More than 100 teddy bears will be distributed to children in the community in the coming weeks to provide comfort during times of hardship.

On Thursday, six members of the Bowling Green Shrine Club, wearing the organization’s trademark red fezzes, presented three plastic tubs of stuffed animals to Bowling Green Police Department spokesman Officer Ronnie Ward at BGPD headquarters, 911 Kentucky St.

The Shriners’ haul included smaller bears wearing white T-shirts bearing the name of the Bowling Green Shrine Club, while others took the forms of different animals such as foxes and dogs.

Isaac Hagan, vice president of the Bowling Green Shrine Club, said the group began donating teddy bears to BGPD two years ago and hopes to make it a yearly tradition.

“The reason we do that is there’s children out there that don’t have good things in their life, a lot of bad things happen to them,” he said. “Sometimes a teddy bear makes a day for a child and being Shriners, that’s what we’re all about. We want to make sure that children are happy or healthy.”

Hagan said the Shriners provide the bears to BGPD because the police department has a better sense of how to distribute the bears to ensure that kids in need are receiving them.

“They are in the community more than what we are so they see the needs out there better than we can,” he said.

Ward said BGPD officers often use teddy bears to comfort children who are in stressful situations.

“Some children are sometimes being taken away in foster care, and we know that they’ve been involved in an accident or they’re just involved in something that’s very stressful to an adult and it would be terrifying for a child,” Ward said. “It’s just nice to have something to put their hands around, put their arms around, just hold on to.”

Ward said the department frequently receives donated bears from community members.

“We receive bears from people who just either gather them up and want to donate them or they have them gently used from their home and they bring them to the police station sometimes just because they know that we come in contact with a lot of children,” he said.

Ward said the department often has a surplus of bears, thus leading him to try finding other community organizations to distribute them to.

“What I’ve done over the past couple of years is I’ve reached out to other organizations in the community who have a need, who come in contact with children a lot and so I talk with them and ask if they could take our surplus and they are always more than happy to,” he said.

Ward said BGPD is working to provide some of its extra bears to HOTEL INC and the family resource centers within Warren County Public Schools and the Bowling Green Independent School District.