Alpha Phi is hoping to help children “Hug-A-Bear” to calm down during possible domestic abuse and other scary situations.

The sorority is collecting teddy bears of any kind in cooperation with the Story County Child Abuse Prevention Council.

Shelby Diers, Alpha Phi member, said the sorority adopted the project to help reach out to the community.

“Our mascot is the teddy bear,” Diers said. “We wanted to do something that focused on giving out to the community more, especially the youth.”

Tami Goodhue, Story County Child Abuse Prevention Council, said the bears will be used to comfort children in crisis situations.

“This is something we’re doing for kids who are in an awkward and scary situation,” she said.

Goodhue said an example in which the bears would be used might be a domestic abuse situation in a home late at night.

“If the situation seems too dangerous for the children to stay there or the parents are taken into custody, the children might actually be removed from the home and put into emergency foster care until the safest place for the children can be found,” she said.

“There will be a teddy bear given to the child when this whole crisis is going on,” Goodhue said.

Allison Lampkin, vice chair of the Story County Child Abuse Prevention Council, said other instances in which the bears might be used could be for fires, car accidents and other crises where children are involved.

Goodhue said the bears are meant to be a token to comfort the child in a traumatic situation.

“Sometimes the child will even have to come in for questioning, and that’s a very scary thing for a child,” she said.

The bears will be given to the Emergency Management Center in the Story County courthouse and will then be distributed to the first responders in towns through Story County, Lampkin said.

“Some [of the towns] are very small and don’t even have a police or fire station, so we’ll give the bears to the first responder,” she said.

Alpha Phi will collect the bears thorough Dec. 5. Bears can be dropped off at Alpha Phi house, 2035 Sunset Dr.

Collection sites will also be available through the weekend at Youth Shelter Services, Brenton Bank and Merle Norman Cosmetic Studio & Maternity Shop.

All teddy bears are new, Lampkin said.

Diers said the sorority hopes to get bears from all over the Iowa State community.

“We’re encouraging the residence halls and offices of ISU to contribute,” she said.

Rachel Weston, Alpha Phi member, said the idea for the project came from their plan to add a fall philanthropy project.

“Our [alumni members] started something similar to [Hug-A-Bear] last year when they came back, but it wasn’t fulfilled,” Weston said.