The SnuggL'Up America
Community Service Program

This program is designed to assist young people with their efforts to help others and create a desire to continue some type of service work throughout their adult lives.

These caring young people have the opportunity to directly impact those less fortunate by interacting with children and seniors in hospitals, senior homes, day care facilities, after school programs, special needs environments and at risk schools.

The participants in the Community Service Program aid SnuggL'Up America with its mission of spreading comfort, security, literacy & love to children and adults of all ages. Program participants choose to work individually or as an organized group to raise money, purchase and personally distribute award winning SnuggL'Up Comfort Pillows, books, and/or inspirational gifts to their designated recipients.

The SnuggL'Up America Community Service Program also provides students the opportunity to:

• Work with children and help create a sense of hope, pride, and self- esteem.
• Provide senior citizens with companionship while learning compassion.
• Indirectly assist medical personnel by providing an object aimed at self- comfort, pain management and a sense of comfort security. Nurses familiar with SnuggL'Up America Programs routinely request SnuggL'Up comfort pillows for their young patients.
• Help at-risk students with early literacy education and assist in creating future independent readers.

SnuggL'Up America honors our young people for their commitment to others and knows that they are planting seeds of love that will continue to grow for many years to come.

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Service Learning Program
Teaching Our Children the Joy of Helping Others

The SnuggL'Up America Service Learning Program is designed to teach young people, grades 1 thru 12, the joy of helping others while instilling the desire to continue some type of service work throughout their adult lives.

The educational and support materials used are written in accordance with individual grade level, Language Arts and Social Studies standards as designated by the local Board of Education. Reading, reports, journaling, hands-on service opportunities, student insights and future goals as they relate to the program experience are all components of the Service Learning Program.

This school-based program will be directed by individual classroom teachers. Students will have an opportunity to interact with less fortunate children and seniors in a variety of settings, including hospitals, senior homes, day care facilities, after school programs, special needs environments and at risk school children.

The program participants will distribute SnuggL'Up Comfort Pillows, books and gifts. Students will also indirectly assist hospital medical personnel by providing an object aimed at self-comfort, pain management and a sense of comfort and security. Nurses familiar with this program routinely request SnuggL'Up comfort pillows for their young patients. Senior citizens request our students to return.

Youth who participate in the SnuggL'Up America Service Learning Program will have the opportunity to directly impact those less fortunate, within a controlled learning environment.

The program is designed to build commitment to civic engagement and community service in these young people so that they will continue their volunteerism and service to the communities where they live and work throughout their adult lives

SnuggL'Up and the Sandwich Generation

The "Sandwich Generation" is giving hugs to both their young children and to their ill parents. It is a challenge that creates stress and trauma to all involved. When an adult is seriously ill, the impact is felt on too many generations of family and loved ones. The ability to self-comfort, whether as the patient or the suffering loved one, is critical to everyone's stress management level and domino effect illness.

It has been documented that with both young and old patients, a stuffed, cozy item provides a sense of comfort and security in times of stress and trauma. In Detroit, Michigan, at Saratoga Hospital, Alzheimer's patients were given stuffed animals to help them deal with the sense of slipping from reality. "I thought because she was in a childlike state that maybe this would comfort her somehow," says Hall, the nurse manager on the senior care unit. "She just clutched it instinctively, and it did quiet her down. It seemed therapeutic. Patients often will hold them in their arms and say: This is my baby."

You won't read about "stuffed therapy" in any medical journal. But the 30 nurses and aides on Saratoga's seniors ward liberally apply the unique treatment elderly patients. Between 2,000 and 3,000 stuffed animals have been handed out to people 65 and older who suffer from mental deterioration or loneliness. The hospital staff has found that these small acts of compassion can make a big difference in the lives of those who often have almost nothing.

However, for an adult to see their parent clutching a baby toy for comfort is insensitive to the image one has of their parent. Therefore, SnuggL'Up pillows award winning design has the coziness of a stuffed animal, the shape of an imaginary baby and eliminates the stigma attached to an adult cuddling with a baby toy. Since a SnuggL'Up is a pillow; it is an acceptable and dignified alternate comfort item for senior citizens.