In most cases, pre-teen boys want posters of pretty girls and sport stars on their walls.
But not 12-year-old Campbell Remess, who has a room full of teddy bears.
It’s for a very good reason, though.
The kind-hearted Tasmanian boy makes ‘comfort bears’ for sick kids and their parents, and recently started branching out to help others in need too.
“They’re for parents if their kids are in hospital having a hard time,” he told ABC News. “I do overseas bears, like for terrorist attacks. I sent one over to Paris when the people got hurt, and I’m sending some over to Brussels too.”
The charitable obsession started when Campbell was just nine years old. One day, he approached his parents and asked if they could buy teddies for all the sick kids at the local hospital.
But with nine kids of their own, mum Sonya Whittaker said it wasn’t an option.
“He said, ‘no worries, I’ll make them then,’” she said. “Ok, I said, go for gold, knock yourself out.”
A few days later, Campbell came to her with a pattern for a basic teddy bear, looking for her help. When she told him it was beyond her, she thought that would be that.
But no. Just a few hours later, Campbell returned to her with his first bear.
“He came down with this funky looking teddy bear that he’d made…it was incredible,” she said. “He’s just sewn and sewn since then.”
Indeed he has. With the help of donated fabric, the amazing youngster has created one teddy bear per day for the past two years.
So proud of her caring boy, Sonya set up a Facebook group called Project 365 by Campbell to track her son’s progress.
One group member, Kate, was inspired to help Campbell out. She messaged Sonya asking if her son needed fabric. Sonya replied that he had enough fabric – what he really needed was storage space.
So Kat set up a fundraiser aiming to raise $1,000 in a week.
“We reached that in 36 hours,” said Kat, who then used the money to buy Campbell a work bench and storage space to hold all the donated fabric.
And Kat reckons there’s nobody more deserving of a helping hand than young Campbell.
“He's such a selfless little boy,” she said. “He does it all off his own back with his pocket money and donations from other people, but asks for nothing in return.”
“And to have a special work space set up so he can do that, I thought would be ideal — and now he's got it.”
What an amazing little boy, and a fabulous idea too! To donate and help Campbell continue helping others, you can donate here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/468386716599164/.
