Operation Stuffed Animal is this year's community service project for Leadership Catoosa, an annual nine-month community awareness program offered by the Catoosa County Chamber of Commerce.
"The idea is to provide something that would comfort someone in need," Amy Jackson, chamber president and chief operating officer, said about the project.
The original idea was to collect just teddy bears, but that was expanded to include any new stuffed animal or other new comforting items like a blanket.
Jackson, who spoke to the Chattanooga Times Free Press in a phone interview, said she encourages shopping locally, but stuffed animals bought online in bulk are cheaper and easily stored. The first stuffed animal donation was dropped off at the chamber offices Wednesday, Jackson said.
The items could help comfort a child who comes into contact with law enforcement, Jackson said, or is removed from their home by the state's Division of Family & Children Services. She said she loves the idea because it offers direct comfort to someone in need, rather than simply raising money like many leadership classes have done.
The 29 members of this year's leadership class are planning a publicity campaign and drop-off boxes that will likely start in the next two weeks, Jackson said, but community members who want to participate now can drop off items at the chamber's office at the Colonnade, 264 Catoosa Circle, in Ringgold.
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Vanita Hullander is a leadership class participant and Catoosa County commissioner. As a paramedic for 26 years, she said carrying stuffed animals on her ambulance made a big difference.
A stuffed animal or blanket could be given to a child but also an older or disabled adult involved in a serious or dire situation, she said in a phone interview.
About 100 bears have been collected by leadership class participants so far, and Hullander said she hopes this can be an ongoing project. The initial goal for Operation Stuffed Animal is 2,000, she said.
"When you look at putting them in patrol cars and maybe the fire engines and stuff like that, you can go through that (number) quickly," Hullander said.
Hullander said she can't say enough good things about her experience in the leadership class. The class has been a opportunity to build leadership skills as well as see firsthand see how different entities are run in the county.
The program is open to all chamber members, Jackson said, but until she began in 2019, she said elected officials and law enforcement didn't know they could participate. She said she made a special point to reach out to the Sheriff's Office and invite its members to participate.
"It's a great connection for everyone in the class, to see the human side of the sheriff's department. They're real people," Jackson said.
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The full-day monthly sessions include themes like local government, education and tourism/economics, and the state legislative day includes a trip to the state capital in Atlanta to meet with the governor and elected officials. The program kicks off with an overnight retreat at the WinShape Retreat at Berry College near Rome, Georgia.
The leadership class costs $750, and Jackson said half of that fee goes to the overnight retreat. Many Georgia chambers have a leadership program, she said, including Walker, Murray and Whitfield counties.
Not all of the leadership class days are easy. Jackson said the class visits the county's sexual assault center and the county's children's advocacy center. It's hard to see that those crisis situations are realities in the community, but Jackson said it's good for the leadership class to meet the people providing those services.
The class has until May to finish its project, and Jackson said another leadership class project raised funds for homeless students. Jackson said her leadership class in 2017 raised money for home-delivered meals for older adults.
"It's so fun to see folks so committed to their organizations and then how they identify a need out of the passions that are represented or things that people know about in the community that somebody else didn't know about," she said about how classes choose their service projects.
The current leadership class will graduate in June, and then Jackson said nominations for the next class will be taken. September is the kick-off for the next leadership class.
Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.