Marie Bentley epitomizes the word commitment.

For nearly 30 years, Bentley has dedicated her time and efforts into the Smart Bear program that encourages children to read with a furry friend and a book. The passage of time and struggling economy has limited both her resources and available help, but that hasn’t stopped Bentley from continuing her mission of getting kids to read more.

On Tuesday, students at Thomasville Primary School got to enjoy the fruits of Bentley’s labor as she brought the Smart Bear program back to the Chair City.

“The intent is to get the children to read because they don’t need to be in front of the TV all the time,” Bentley said. “You have to read to get through this world.”

The program started out with Bentley speaking to students on the importance of reading as she showed the children the different stages of how her bears evolve from an empty piece of cloth into the stuffed animal they will take home. All of the materials used for the bears are donated from anyone that wants to help out. The stuffing comes from recycled plastic bottles donated by an Asheboro company and all the books are acquired in thrift stores or local Salvation Armies.

“We start from scratch, taking a piece of material and make it into a bear,” said Bentley. “We sew it up, stuff it and the children get to keep the bear. They can be washed and dried. One woman called and said her grandmother had died and she was a seamstress with a garage full of material. We went over and got it, and that’s how we get most of our supplies.”

Bentley said she learned of the Smart Bear idea at a convention 29 years ago and has been involved ever since. Hard economic times have made it more difficult to continue the program as sponsorship dollars have all but dried up. What started out as more than 20 people in the program has dwindled to just six, making it harder to meet the needs of the 5,000 bears Bentley gives away each year.

“Companies are no longer sponsoring us,” Bentley said. “They used to furnish us with the money to buy the books. They haven’t done that in about five years. It’s a lot of work with all the cutting and sewing. We used to have about 25 people that helped us and we would meet once a month. Now there’s six of us, as most have either died or gone to nursing homes.”

TPS principal Paula Gaylord said she learned of Bentley through an education sorority called Alpha Delta Kappa and felt the program would benefit the students.

“We’re always looking for ways to support other initiatives that help education,” said Gaylord. “Our group supported her with donations for the fabric. In return, I asked her if she could come to our school and bring her bear program to our children. It worked out so beautifully. We not only helped her but we were recipients of the program.”

Once the program ends, students take their bears to the classroom and teachers choose how to implement it into the curriculum. Gaylord said she looks forward to all the different ideas teachers come up with and how the children respond to the program.

“It’s amazing,” Gaylord said. “Each teacher will decide what activities to do and some have been very creative with the bears, so I’m excited to see what they do.”



Staff Writer Eliot Duke can be reached at 888-3578, or duke@tvilletimes.com.