Blessed Event

The Blessing of the Bears is a warm and fuzzy tradition at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School (HIES). Or you could call it a particularly blessed event.

Each December, third-graders bring to school new teddy bears to be donated to charity. This year, the children’s gift benefits Emmaus House, a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta that provides education, opportunity, assistance and advocacy to the underserved.

Before the teddy bears leave campus, however, young Holy Innocents’ Golden Bears attend a special chapel service in which the gifted bears are blessed. Lower School Chaplain Timothy Seamans did the honors this year at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church.

“The Blessing of the Bears is a tradition that highlights the importance of working to serve others in Atlanta,” Seamans explained. “Third-graders make a commitment to independently raise money, most performing chores for families, neighbors, or friends.

“With those earnings, each student purchases a teddy bear as Christmas gift for a child at the Emmaus House. To underline that our call to service is linked to our faith in God, before sending the bears off we give them a blessing.”

The teddy bears are also sure be a blessing this month to some of the 800 children at Emmaus House who will attend the Christmas Eve Children’s Festival there, said Executive Director Joseph Mole. The children gather to celebrate Christmas and receive gifts from Santa and Mrs. Claus.

“The holidays are a time of both hope and struggle in neighborhoods like Peoplestown, where the per capita income of residents is less than half that of residents city-wide,” explained Mole. “These Holy Innocents’ teddy bears will bring so much joy, especially to our younger children, for whom this festival is a highlight of the Christmas season.”

Emmaus House offers some 100,000 hours of programs and services a year, serving people of all ages and directly addressing “the staggering prevalence of poverty in the neighborhood,” according to the group’s website.