FORT STEWART, Ga.  –   When her brother got sick as a child, only one thing offered him a small bit of comfort: a small stuffed animal that was there for him through his hospital stay.

Today, Life Scout Reis Hill used that memory as the inspiration behind her Better Bears Eagle Scout project, donating more than 100 hand-made bears to Winn Army Community Hospital’s emergency department Sept. 2 to complete one of the final requirements to earn Scouting America’s highest award.

“When my little brother was five, he was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease,” Reis said. “We got him a teddy bear. Through all the procedures, when he was throwing up and could not see straight, it never left his side. It made his stay a lot more bearable.”

Reis’s mother, 1st Lt. Bethany Hill, said not only the memory but her desire to help others, especially children, was a motivation for the project. Finding the right home for the bears was also crucial, Hill, assigned to 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. said.

“We looked at Winn Army Community Hospital because it’s in the name,” Hill said. “It’s part of the community.”

Being a military child in a military family also was key, Hill said. Reis has personal knowledge of the challenges military families face when they move to a new home far from their support network.

“We understand they experience the same things,” Hill said “Knowing that there's someone there, even if they never meet face to face at all, that cared enough to contribute to making their child feel better, even in a small way, really drew her into the idea of doing it for the Army community specifically.”

Winn’s ER clinical nurse supervisor Melissa Hungerford accepted the box load of bears on behalf of the hospital. Hungerford was amazed by the variety of colors and the child-friendly design of the bears and called them a wonderful gesture that her staff will find useful.

“When a child has something to hold, something to distract them, especially when it's colorful, it gives us an opportunity to do what we need to do, and have them not focus on the bad, but focus on something fun,” she said.

Many children come and go from Winn’s ER, Hungerford said. Bright, stark, full of sounds and needles, it can be a scary place. The bears will cut through that scariness.

“This is another resource our staff can use to comfort them and make our job a little easier,” Hungerford said. “(The bears will) have them leaving here and feel like it wasn’t a punishment, (and) give them a little bit of comfort upon leaving.”

April Arciva’s son, Eric Bermudez, a child who happened to be in the ER that day, was one of the first recipients of Reis’s bears. The gesture offered a touch of softness in an otherwise stressful visit, Arciva said.

“It's comforting knowing that people still care” she said. “(Children will) look back and be like, ‘Someone gave me a little stuffed animal to make me feel better.’”

For Reis, that’s the goal of the bears: offering comfort in a moment when comfort is needed.

“When something traumatic like going into the ER as a little kid happens, it's good to feel that somebody cares,” she said. “I wanted to be able to give kids the teddy bears so that they feel that sense of connection.”

The bear’s design was chosen for its simplicity because Reis knew she would be making several of them. The cloth for the bears came from multiple sources, including reclaimed old t-shirts, bolts purchased from a closing sewing shop, and Reis’s grandmother, she said. Next was finding the time to sew.

“We spent about 36 hours in total working on it,” Reis said. “We had two four-hour workdays and two two-hour workdays. And then at home, I had a couple sew parties, as I like to call them, so that was just doing the final stitch on them after they were stuffed.”

Hill said she is proud of her daughter Reis, especially for her dedication and selflessness. Those traits make Reis who she is, Hill said.

“She is the last person she will think of,” Hill said. “She's big on making sure everybody else around her is happy and supported and heard and felt. And if that's giving a stranger a hug because they look like they're having a bad day, that's what she'll do. She just loves to brighten everybody's day.”

A bright future is ahead for Reis, Hill said, thanks to having completed an Eagle Scout project that highlights her care and compassion. Reis is taking the first steps down her chosen path, her mother said.

“(Reis) actually is looking into getting an ROTC scholarship for chaplaincy,” Hill said. “She wants to serve those who serve us, and she feels that becoming a chaplain would be her best opportunity to do that.

“She always has such a big heart. She wears it on her sleeve.”