A Special Note From the Founder, Kathylee Forrester
We need to recognize that our soldier’s children are also feeling the repercussions of this war. We need to support these military families and the sacrifice they are making for our freedom. There are over 700,000 children under the age of five dealing with a parent being deployed and absent from their family for up to a year at a time. This has not happened since WWII. As civilians, it can be very easy to take for granted the day to day interaction we have with our families. For the service family, they may only have a few weeks together before Mommy or Daddy leaves again for an extended period of time.
When a soldier is deployed his/her whole family is affected. Patches has enlisted and can help these children find their voice and talk about their feelings. Patches can even make it easier for Mom or Dad, Grandma or Grandpa, to start the difficult conversation by using the little emotion helpers, the faces of a child’s emotions.
We are mobilizing a nationwide campaign to support these children and the need for their little voices to be heard and understood, also. We need everyone’s help to make this happen and to be thankful for the courage and sacrifice these families and soldiers are making for us.
It does not matter what you believe about the war, this is about the children and the families and all they are going through on a daily basis. The reality is that we are at war and these children especially, are the future of our America! These families need us and we need to know how these children are feeling so we can help them survive and become emotionally healthy adults. Remember, they are our future.
We need volunteers in every state and we will be sending out emails, information packages, raising funds and bringing Patches home to these children who need his help to communicate how they are feeling. Please sign up by email (go to contact us) to volunteer in a small or large way, but please, help us help our soldier’s children.
Thank you so much,
Kathylee Forrester & Patches the Bear
Finding the Face of a Child’s Emotion
By MARIE BURKITT
Bucks County Courier Times
Patches the Bear aims to help kids.
You can meet him Sunday at the Northampton Valley Country Club in Richboro, where he’ll help to raise money for children’s charities.
“Patches is all about understanding children’s emotions. He was designed to help children identify their feelings now so that when they are adults, they will be able to better communicate with the world,” said incest survivor Kathylee Forrester, the creator of Patches and the founder of Living Light Kids
The plush toy bear has eight extra “faces” designed to get kids talking about their feelings, said Forrester.
Each face expresses a different emotion. The child puts the face that best expresses his emotion into a pocket of the bear’s cargo pants.
Then a parent asks to look at the face and talks with the child about the emotion the face represents.
Forrester created Living Light Kids and its mascot, Patches, in August. She said the nonprofit organization is dedicated to helping kids properly express their emotions and feelings.
Forrester’s father was convicted of molesting her and two siblings. He’s serving three consecutive life terms for the crimes against his children.
She has been active in youth charities for 15 years and has worked to raise awareness of child sexual abuse and the laws designed to protect kids, including Megan’s Law.
Forrester said Living Light Kids is her new mission.
She believes Patches will help children better communicate with others before it is too late.
“I guess I’m just a believer. There is always good that comes from those bad things that happen to us in life. If my father had not done the terrible things to me and my siblings, Patches would not have been created to help other children now,” Forrester said. “I want to help as many children as I can. If we save one, that’s something.”
Patches the Bear Lends a Fuzzy Ear to Help Children
By KARA FITZPATRICK
Bucks County Courier Times
He’s not your average teddy bear.
Yes, he’s soft, cute and cuddly. But Patches the bear, unveiled Sunday during a reception at the Northampton Valley Country Club, also helps children communicate their feelings.
Patches, a brown furry bear clad in blue overalls, comes complete with eight emotion faces - happy, sad, frustrated, cool, hope, angry, afraid and yucky. Children can place the emotion they’re experiencing in the bear’s front pocket as a way to comfortably communicate their feelings.
“Just because (children) aren’t saying anything doesn’t mean they don’t feel it,” said Kathylee Forrester, the bear’s creator and founder of Living Light Kids, a children’s advocacy organization.
As a child, Forrester was molested by her father. For the past 15 years, she has been working to raise awareness of child sexual abuse and the importance of protecting youth.
Growing up, she recalls using a stuffed animal to air her feelings.
“I had a stuffed animal, a little lamb, that I told all of my secrets,” she said.
Using her past as a guide, she came up with the concept of Patches, which she hopes will become a widespread method for childhood expression.
Dozens attended Patches’ debut. Forrester said the bears will be distributed to a handful of local agencies, including Head Start, Lower Bucks YMCA and YWCA, Family Service Association, American Red Cross Homeless Shelter, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and more. United Way of Bucks County is assisting in the effort.
