Keri Sommer credits her then boyfriend, now husband Lee with getting her started making teddy bears 30 years ago. 

“We had gone to a bookstore, like, down in South Florida, and I saw this kit on how to make a teddy bear, because I’ve always liked stuffed animals, and he bought me the kit, and I made a teddy bear,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is fun.’ And it just kind of just exploded. I made several for friends. And then when we got married and had kids, I made some for my boys, and it just became a little hobby.”

Two years ago, it was the death of her husband’s former colleague at a south Florida police department that sent Keri down the path that has led to a nonprofit, Bears of Honor, and a chance to make the aftermath of tragedy just a little better for the loved ones left behind. 

After hearing about Lee’s colleague’s death, Keri asked if she could make stuffed bears for the officer’s three children from the officer’s uniforms. 

Lee went down to the funeral of his friend and came back with her uniforms, and Keri went to work, making a pattern and incorporating parts of the uniforms into the three bears. 

“When we found out how much her husband and the kids appreciated them, because it was something they could have and hold again that was hers, we just decided, let’s open up a nonprofit. Let me do this for everybody.”

With that, Bears of Honor was born. 

Keri, a teacher at Livingston Elementary School in Cody, puts a lot of volunteer time into the project. After coming home from school she said she’ll devote an hour or two a night on whatever bears she’s working on — she said she’s averaging about four a month. 

There’s still a lot of cost involved, from the stuffing to the fur on the head of the bears, even as her time, and the uniforms, are donated. Shipping is one of the big expenses, she said, and she even covers the cost for families to ship uniforms to her to sew into bears. 

However, to help raise money for the program Keri makes bears to sell at craft fairs — she said the amount of craft fairs in the area, unlike in South Florida, make it much more possible to do it here. One lady, she said, even donated some old uniforms she had for Keri to make bears for sale. 

Those sales are crucial, because they fund her passion of ensuring at least a piece of a loved one is preserved, something to hold and hug, to remind those left behind of the hero they lost. 

For more information, visit bearsofhonor.com.