Coming up on its 10-year anniversary, UCA’s Share-a-Bear program takes time every December to spread joy through a day of food, games and presents with the help of UCA students and police departments in Faulkner County.
“It’s just a great experience because it’s a community event where children of all ages and everything are invited in, and we get to interact with them in a variety of manners,” Matthew Boyd, public information officer for the Conway Police Department, said. “There’s a lot of different games and art projects set up, and so it’s as simple sometimes as playing basketball with them, and it’s just an interesting way to interact with them and have a relationship that shows that not all police officers are bad, but it’s also the time of year where we’re trying to help out and make sure every child has some sort of present, and so those are collected along with the stuffed animals, and all the children get to leave that night with a little bit of something.”
The program started in 2014 when Sherry Skaggs, associate professor of criminology, began teaching at UCA.
Originally, the program focused solely on the teddy bear portion of the drive.
“We would donate them over to the police departments, and the police departments would distribute them,” Skaggs said.
One of the key attributes of the program is its support of police involvement in the community.
“We also have a large need in terms of law enforcement in the community with having positive interactions with our youth. And my thoughts were we can kind of put these needs together and do something to serve the community,” Skaggs said.
“Any kind of situation can be very stressful for youth, especially our youngest kids, because even if it’s something simple, like a traffic stop, a young child doesn’t necessarily know what’s going on, right?” she said. “That can be scary. So it’s a way to comfort in those situations.”
By the second year, the program was hosting the full Share-a-Bear event.
Skaggs said, “The event is open for all of Faulkner County. Family doesn’t matter, age doesn’t matter, income level doesn’t matter, we welcome everyone.”
“We do serve full meals throughout the entire event, not just snacks,” she said. “Many restaurants around town donate full meals. We do have churches as well that volunteer to come in and cook stuff like hamburgers, hot dogs. So we’ve had everything from hamburgers, hot dogs and pizza to Texas Roadhouse to Stoby’s.”
During the event, kids and families go through a wide variety of different stations.
“The stations are games. So there’s one station that’s like Simon Says, there’s another station that’s limbo, for example,” Skaggs said. “We also have more athletic stations, like basketball. We also have arts and crafts rooms where they build crafts. And at each one of those stations, they’re officers from all of our Faulkner County law enforcement agencies.”
After going through all of the stations, the kids then have the opportunity to meet Santa and collect their Christmas gifts.
She said, “We have a whole separate area that’s just our Little North Pole area. We have Santa. We have elves back there. We have Mrs. Claus back there. Now we’re even gonna have the Grinch this year running around.”
Kids don’t just get teddy bears but high-end toys like bicycles donated by Toys for Tots.
“It’s a lot of work building up into it,” Skaggs said. “It’s a lot of work coordinating with all the police departments, coordinating with my students. But you know, every year when I’m at the event, it really is fulfilling. I’ve had kids literally come up to me — and adults too — and thank me, because that’s the only meal they had that day. We’ve had kids that have come up to me and my students because that is their Christmas present that they’re getting that year.”
The 2024 Share-a-Bear program will take place Dec. 7 at the McGee Center in Conway.