PARSIPPANY — Residents from the Matheny Medical and Education Center created “brave bags” and donated them to the Parsippany Police Department to help comfort children during emergency situations.
Adult residents at Matheny, a hospital for children and adults with developmental and physical disabilities, worked to make the bags as part of pre-vocational training. Deanna Willard, Life Skills Coordinator, and Nicole Araujo, Peapack Program Coordinator, came up from the “brave bags” as an extension of the police’s existing practice of handing out teddy bears to children.
Bags included items like crayons, coloring books, bubbles, bouncy balls, and small game or toy. They’re kept in soft cloth bags small enough to be tucked in an officer’s cruiser, and handed out to children during car crashes or other upsetting incidents.
The bags are brightly decorated, and were colored and designed by the residents themselves.
