesbitt said the event is for a good cause and appeals to Sun Products’ local employees.
“We have quite a few motorcycle enthusiasts who work here. This is really something good,” she said. “We can work with this group and help them out. I think this is something we’ll do every year.”
— For more information, call (270) 783-4357.
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