Labor of Love for Victims of Abuse

At the end of the school year, most home economics students have accumulated a considerable array of oven mitts, shorts and pillows.

So when Shirley Mark told her class at Birmingham High School that they would be making stuffed dogs, students might have had reason to consider it yet another item for the knickknack pile. But Mark gave the project a much different thrust by announcing that the dogs would be donated to victims of abuse in the San Fernando Valley.

Los Angeles Police Det. Ernest Guzman, head of the Domestic Abuse Response Team, or DART, in Van Nuys, and Domestic Abuse Center Director Gail Pincus stopped by Mark’s class Thursday to collect about 100 stuffed animals. They said children from a few months to 12 years old would receive the toys.

“I always try to encourage my students to do community service, so this seemed like a great way to accomplish that,” Mark said.

“It makes a difference that these are homemade,” Pincus said. “Kids prefer these to fancy teddy bears. . . . They’re so upset in the moment that they want something to cuddle.”

The dogs’ eyes are French knots; they have no parts that could be swallowed by a child.

They will be distributed as part of DART’s “care package” voucher system supported by local businesses. Vouchers are issued in amounts up to $20 for food, motel rooms, cab fares, residence or vehicle repairs and children’s shoes.

Pincus urged the class to be mindful of the signs of domestic violence, adding that nearly half of the nation’s high school students report being directly affected by it.

“I would hope that by doing this, they would think about who’s getting the stuffed animals,” she said. “The issue is all around them. Who knows? They might come home and see one of the stuffed animals they made in the house of their next-door neighbor.”

Senior Meredith Johnson, 18, appeared to get that message.

“I was sewing my dog, thinking, ‘Oh, some little boy or girl is going to be holding something I made!’ ” she said.