Four Brandman University doctoral students are using Amazon boxes to bring smiles to children’s faces.
Chula Vista resident Gina Albertini-Bennett is working on completing a doctorial degree in Organizational Leadership.
Part of the doctorial program requires students participate in a community service project sponsored by Amazon. As part of the project, teams are tasked with the challenge of making something significant out of nothing at all.
Albertini-Bennett, 38, and her team San Diego Deltas, created Project Tabby: The Amazon Bear, a teddy bear filled with shredded discarded Amazon boxes, designed to serve as a comfort item for a homeless child.
In creating the bear, the students shredded Amazon boxes. They then bought and used a soft fleece fabric that is used by plush manufacturer Build-A-Bear. The faces of the bears are sewed on so the smile of the bear is the Amazon smile logo.
They created it with the tagline: “Now delivering smiles.”
Amazon ships out about 4 million boxes a day throughout the United States. Albertini-Bennett said the idea of repurposing Amazon boxes came to her when she realized not everyone has a home where an Amazon box can be delivered.
“We played on the idea of, if you are receiving an Amazon box you have a home to receive it,” she said. “What happens to the people who don’t have a home, in particularly children?”
San Diego Delta partnered with the Chula Vista Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team in distributing the stuffed bears to homeless children.
A video describing the bear, mentions how homelessness is a serious issue. San Diego Deltas’ research shows that homelessness increased by 22 percent in San Diego.
Chula Vista Police Sgt. Frank Giami handed out about 30 Amazon Bears the past holiday season to homeless children and those children involved in a domestic violence situation.
“The thought was to give it (stuffed bear) to kids that are homeless, but the truth of the matter is thank God there aren’t that many school children that are homeless,” Giami said. “Typically we give it to kids that may be involved in a domestic violence situation…It’s just to give them some comfort because it is a scary, lonely time.”
Giami said the bears help break the ice and helps develop trust between officers and child.
Albertini-Bennett said repurposing Amazon cardboard boxes does much more than help children. She said it also helps lower the carbon footprint and cuts down on landfill.
A successful $1,000 GoFundMe campaign was successfully met to help pay for the bears’ fabric and to pay for the face to be embodied on the bear.
Albertini-Bennett said an Amazon Bear costs about $6 to make.
Albertini-Bennett said she is in the process of creating a new GoFundMe campaign to raise more money to make more bears in time to distribute during Easter.
