Bears to get Better

We recently held a teddy bear drive in Spartanburg, SC. "Bears to get Better - Ukraine" brought in 83 donated teddy bears from people all over the upstate, most of which were children. This drive was to benefit the children of Ivankov orphanage in Kiev, Ukraine. I came to know about these wonderful kids through a charity in Italy called Io Vivo. They promote adoption for the children there and try to help them during the summer and on holidays like Christmas.

When I first started planning the teddy bear drive, I knew the owners of a local UPS store, a very sweet couple, and they said when we got ready to ship them, they would try to help us out some with packaging or shipping costs. We also raised $67 dollars during the drive to help with shipping costs. About two weeks ago I took all the teddy bears to be shipped - ready for their new home and loving owners. To my surprise, once the store owner entered the shipping information into the computer we found out that UPS will not deliver to the town the orphanage is in... The store owner even called their international shipping office to confirm and it was true. So now what???

To be continued...