Girl’s teddy bear donation effort goes into overdrive in valley

About a year ago, there was a moment when Kathleen Carscadden got a little frustrated with her daughter.

Jessica wasn't cleaning her room. She was 9 years old then. So of course she wasn't cleaning her room.

Go clean it now, Carscadden said, or I'm going to throw away all your toys.

That got Jessica moving, like it was supposed to. She went to her room. She bagged up a bunch of her stuffed animals. Like lots of 9-year-old girls, she'd accumulated way more than she needed.

What should I do with them? she asked.

Let's take them to Goodwill, Carscadden said.

They were in their small apartment near San Diego. It was on the third floor, with a good view of the fire station across the street.

Why don't I take them to the fire station? Jessica replied.

The firefighters could give them to little kids. Sometimes, Jessica knew from experience, little kids can get sad. Maybe the stuffed animals would cheer them up.

The firefighters loved it. They made a big deal about it. Jessica wanted to do more. She started a stuffed animal drive at her elementary school. Lots of people donated.

Flash forward a year and there was Jessica and her mom and dad in Las Vegas the other day, donating hundreds of stuffed animals to the Clark County Fire Department.

Jessica's initial gesture has turned into a big deal. People have donated so many stuffed animals the Carscaddens had to get a storage unit.

"She's not a 501(c)(3)," Carscadden said. "She's a 10-year-old girl doing this out of her bedroom."

FROM ORPHAN TO CHEERLEADER

Jessica didn't used to be so gregarious.

She was born and abandoned in China. She had problems, a cleft palate and lip. Part of her jawbone was missing.

She was found and brought to an orphanage. Carscadden said Jessica was placed in what's called a "dying room," which is where they put the babies who aren't supposed to survive.

Jessica did survive, of course. But she did not thrive. No one wanted to adopt a girl with medical problems.

Carscadden, who had an older son about to start college, wanted another child. She and her husband, Bob, thought about adoption.

But adopting a healthy infant can take forever. The wait can be years long. They looked to China. They thought about a child with special needs. The wait was much shorter.

They met 5-year-old Jessica, and were wowed. Other than the physical deformity, which can be fixed, she's perfectly healthy.

She's had a few surgeries, and has more to come. Carscadden joked that her retirement fund is in Jessica's mouth.

Jessica took to her new life quickly. She learned English and joined a youth cheerleading organization and got way too many stuffed animals and then, one day about a year ago, did not want to clean her room.

A GIRL WITH HUGE AMBITIONS

Jessica walked into Clark County Fire Station 18 with purpose on Thursday, looking for Assistant Chief Sandra Baker. She carried four bags of stuffed animals. There were another 35 or so bags in the car.

"These teddy bears are going to go to a lot of good use," Baker told her.

The assistant chief said firefighters give children stuffed animals all the time.

They're especially important to help calm children if their parents have some kind of medical emergency, she said.

Baker gave Jessica a tour of the station. She gave her a T-shirt and let the firefighters take her on a ride in a ladder truck.

"Wow," Jessica said over and over.

She and her parents were in town because Jessica's cheerleading team was competing Friday in the JAMZ Youth National Championship. They took fifth place.

They'd already donated thousands of stuffed animals to fire stations all over San Diego and, just the day before, in Orange County, Calif.

"She wanted to stop at every fire station between San Diego and Las Vegas to drop off some bears," her mom said. "I told her that probably wasn't a good idea."

Carscadden said they've given away more than 300 bags of stuffed animals. They got the bags - these cute, colorful plastic bags with handles - as a donation, too.

The storage unit where they keep the animals was a gift as well, though only for three months. Carscadden, who left her job to raise Jessica, said they can't afford to pay the $80 a month it would cost to rent it after that.

So in three months, she said, the whole effort will have to end.

"It's gotten so big," she said. "We can't keep them in the apartment anymore."

CALMING STRESS IN OTHER CHILDREN

Jessica doesn't want to stop.

Her biggest goal is to collect bears in New York City's Rockefeller Plaza, where she imagines being a live guest on NBC's "Today" show.

After that, she'll grow up and go to college, also in New York. That's where she'll study to become a "check-up doctor," which her mom said is what she calls a pediatrician.

Carscadden said she has no idea how they'll afford that. They're barely scraping by, she said.

Of course, Jessica doesn't concern herself with such things. She's just a 10-year-old kid trying to help other kids have a better day.

"Children get stressed," said Baker, the assistant fire chief. "They don't understand what's happening.

"Sometimes, a teddy bear can calm them down and give them something else to focus on."

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.