Chapter Spotlight: Bacon County HOSA Volunteers at The Teddy Bear Clinic

On Friday, April 29, 2023, Bacon County Family Connection held Day Of The Child. One of Alma's most popular events is the Day of the Child, where a child's day is filled with food, activities, and more. Bacon County Hospital set up a Teddy Bear Clinic, where Bacon County High School HOSA members volunteered. The volunteers were assigned tasks such as traffic control, opening and providing bandages, pretending to fill syringes, or helping children put a cast on the patients. Children would arrive at the tent with their stuffed toys or select from a teddy bear, a panda, or a zebra. After that, the volunteers would invent accident-related scenarios, and kids would pretend to be doctors and treat the "patient"; youngsters found it thrilling and enjoyable to administer "shots" and "casts" to the teddy. Our HOSA members got more involved in the community thanks to this clinic. Another reason to set up this clinic was to help the kids get more familiar with the environment of hospitals. There are a lot of instances where children are afraid of physicians and nurses because society has convinced them to associate doctors with blood and needles. However, this clinic helped a few children discover that doctors and nurses can be the opposite of frightening, helping to heal people and improve everyone's health.