Deadline extended to brighten a child’s hospital stay with one of our nursing bears!

We would like to thank all of you that have so far supported our B.E.A.R.S. program! So far we have over 200 bears sponsored for children in hospital care! This will allow us to deliver bears to at least two regional hospitals. However, we have a ways to go…

We will be delivering bears to Florida Hospital Tampa and Sarasota Memorial Hospital in December, Tampa General Hospital in January, and St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital during the week of Valentine’s Day. Every hospital we visited was EXTREMELY excited about us being able to deliver bears to their children this holiday season.

Many of our alumni, faculty and friends plus the Undergrad Student Council and Student Registered Nurse Anesthesia Council have come together to support this great program. Yet, we still need more bears to be sponsored in order to meet our goal of getting bears to all of our area hospital pediatric wards.

USFCON BEARS mailer and form – deadline extended

Many of our alumni, faculty and friends plus the Undergrad Student Council and Student Registered Nurse Anesthesia Council have come together to support this great program. Yet, we still need more bears to be sponsored in order to meet our goal of getting bears to all of our area hospital peds wards.

For those of you that are not yet familiar with B.E.A.R.S., the program will be available for sponsorships even after the October 15 deadline and it was designed to address several needs:

• To bring happiness to children in hospital care during the holiday season. This will demonstrate how our USF alumni and friends care about their community and are willing to make a difference through the sponsorship of the bears.
• Students and alumni will also have an opportunity to deliver bears, which will showcase their commitment of being a positive encouraging force within the Tampa region.
• All sponsorships will go towards USF Health research (done within the College of Nursing), which is needed in order for us to serve the community in that aspect as well.

It is our hope that our nursing faculty, staff, alumni, and friends will rally together and be a caring guiding light in support of this program.

If you would like to sponsor a bear, please fill out the form located here. You can drop it off in the Development & Alumni Relations mailbox (#59) located in the second floor or bring it to the third floor to Don Snyder. Please let us know if any questions or concerns. We truly appreciate your consideration in supporting this innovative USF College of Nursing program.

For more information about B.E.A.R.S. or any of the College of Nursing’s fundraising priorities, please visit our website at HEALTH.USF.EDU/NURSING/PRIORITIES  or contact Director of Development Don Snyder at dsnyder3@health.usf.edu or 813.974.2570. The USF Foundation is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. Contributions to the USF Foundation are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.