13-year-old distributes 400 teddy bears to comfort Christus patients during the holidays

Published 5:45 am Saturday, December 24, 2022

Roaming the hospital halls of Christus Trinity Mother Frances Tyler, 13-year-old BreAnn Benson had one mission for the holidays — to spread love to adult patients.

With 400 teddy bears in individual packages with an authenticity certification, Benson was ready to conduct her biggest distribution of ‘Bre’s Bears’ on Friday.

For the past six years, Benson and her mother Jeri Ann Summerville have been delivering teddy bears during the holiday season at Christus Trinity Mother Frances. This year about $3,600 was raised and bears were given to all adult patients staying in the hospital, in addition to some patients in the emergency room.

The gesture always brings emotions to the patients, Summerville said.

“Patients smile, some cry, some reach out or their families will reach out to us on Facebook at night time and tell us about their loved one who has received one and it’s a lot of tears but it’s a lot of warming in the heart. She’s spreading love and you don’t see it very often anymore,” said Summerville.

Benson said the concept was inspired through a personal tumor surgery experience and her mother who also had a surgery. During Benson’s time in the hospital, about a month, she received a numerous amount of bears. Benson noticed that when her mother had surgery, she didn’t receive any.

“My mother got surgery and was there for over a month and got absolutely zero. I got really sad and asked her, ‘why didn’t you get any? That’s not nice’ and she said, ‘adults really don’t get those anymore we just stick through it and all the kids get it,’” Benson said.

That’s when Benson thought that adults deserve to also feel loved and happy while going through difficult times in the hospital, so she came up with the concept of solely distributing bears to adult patients, she said.

“You don’t think about kids worrying about adults, they just want to go play and everything else but her heart is so big she was worried about consoling those in the hospital and making them feel loved,” said Summerville.

During this year’s visit, Benson was able to personally hand some bears to some patients, something she hasn’t done in most recent years due to the pandemic. But for most, she dropped them off at the nurse stations, all while dressed in a holiday outfit alongside her mother dressed in a Grinch outfit.

Throughout the years, Benson has raised money for the bears at the mall where she asks shoppers for donations or by going door-to-door in the community.

As the amount of teddy bears continue to grow, the support from people has also grown, such as her classmate and friend of Bullard ISD Austin Wilson who also attended the distribution event in an elf outfit.

Benson said every year she enjoys doing the giveaway of teddy bears, especially ‘lifting people’s spirits’ during the holiday season.

“It’s really fun to do it around Christmastime because some people don’t even have anybody to even come and say hi to them or have family to come,” she said.