Our Bear Project
It all began several years ago when Lena and Rick Whittaker moved away from the North Shuswap and went to Alberta. On their last Sunday with us in church, Lena brought a large clear plastic bear shaped container filled with about 10 pounds of pennies and donated it to St. Davids to be used for outreach. Not one to miss an opportunity, Ted Gough wrote a poem about it and invited the congregation to drop their loose change into the bear shaped jar while singing the Magic penny song (Love is something if you give it away). The response was so enthusiastic, that it became a regular part of our Sunday sevice. Thus the "power of loose change" (or the Bear Project) was born. The project is so successful that the year 2104 raised over $5,000.00, every cent spent on both local and world-wide outreach.
Nickels, dimes, quarters and
loonies
We even accept your bright
toonies
Put them together and what
have you got
In many folks eyes, a whole
lot
So locate your coins and take
a walk
If you meet a friend, have a
talk
When you look down and see
plink, plunk and plank
Drop your coins so they clink,
clunk and clank
Every sound you hear will help
somewhere
With someone who is in despair
The Bear Poem for May 24, 2015 – by Jeannine Lebans
Ted’s away for a week or two
He asked if I would look after you
I said that I wouldn’t mind
I’d make sure you were fed on time
Pennies, nickels, quarters and dimes
Now Yogi I’ll turn this over to you
So we can hear your point of view.
Well, I’m lonely all week here by myself
Gathering dust upon the shelf, so I look
Forward to Sundays, and seeing you
And yes, I get a little hungry too!
We’re so fortunate to all live here
For we have really nothing to fear
You’ve heard about the earthquakes, tornadoes, floods and such?
There are so many who need so much!
Their homes are gone, some their families too
Oh my God what will they do?
We’ll help them out all we can
For that will be our future plan!
So now’s the time for me to eat
So please-a, please-a, dig down deep.
Now I’d like to end with a little prayer
God bless you all, for all you share
For I can see how much you care
For God is love, love is everywhere.
You’ve got Canada in your pocket
Just take a look around
On the face of ev’ry single coin,
Hist’ry can be found.
There’s the beaver on the nickel
And the schooner on the dime
There are many other symbols…
But I can’t make them rhyme
So,…
Instead of in your pocket,
put Canada in the bear
so we can make a difference
for people everywhere
for, Love is something if you give it away
For the people who are new here today,
There`s
a message I would like to convey,
I look forward to `the Bear` each week
For what we do is quite unique.
We gather loose change and put it in this jar
To give to the needy whether near or far.
Yogi, `the Bear` now has the last word.
He needs to speak, he needs to be heard.
We won`t close our ears or even our eyes,
For what`s going on can`t be disguised.
I`m sure our Jesus, when he walked among men,
Would find it worse now than he did then.
The cheating, the stealing, the violence, the crime
Is all that you hear most of the time.
We see refugees with their children in hand,
Who have left their homes and even their land
What would we do if we were in their shoes?
God only knows we would have nothing to lose.
How about the orphans who have been displaced?
We haven’t heard, is that not a disgrace?
So let’s open our hearts and our country too,
For this is something we should want to do.
To give them hope, get them out of despair,
For we are a people who really do care.
So let’s not forget what life’s all about.
It’s about family and friends, and helping them out.
It’s about giving and sharing, and yes, we started a trend
By dropping our coins in our Bear’s rear end!
For love is something, if you give it away........