Peterborough Youth Pays It Forward With Teddy Bear Donation to Fire Department

Hunter Nelson, 4, made a special delivery of teddy bears to the Peterborough Fire Department on Monday.

Hunter with the firefighters that provided life saving assistance, a few months after, and again at four years old. Photo courtesy of Kate McEwen.

He brought the teddy bears for firefighters to keep in their trucks, in case young children involved in emergencies need them for comfort.

When Hunter was just four months old his family had to make a difficult phone call to 911.

Born prematurely, Hunter had under-developed lungs and needed to sleep with an oxygen monitor. A few weeks after he was home from the hospital the monitor went off while he was napping.

“I went in and found him unresponsive and blue, so we had to call 911. Fire was first on scene and they swooped him away and got right to work,” said Kate McEwen, Hunters mom. “I had two young daughters at home, 2 and 3 at the time, two fire fighters came in and gave them teddy bears. It really made a big difference that those fire fighters stayed with them and talked with them and they had the teddy bears to distract them from the chaos.”

Now, every year on Hunter’s birthday, the family tries to give back. Sometimes to the NICU at the hospital and sometimes to the fire department.

This year Hunter saved his money and friends and family donated some, and together they donated 18 teddy bears to the fire station.

When he and his family made the delivery Hunter got to say hi to the same men that were on scene when he was four months old, and tour the fire hall while wearing his fire gear.

“He wants to be a firefighter when he’s older, that’s been strong now for a couple years,” said McEwen. “He’s very passionate about that.”

She says while Hunter doesn’t remember the day the firefighters came he knows what they did, and what the teddy bears given to his older sisters mean to them.

“I know lot’s of families go through stuff like this, this was just our way of giving back because we know what that feels like.”

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