The Lost Stuffy Project Is Hoping To Reunite Comfort Objects With Their Kids In Texas

Over Independence Day weekend, flash floods have devastated Texas Hill Country, claiming more than 100 lives, including 27 children and counselors attending Camp Mystic. While those who have survived the floods are lucky indeed, the damage is nevertheless traumatizing. No one person or thing can completely heal those wounds, but the Lost Stuffy Project is hoping to make things just a little bit easier for children by helping them replace cherished stuffed animals and comfort items.

The Lost Stuffy Project(LSP) was created in the wake of the Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles by Randi Jaffe, a certified child life specialist, who understood just how important comfort items can be to a child, especially one going through a trauma.

“We live in New Jersey and we were watching everything unfold on the news,” Amanda Shankin, LSP’s COO, told Scary Mommy. “[Jaffe] just couldn't fathom the idea that these poor kids were going through this horrible time and they were losing their most favorite comfort items — their teddy bears or their blankies — so she decided to start the LA Lost Stuffy Project.”

And so, Jaffe — now the organization’s CEO — began taking requests from families who lost their homes and children who lost their favorite stuffed animal friend.

If an item was easy to replace, the organization is able to send it to the family in question pretty quickly. But not all lost friends are easy to find. “We had a couple of items that were almost 40 years old,” Shankin says. That’s where the Internet comes in: LSP’s Instagram has more than 25,000 followers. By harnessing their collective knowledge and search skills, the organization has been able to find decades-old comfort items to send to kids who miss them.

“Because then we had thousands of people looking for it, rather than just two people looking for it,” Shankin explains. “So we started crowdsourcing help and it worked. There's this one pink bunny that was over 30 years old, and we couldn't find it anywhere. We knew it was from The GAP, and we tried to get in touch but they couldn't find it in their archives. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, someone said, ‘I have this bunny.’ They were willing to very lovingly part with it, knowing that it would go to a child who lost their home.”

As time went on, LSP’s mission expanded beyond the wildfires and they became, simply, the Lost Stuffy Project. Currently, they are working with families in Texas.

“There's this one family whose daughter thankfully survived the flood at Camp Mystic,” Shankin explains. “And she didn't have a chance to take her most favorite comfort item with her, her Ruff Ruff ... So someone on behalf of the family had reached out to help us replace it. Thankfully, we were able to do it rather quickly. But this poor girl, the families... ”

For those who’d like to help LSP in its mission, there are a few things you can do pretty easily. Following the organization on Instagram really does make a difference: the more folks who can help look for hard-to-find toys, the more kids can be reunited with their comfort objects. Spreading the word about the organization, too, is helpful, because it can better connect those in need with LSP’s services. “We are trying so hard to reach these affected families to let them know that we're here to help, that we have thousands of people who are rallying behind them who want to provide a little bit of comfort for them,” Shankin says.

And, of course, monetary donations can help get more comfort items to more kids. Not only that, it can help support “stuffy rehab.”

“We've had several of those that we thought were going to be so impossible to find, but it ended up that somebody had the exact one and we were able to send it to Stuffy Rehab as we like to call,” Shankin jokes. “We had this wonderful partner who's working with us in Michigan who restores stuffed animals who need a little bit of zhuzhing up to be ready for their new family.”

While “stuffy doctor” (“an angel; the sweetest woman on Earth”) donates her time and services to LSP, the organization still has to cover shipping. But the real power of LSP is in its ability to connect people — and then stuffed animals — to one another.

“I think what's nice for people to know is you don't need to have a lot of money or have a lot of time or power to help,” Shankin says. “A little bit goes a long way, and the willingness to help is really so important ... you could really move mountains by just something super small, and that's something that we really like to focus on.”

To help the Lost Stuffy Project in their mission, or to request a comfort object lost in a disaster or trauma, go to their website — loststuffyproject.org — and Instagram... and bring a tissue, because one way or another you’re probably going to cry.