By JOYANNA LOVE/Senior Staff Writer

CLANTON —Chilton County High School FCCLA students helped spread cheer to children by making and delivering teddy bears made from towels.

Through “A Beary Special Friend,” students created 60 bears for children served by Butterfly Bridge and St. Vincent’s Chilton.

Students delivered the bears to the facilities on Feb. 6.

President Breigh Anna Alford said the original plan had been to deliver the bears directly to the children, but this was not feasible.

“We decided to stay in Clanton to have an impact on our community,” Alford said. “With Butterfly bridge, they … have kids and they bring them in for interviews and afterward they have a room full of teddy bears, and they get to pick a teddy bear.”

Butterfly Bridge is the Children’s Advocacy Center for Chilton County and serves children who have been the victims of abuse and neglect or been a witness to a violent crime.

Molly Desmond, vice president for FCCLA, said the materials were purchased through donations on Donorschose.org.

“I found a video on Facebook that showed you how to make bears out of hand towels. I thought that my FCCLA could make the bears and we could donate them to places around Clanton. I went on to Donorschoose.org and set up a website where people can donate to our class project,” FCCLA sponsor Cami Hawk said.

Four donors made the project possible, including a match by AT&T of an employee’s donation.

Alford said it took a while to figure out how to make the bears because the original video completed the project so quickly. She said the officers looked for other videos of how to make the bears in order to complete the project. Once the officers figured out how to compete one bear, making 60 of them only took the club a few days.

“The towels were all different colors, then we had different ribbons. They were cute, ” secretary Anna Horn said.

Horn said all of the FCCLA members were involved in completing the bears.

“I just enjoy being a part of the community and helping out,” Desmond said.

Treasurer Sara Nolen said she enjoyed seeing the group come together to make the bears.

“It was also fun to see the people we delivered them, their faces. They were very grateful,” Nolen said.

FCCLA stands for Family, Career and Community Leaders of America