Charles Wood and Paul Newman founded The Double H Hole in the Woods Ranches that are all around the country for critically ill children aged 6-16. We are lucky to have one close to Tamarac in Lake Luzerne, NY. We are also lucky to have Virginia Hanby, a retired Tamarac Elementary teacher who is involved with Bridging People and Places (www.bridgingpeople.org), an organization dedicated to helping wherever help is needed. One of the places that needed help was the Lake Luzerne Double H Hole in the Woods Ranch.

Through the efforts of our local Bridging People and Places chapter each camper receives a teddy bear, dressed to the nines, in a Bear Den bag. Mrs. Hanby began working with Bridging People and Places while still a teacher at Tamarac and involved her students in giving the bears lots of hugs and love as they dressed them, so the bears could pass the hugs and love along to their recipient. She also got Tamarac involved in decorating the Bear Den bags with happy, hopeful images drawn by children. Our students decorate between 800 and 1000 bags each year which are quickly used up by the camp.

Mrs. Hanby also works with individual classes to create personal quilts for local shelters using the children's artwork on each of the squares of the quilt. She comes into classes, explains about the homeless or those who need to reside in shelters and then helps the children think of ideas for their square. The children create wonderfully endearing pictures which Mrs. Hanby then sews into quilts.

She and another retiree work with Kids Care Club in the Middle School teaching knitting and quilting so the Middle Level students can work on these projects. Parents volunteer to do preparation work for the quilts or actual quilting as well. Staff members contribute their efforts by knitting the sweaters and hats that the bears wear.

The children learn compassion and empathy during this service-learning project and our school community works together to help those in need. This project receives support from the Learn and Serve America grant that helps with many of our projects.