A couple weeks ago I was in a car wreck and luckily came out of it without any injuries. My passenger (my 95 year old mother) however was not quite as lucky and needed to be taken to the hospital for examination and Xrays. During the several hours I spent with her in the Emergency Room I started getting a craving for a Coke. I was tired, still shaken and really wanted a Coke. I had a $20 bill but no coins or smaller bills for the vending machine down the hall that sold beverages for $1.25. So I wandered around to see if their cafeteria was still open and finally had to stop and to get directions.

Two young men dressed in hospital blues were coming toward me and I told them my plight. They said the cafeteria was closed but then, within a split second, one of the men had his wallet out and he gave me a one dollar bill. He said there is another vending machine just beyond the cafeteria that sells Coke cans for $.75. I almost cried. It was such an unexpected act of kindness. I was so grateful. They even insisted on walking with me to the vending machine! They made my day!

I think of my teddy bear business as the same kind of thing. It gives people the opportunity to show an unexpected act of kindness to a child in the hospital. And it can really make their day – to know that someone they don’t even know – cares!