Bearly Square holding RARE Bear event

A Havre quilting supply store is looking for volunteers to make teddy bears Saturday for children afflicted with rare diseases.

“It’s a day of community service, but you are doing it on a bigger scale for a bigger organization,” said Wendy Gerke, owner of Bearly Square Quilting at 109 1st St. W.   

Gerke said she is asking that volunteers bring scraps of fabric and their own sewing machines to the store Saturday, where they will make the teddy bears that will be about 18 inches in height. She added that people who don’t have a machine can use ones owned by the store.

The bear-making is part of the RARE Bear program, an effort to provide children with rare diseases with one-of-a-kind bears, each made with different fabric, Gerke said.

The RARE Bear website says the program was started by RARE Science, a California-based nonprofit that works to increase the speed at which “immediate therapeutic solutions” can be found for children with unidentified rare diseases.

No specific diseases are named on the RARE Science website, but it does say that of the more than 7.000 rare identified diseases, half affect children.

Volunteers make the bears, which are then sent back to RARE Science’s California headquarters, where they are stuffed before being sent to children, Gerke said.

The bear-making will take place 10 a.m. to 4 p.m Saturday, Gerke said. People who want to take part should contact the store at 265-4424 or by email at bearlysquare@havremt.net.