Local girl donates birthday gifts to CARE House

For the first 11 years of 12-year-old Jennifer Price’s life, she received gifts for her birthday. But when that special day rolled around this year, she decided to give.

Instead of a traditional birthday party with cake, presents and games, Price and her birthday guests made clothing for stuffed bears and donated the toys to the CARE House of the Pee Dee in Florence.

The CARE House is a nonprofit organization that provides services to children who may have been physically or sexually abused.

Jennifer said she learned about the CARE House this year when she participated in a youth group from Highland Park Methodist Church. The group painted a mural on the walls of the agency’s waiting room as a summer project.

“I was looking for something to make my birthday party special,” Jennifer said. “I knew that all my friends were pretty creative.”

With the help of her grandmother, she and her friends created unique costumes for the bears.

“We had a bride (costume), we had one with pajamas on — it was all different,” Jennifer said.

It took the group about five hours to create the gifts for the CARE House children. As they designed and sewed, the group also baked fudge and brownies for the McLeod Hospice House, Jennifer said.

Once all the bears were dressed, she and her friends left her home and walked a few blocks to the CARE House and delivered the surprise gifts.

Anita Throwe, executive director of the CARE House, said the staff members were caught completely off guard and weren’t expecting a parade of children carrying bears to show up at their door.

“I didn’t know. It was a pleasant surprise,” Throwe said.

An abused child’s visit to the CARE House could include a physical examination and candid interviews. The bears were given to the children as gifts to comfort them, Throwe said.

“We call them the ‘CARE Bears.’ It’s a positive thing,” Throwe said. “(The bears) are things to love and to hug as a reminder of how good we were to them.”

Less than a month after the donation, all but one of the bears have been placed with children, she said.

Jennifer’s gesture of kindness seems to have inspired other youths to give, Throwe said. Another local girl who will soon celebrate her birthday has expressed interest in carrying out a similar project, she said.

Jennifer said giving gifts instead of receiving them for her birthday this year made her feel “really good.

“I feel like I was helping somebody that really needed it. I was helping somebody while (I) was having a good time,” she said. “It’s that bubbly feeling that you get.”

Jennifer said her friends felt the same way and were happy to help in any way they could.

“It was fun. They had a good time, I had a good time,” she said. “It makes birthdays more memorable when you’re helping somebody else out.”

For more information about the CARE House and its child abuse prevention and educational programs, call (843) 629-0236.