Finding the face of a child's emotion

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.”

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, 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.