But that’s just the beginning. Forrester, who has placed an initial order for 10,000 bears to be manufactured, hopes that Patches will be distributed far and wide as a way to encourage youth to share their feelings.
“He can be used literally for any child,” she said, adding that people have suggested she scribe the emotion faces in Braille so blind children can benefit from the toy.
Sharon Barker, United Way of Bucks County senior vice president, said she was motivated to support Patches because of the communication he promotes.
“I think any way a child can express themselves is a good thing,” Barker said, adding that United Way has given Living Light Kids $1,000 toward distributing bears countywide.
Robert Sasson, a Newtown-based pediatrician with The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Kids First division, said Patches is a great idea.
“Quite often, children are not very vocal but they recognize faces,” Sasson said, adding that, at his practice, he uses a similar mechanism to learn children’s feelings.
“I think it’s a great idea to teach children words associated with feelings,” he said. “The bear represents a comfort item as well as a communication tool.”
In addition, Patches teaches children a very elementary but important lesson - “that it’s OK to have emotions,” Sasson said.
Students Able to Bear Down on Feelings
By KATHLEEN E. CAREY
Delco Times
Patches, the big, brown-eyed furry bear, was embraced by young and old alike Tuesday in his Delaware County debut. Sixteen Patches bears were distributed to the Chichester elementary and middle schools Tuesday for use in their nurse and guidance offices. The bear comes with a set of eight face patches displaying different emotions. Children can use these to describe how they feel, especially in times of trauma or when dealing with physical, emotional or sexual abuse. Accompanying journals will be available in the next few weeks so students can write or draw what’s on their minds.
Patches was the brainchild of child advocate Kathylee Forrester, a Bucks County resident who was instrumental in lobbying for the Megan’s Law sex offender registration network.
While searching through the Internet one day, Lesley Lane of Upper Chichester found the bears featured on CN8. Lane holds many positions, including owner/operator of Andrea’s Attic, but also the Andrea O’Donnell Children’s Trust.
That organization was founded after the 1994 death of Lane’s 27-year-old adopted daughter, who was killed in San Diego by an estranged boyfriend. Last year, the group provided 20 scholarships to area students and distributed free books in schools. It offers clothing and household assistance for needy families.
Combining the trust’s mission of helping children with O’Donnell’s love of animals, especially her Teddy bear, the Patches cause seemed natural. So Lane wanted to introduce them to Delaware County schools.
“If we can get these bears into Chichester,” she said, “then we will lead the way. One way or another, we are going to put Patches all over the place. We have to do what we can to get Patches where he needs to be.”
After purchasing the initial six, Lane approached Sun Oil Co., which funded the purchase of another 11 for Chichester schools, Holy Saviour School and the Marcus Hook Head Start program.
Tuesday, Lane and Forrester delivered them in a Hyundai Sonata and a Ram 2500 van.
At Linwood Elementary, the pair were met with welcome signs and smiley faces. When they walked through the doors, they were given greeting cards made by the students.
“Thank you for helping the kids in our community,” one child wrote as the greetings were decorated with flowers, bears and hearts.
Linwood guidance counselor Gary Juroski planned to add Patches to his menagerie of five. “The existing puppets I’ve had a while so the new addition is thankful,” he said.
“It’s just so universal,” Linwood Elementary Principal Judith Edwards said of the bear.
Forrester agreed.
When she designed the bear, she wanted him to convey a non-threatening demeanor. “Since he’s supposed to represent the innocence of a child, I wanted him to be trustworthy of a child,” Forrester said.
She wanted him to portray the idea that “It’s OK. It’s safe to talk to me.”
“How does Patches make you feel?” Edwards asked a class that afternoon.
“Happy!” one boy shouted.
One little girl scooped him up and proudly took Patches to each of her classmates to inspect.
Over at Chichester Middle School, teacher Ed Matthew plans to use Patches in his life skills class every day.
“I think Patches will jump into our morning routines and help us tell more of our stories and tell more of our feelings,” he said.
Eighth-grader Annette Torres agreed. “I think it’s a really good opportunity for kids here at Chichester to have Patches,” she said.
Forrester said Patches represented a new endeavor for her.
“When I was an advocate, a lot of it was legislative work,” she said. “That’s the difference. With this, I get to see the end result. It’s exciting. He is going places I didn’t imagine and he’s doing things I didn’t imagine.”
Patches’ introduction at the Boothwyn Elementary School was repeated several times throughout the day.
