The idea for the project was born during a holiday gift exchange among Bank of American Fork employees. Sandy Dubois suggested replacing the gift-giving tradition with Project Teddy Bear. 

Sandy Dubois started Project Teddy Bear 15 years ago as a way for employees at Bank of American Fork to give back to their communities instead of giving gifts to each other during the holidays. Dubois is passionate about helping children, and she wanted the project to be about the at-risk children in Utah communities.

That first year, customers, community members and bank employees donated 257 teddy bears to be taken to a family care center to be used in play therapy or for children taken from their homes and from everything they knew.

Last year, in the 14th Annual Project Teddy Bear, more than 20,000 bears were brought in, serving the children in care centers across Utah.

”What makes this program a success is that people in this bank really care about the children in our community,” said Dubois.

In recognition of the Project Teddy Bear initiative, Bank of American Fork was named this week a National Award recipient. The recognition from the Independent Community Bankers of America will help spread the word and get more people involved in helping Utah’s children and children across the nation.

Independent Banker magazine highlighted the project in its September issue, and Dubois and Bank of American Fork said they invite any other bank or business to copy the model.

Every year Dubois and others hope the care centers will call and say there’s no need for the bears — that all of Utah’s children are being taken care of and none are victims of abuse or neglect. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, so she continues to seek the community’s help in increasing the number of donations.

“The reason this recognition is important to us is because it helps the community,” said Richard Beard, president and CEO of Bank of American Fork. “Our local communities have helped more than 73,000 children simply by getting involved. Some people drop off one bear when they come in to make a deposit and we have others, like girl-scout troops, who take on the project and bring in hundreds of bears. Each donation matters, because each of those bears represents an at-risk child here in Utah.”

Project Teddy Bear will start its 15th annual collection beginning November 20. 

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