KO and Salvation Army Team Up for Teddy Bear Holiday

and the Salvation Army partnered up this holiday season to make sure every child has a gift under the tree on Christmas morning.

Because of their Teddy Bear Holiday event, 89 children will have a happier holiday.

“This was really an effort of the whole Keystone Oaks community,” said Keystone Oaks High School principal Scott Hagy. “Every building participated. Everyday we were adding 15 or 20 kids that we were helping.”

Hagy, who sits on the advisory council for the Salvation Army’s McNeilly Road location, helped create the Teddy Bear Holiday event to reach area children whose families needed a little extra help this season.

Each child—ranging in age from infant to 13—at last Wednesday’s event received a teddy bear, as well as a wrapped gift to open on Christmas morning. They gathered at the Salvation Army for pizza with high school students, who distributed the gifts. The children’s families received gift cards to a local grocery store.

Nearly every student organization in the district was involved with the project, Hagy said, as well as several homerooms, groups of teachers and staff members and individuals.

He said he was pleased to see how many students took the mission to heart.

“We wanted to make sure they had a good holiday and got everything they wanted,” said freshman Marissa Weis, a member of both the Caring Team and SADD programs. “It’s nice to see their reactions and how happy they are.”

The Salvation Army center on McNeilly Road opened in October. Because the center is so new, Major Tim Duperree said, it didn’t have the resources to accommodate the more than 400 families who applied for aid this season.

“We just didn’t have the resources,” he said. “We’re new, and we’re having a challenging year meeting goals, especially with the kettle collections.”

That’s where the KO community stepped in, he said, and raised money to help the remaining families. Volunteers and donors from Mt. Lebanon School District and individual families in the area also contributed.

“We’re grateful to Keystone Oaks for what they’re doing for us,” he said.

Al Frioni, chairman of the Salvation Army’s advisory council, said the benefit of gift and toy drives is that donors know their contribution is going to a specific person. He said he thinks the personal connection encourages donors to be more involved.

“When people know there’s a specific need for a specific person, we’ve never had someone refuse to help,” he said. “If they knew each and every story behind the kettle, they might be more likely to contribute there, too.”

But Frioni said what concerns him the most is the number of people the Salvation Army isn’t reaching. The center on McNeilley Road serves people throughout the South Hills, from Pittsburgh neighborhoods through Mt. Lebanon.

He said embarrassment, pride, or simply not knowing what the Salvation Army can offer can prevent people from contacting the organization.

“We know a number of people are falling through the cracks,” he said. “They’re not contacting us, for one reason or another. Maybe we need to find a more discrete way to reach them. We want to help them.”