“Is this him?” principal Kathy Sherman asked excitedly when Forrester and Lane entered the school. “Oh, he’s so cute.”
Lane hopes to get Patches into the Delaware County District Attorney’s office, Children and Youth Services offices and other school districts. Her wish would be to have a Patches in every classroom, she said.
Patches the Bear can be ordered by visiting Kathylee Forrester’s Web site, http://www.patcheskids.org/ and costs $50. Andrea’s Attic at 46 E. 10th St. in Marcus Hook is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. All proceeds from the shop go toward the Children’s Trust.
Healing the Hearts of Children
Childhelp Fashion Show raises funds to support programs for abused children.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
It was more than a luncheon and more than a fashion show. It was a fund-raiser that raised nearly $45,000 to support programs for abused children in the greater Washington, D.C., area.
At the Hyatt Regency in Reston Feb. 21, nearly 300 local Childhelp members and friends listened as award recipient, Kathylee Forrester, described her mission - and personal horror - to advocate for victims of child abuse.
The fourth annual Childhelp Fashion Show and Luncheon, hosted by the Washington Area Chapter of Childhelp, highlighted the newest spring fashions for women, teens and children, while raising funds to support Childhelp’s local programs. “Healing the Hearts of Children” is the nonprofit’s goal, as well as this year’s theme.
Washington Area Chapter president Christin Klaff of Reston presented Forrester with the “Champion for Children” award, for her advocacy of legislation to protect children and for creating Patches, a bear designed to help abused children express themselves. Forrester has donated Patches bears for use in Childhelp programs in Fairfax, Culpeper and nationally.
WJLA TV News anchor, Cynne Simpson, emceed the fashion show, which featured more than 25 Childhelp volunteer models, from mothers to tots. Simpson encouraged guests to get involved. “We hear that it takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes a village to protect a child,” Simpson said. She reminded the audience that four children die every day as a result of child abuse and that there are nearly 3 million reports of child abuse annually. “If you see something, or you hear something, do something,” she said. “If you are uncertain what to do, call Childhelp’s national hotline, which is staffed 24/7 with professional crisis counselors.”
Guests shopped at the boutiques, bid on silent and live auction items and participated in the raffle. Including sponsorships and ticket sales, Childhelp raised nearly $45,000 from the fashion show and luncheon that will support Childhelp’s programs in Northern Virginia.
Childhelp is one of the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofits dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect. For more information, see www.childhelp.org. Its national hotline is 800-4A-CHILD.
phillyBurbs.com / News / Local / The Intelligencer News
Kathylee Forrester of Doylestown Township created a bear named Patches. Patches is a bear designed to help children have a way to communicate their emotions. The child is asked to place one or more “expressive emotion faces” into Patches front pocket. This gives the opportunity for parents to know how their child is feeling at that moment. Patches is used in therapy and child abuse cases as well.
PATCHES Needs Help to Help Others
By: CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
The Intelligencer
A local woman who created the teddy bears that help children communicate needs help delivering them.
PATCHES the Bear has gone as far north as Michigan and as far west as California. He’s even gone as far south as Brazil.
And the cuddly teddy bear with a pocket full of feelings has found more ways to help kids than his Plumstead-based creator imagined.
“Every day, I get e-mails,” said Kathylee Forrester, PATCHES’ creator. “I don’t know how these people are finding out about him now.”
Forrester, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, created PATCHES (his name stands for Protect And Teach Children Habits, Empowerment and Safety) to help comfort young victims of sexual abuse and encourage them to communicate their feelings. Now child therapists who work with all kinds of children use the bear to get children to talk about their feelings. So do kindergarten teachers, military parents and parents of autistic children. He’s become popular in children’s hospitals - with patients and their siblings.
And Forrester needs help to keep PATCHES in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
One of the businesses that worked with Forrester to help put PATCHES in the hospital is going through bankruptcy and had to withdraw its support in March. Forrester has other sponsors who will help get PATCHES to the kids at the hospital later in the year. But she doesn’t have any help for April.
The hospital uses PATCHES as a therapeutic tool to get kids to talk about their feelings. The bear comes with eight “emotion” faces that represent different feelings, such as happy, afraid, angry and cool. Children are encouraged to put the appropriate faces into the bear’s front cargo pocket so that it might initiate a conversation about that moment’s emotions.
