Don’t call her Mrs. Claus, but the title might fit.
On Christmas Eve, Michelle Ayles and her two children will distribute hundreds of teddy bears to patients at Boston’s Children’s Hospital.
“I wanted my kids to know Christmas is not about what you get under the tree,” she said. “It’s about what you give others.”
The drive was launched five years ago after Ayles had a conversation with her neighbor’s nephew, Joey. The 6-year-old suffers from Morquio syndrome, a rare progressive disease that occurs in one of every 200,000 births. Joey is one of two Massachusetts children with the ailment.
“He loved to visit with my dog, and one year, around the holidays, I asked him what he had planned for Christmas Eve,” she recalled. “He said he has to go to Children’s Hospital for treatment, and that got me thinking. How many kids have to be in the hospital for Christmas and what can I do to help?”
So the Teddy Bear Christmas was founded.
Ayles and her family collected the stuffed treasures of all sizes, from a few inches to 7 feet tall. The big ones are reserved for the hospital’s play rooms. That first year, they collected 150 stuffed bears.
“Everyone pitched in,” she said. “Friends and family spread the request by word of mouth and on Facebook,” she said. “My house was filled with teddies.”
On that first Christmas Eve, Ayles, her 17-year-old daughter Megan, a senior at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School, her 13-year-old son Brady, a Higgins Middle School student, and Ayles’ mother brought them into Children’s Hospital.
“It was life changing for my kids,” Ayles said.
That night in 2013, her mother met the Children’s CEO in the hospital’s lobby who told her they have 385 beds. That was enough to make the goal of 385 teddy bears in 2014, she said.
“And we did it,” she said. “Last year we distributed more than 1,000.”
This year, as in previous years, the stuffed animals will be given to nurses who distribute them to children in their rooms. The Ayles family and friends will be greeters in the lobby.
In addition, they plan to make a special donation to the ninth floor of Children’s Hospital in honor of Ella O’Donnell. The Peabody girl died last year from a brain tumor, one month before her 11th birthday.
Ayles refuses to take the credit for the program’s success. She said it’s a result of generous donations from families and businesses in Peabody, Lynnfield and all of the North Shore.
The 47-year-old mother of two credits what she calls an army of people, including Northrup Associates, Coca Cola, the North Shore Dance Academy, ReMax on the River, the Peabody Public Schools, and more to make it a success.
“Everyone rallies around this,” she said. “It’s the real spirit of Christmas.”
Renee Bouchard, whose son inspired the teddy event, said the number of children who receive a stuffed animal keeps growing every year and she couldn’t be happier.
“It’s been so much fun to see it all come together,” she said. “It’s wonderful that every child can get a teddy bear at Christmastime in the hospital.”
