East Texas girl gives 400 teddy bears to adult hospital patients

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - 13-year-old BreAnn Benson delivered 400 bears to adult patients at Mother Frances Hospital Friday afternoon.

The program started back in 2016 when she was hospitalized with a tumor in her head. She received lots of teddy bears from loved ones.

But, when her mother was hospitalized shortly after, she did not receive any cuddly companions as a child usually would.

BreAnn asked her mother, “Adults are supposed to feel happy, too, aren’t they? And then she said, well yeah we’re supposed to feel happy, but we feel happy seeing our kids be happy. So, I created this charity to give stuffed animals to only adults to where they feel loved instead of just kids.”

Her mother, Jeri Ann Summerville, said she cried when BreAnn told her about the idea.

“I mean, a normal mother’s reaction, you don’t think about kids worrying about adults. They just want to go out and play and everything else. And, her heart is so big, that she was more concerned with consoling those in the hospital and making them feel loved.”

It started with just 99 bears, but this year they are giving away bears to all adult patients at the hospital, including those in the emergency room.

BreAnn said she keeps coming back because of the happiness and the reactions that come with it.

“Every year, I’ll either meet one to two people who actually received a bear, and they always say that lifted their spirits. They’re like, ‘that made me keep going,’ and that’s what makes me want to keep doing it,” said BreAnn.

BreAnn hopes to expand the program to adult patients at UT Health and eventually across the nation.

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