“When you’re younger, it’s hard to label your feelings sometimes. What PATCHES does is give us a way to educate kids about what feelings are and what emotions go along with those feelings, so kids can start to be able to label them,” said Samantha Palmieri, the special programs coordinator at the hospital.
The nurses and doctors all know that the kids have PATCHES bears.
Palmieri said she tells the staff, “If she’s reticent to tell you that she’s feeling happy or sad or her pills taste yucky or she’s hopeful, you can look in PATCHES’ pocket.”
And the kids really latch on to the stuffed animal, Palmieri said.
“There are kids that will carry him around everywhere they go after they’re introduced to him,” she said. “There was a patient who got one a couple of years ago during initial diagnosis. Every time she came back for an appointment, she brought PATCHES with her.”
Forrester is looking for people who are willing to become PATCHES Angels and contribute enough to give a bear or two (at about $25 each) to the hospital.
“I am just believing that we’re going to find some partners who want to do a good thing,” Forrester said. “In the end, God will provide.”
She credits God for the idea to make PATCHES.
Forrester was sexually abused by her father from when she was 6 until she was 18. In 1991, when Forrester was in her early 30s, her father was convicted of abusing a 9-year-old girl in Florida and sent to jail for only 40 days. Around the same time, Forrester’s brother killed himself because he was afraid he would sexually abuse his own child. Forrester, who had never talked about her father’s abuse, found she could no longer stay silent. She pushed officials in Florida to press charges against her father. He was convicted of sexually abusing Forrester and her brother, and sentenced to jail for three consecutive life sentences.
Then, in November 2003, Forrester’s stepmother committed suicide. Forrester’s stepmother had been like a mother to her, and Forrester had trouble coping with her feelings.
“I went away myself for three months,” she said. “While I was on my mountain in Breckenridge (Col.), as close to God as I could get, I was thinking about the fact that our human nature is to rely on our friends and family and spouses. But humans, by nature, will also hurt us and disappoint us.”
Then Forrester looked at the stuffed animals - an old brown teddy bear and an old blue lamb - she had taken with her to the mountain, and then at the emoticons on her computer screen.
“Then it clicked,” she said. “And I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, we could have a bear, a stuffed animal, something children will love, then the child can choose a face.’ ”
Forrester contacted toy companies herself to try to get someone to manufacture PATCHES, but had no luck. David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and is married to an acquaintance of Forrester’s, gave Forrester the phone number of a toy broker. The broker loved the idea and helped Forrester find a manufacturer for PATCHES and a warehouse where they could store extra bears.
She spent $150,000 of her own money to make 10,000 bears; the bears debuted in October 2006.
“I feel like PATCHES is my story coming full circle,” she said. “I can’t regain the innocence I lost as a child. But I’ve learned to go back to that place so I can help children find their voice.”
Christina Kristofic can be reached at 215-345-3079 or ckristofic@phillyBurbs.com.
To help:
Visit www.patcheskids.org.
Or make a donation to Patches Kids Inc., 2865 South Eagle Road, Box 390, Newtown, PA 18940.
April 03, 2009 02:40 AM
KIDS: July 1, 2009
Presentation of the Proclamation
During its bi-monthly meeting at Newtown Township’s Morell Smith American Legion Post 440 headquarters, Bucks County Commissioners Chairman Charles Martin, James Cawley and Diane Ellis Marseglia approved 27 business resolutions for 11 departments. The meeting’s patriotic theme included a proclamation presented to Patches Kids founder Kathylee Forrester. Forrester, who has been a children’s’ advocate for the last two decades, addressed her program to help children express their feelings through a stuffed bear named Patches. “We started this program to assist fallen heroes, children of long or multiple deployments and those who serve multiple deployments,”Forrester commented. She went on to observe, “We need to rekindle patriotism in this country.” Complementing Forrester’s appearance was Army Reserve Col. Chuck Hutt, who led the meeting in the Pledge of Allegiance. A veteran of 35 years armed service, who has been a part of five military deployments, Col. Hutt addressed the importance of the big picture. “If family cannot be taken care of, troops cannot do their job,” he stated. The commissioners’ board presented a $1,000 “other civics” check to Patches Kids in recognition of the nonprofit group’s efforts. The meeting location was significant, as it paid tribute to World War I hero Morell Smith, who was killed in action on Oct. 18,1918, at the age of 30. A plaque in the hall honors Lt. Smith states, “He willingly sacrificed all that the Principles of Enduring Peace – the Liberty of Free People – and International Justice might be wrought anew.”
