The Theodore Roosevelt Association held a reception to announce the nationwide expansion of their annual Teddy Bear Gift Program. Guests gathered appropriately in the Theodore Roosevelt Room at the Milleridge Inn on Tuesday, Dec. 18.

TRA President James Bruns announced that their program of bringing Teddy Bears to children's hospitals at Christmas time will be expanded nationally in 2008, although without the holiday time frame. Since starting the annual Teddy Bear Gift Program began in 1986, the TRA has distributed over 62,000 Teddy Bears to sick children. Prior to this year, they were given out in New York City, TR's birthplace.

In 2007 they planned to give out 4,000 Teddy Bears to children in New York hospitals. Next year, Jim Pehta, Teddy Bear Program committee member said, they will be giving out 8,000 Teddy Bears to various children's hospitals in areas where there are TRA chapters. Mr. Pehta retired from his computer software business when it was sold to Pitney in 1991 - to devote himself to public service. He worked with Jim Bruns in Washington, D.C. when the National Postal Museum was created. Mr. Pehta was the business chair of that group. "He and I created the basis of the National Postal Museum in Washington D.C. I have experience in networking to help him build something," Mr. Bruns said.

President Theodore Roosevelt is synonymous with the Teddy Bear. He was a conservationist who also loved big game hunting, but on one trip to the south in 1902 he refused to shoot a helpless tethered bear, prompting political cartoonist Clifford Berryman to pen a cartoon showing the President, "Drawing the line in Mississippi." The cuddly cartoon bear in Mr. Berryman's drawing soon became universally recognized as the alter ego for the nation's 26th president. It was used in countless Berryman cartoons as the graphic surrogate for the president, such that whenever readers of the Washington Post, and later the Washington Star, saw Mr. Berryman's Teddy Bear, they knew his cartoon was about TR. Inspired by that cartoon, Morris Michtom, the founder of the Ideal Toy Company, created the now famous "Teddy Bear." The toy version quickly became the beloved companion to millions of children who are seen as drawing comfort from their loveable plush bear. Countless sick and cranky children have been pictured as tearfully falling asleep clutching their worn out tattered Teddy Bears tightly in their arms.

"Theodore Roosevelt has been called the 'Father of the Teddy Bear' ever since the famous illustration by Mr. Berryman appeared," said Barbara Berryman Brandt of New York, the chair of the TRA and co-chair of the annual Teddy Bear Gift Program. The committee includes Tweed and Leslie Roosevelt of Massachusetts, Mrs. Brandt's husband Roger, and James and Marjorie Pehta of Illinois.

"This program began two decades ago in New York City, where Theodore Roosevelt was born, where he grew up, and where he was himself often bedridden with childhood illness. And now the Theodore Roosevelt Association hopes to reach out to sick children in other communities around the country," said Tweed Roosevelt, a great-grandson of TR and a co-chair of the annual Teddy Bear Gift Program.

Jim Bruns asked the group if they had had a Teddy Bear as a child and said he had. "Teddy Bears are there to confide secrets to; to absorb pain and sometimes anger." He added, "Unfortunately, there are many children who don't have a Teddy Bear to cuddle in their arms as they undergo serious medical treatments. They have no Teddy Bear to share their pain and absorb their tears."

Subject to the approval of the individual hospitals, the TRA hopes to provide Teddy Bears in areas where there are TRA chapters. They include Atlanta, Georgia, to Children's Healthcare Atlanta (468 bears); Austin, Texas, to the Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas (108 bears); Bayside, New York, to St. Mary's Healthcare System for Children (108 bears); Boston Massachusetts, to Children's Hospital Boston (360 bears); Buffalo, New York to the Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo (144 bears); Chicago, Illinois, to Children's Memorial Hospital (252 bears); Dallas, Texas, to the Children's Medical Center of Dallas (432) bears; Indianapolis, Indiana, to the Riley Hospital for Children (288 bears); Nashville, Tennessee, to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt (216 bears); New York City to the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York (216 bears); Norfolk, Virginia, to the Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters on behalf of the sailors and Marines serving aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71); Portland, Oregon, to Legacy Emanuel Children's Hospital (180 bears); Seattle, Washington, to Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center (252 bears); and Washington, D.C., to the Children's National Medical Center (216 bears).

As in the past, selected hospitals in the New York City area will also continue to receive Teddy Bears in 2007-2008.

The TRA gift Teddy Bears are 12 inches tall and meet all United States government product safety requirements.

Mr. Pehta said, "We hope that others are willing to help comfort a sick and scared child battling a serious illness or recovering from major surgery by giving them a Teddy Bear." Sympathetic donors wishing to support the Teddy Bear Gift in other communities should contact the TRA by calling 921-6319 or by writing to the association at Post Office Box 719, Oyster Bay, NY 11771-0719.

At the Teddy Bear reception Mr. Bruns described the Rossin portrait of TR that was unveiled at the 2007 annual meeting in Boston. Mr. Bruns said it took two weeks for the gifted artist to create the portrait. At the Teddy Bear reception two prints of the original 48" x 48" painting of TR were offered in the silent auction. Presidential artist Rossin (born Rossen Raytchev Raykov in Bulgaria who now lives in Atlanta) has painted both President Bushs' portraits.

The Rossin portrait of TR print #2 was won by Sagamore Hill park ranger Howard Erlich of Northport. Shawn Thomas of Bay Shore won the Rossin print #100. The opportunity to wear a hard hat and use a chrome shovel at the ground breaking of the proposed TR museum was won by George Preston of Muttontown. The American flag that flew over the USS Constitution on Oct. 27 was won by Shawn Thomas. He also won a salute shell casing, fired in a 21-gun salute from the USS Constitution. Participation in the Teddy Bear gift program was won by Norman and Linda Parsons of Sea Cliff. Dagmar Karppi of East Norwich won signed copies of Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris and Edith Kermit Roosevelt: A portrait of a First Lady by Sylvia Jukes Morris (both of whom she met at the Hofstra University conference on Theodore Roosevelt several years ago). Joni and James Foote won a dinner at the Milleridge Inn. He is Jim Foote, TR impersonator, and said he was in Norfolk, Virginia on Dec. 15, meeting the men and women of the USS Theodore Roosevelt that is currently docked there.

Mr. Bruns said going national with the Teddy Bear gift program is the first step in making the TRA a national society. The Teddy Bear program he said is their service project.

The TRA was founded in 1919 and chartered by a special act of Congress in 1920 to perpetuate the memory and legacy of the nation's 26th president of the United States.