Susie Hanson Episode
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Teddy Bears with Heart
Teddy Bears with Heart has gifted over 350,000 stuffed animals to help first responders assist children in crisis.
MONTEREY, CA, UNITED STATES, May 18, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — SideBar: Optimism in Action podcast, a collaboration of KAZU 90.3 and Monterey College of Law, welcomes Susan “Susie” Harmon, Founder of Teddy Bears with Heart.
Teddy Bears with Heart has gifted over 350,000 stuffed animals to help first responders assist children in crisis. In addition, the organization provides nine hospitals and more than 150 agencies with stuffed animals to comfort those in need. They also sponsor the “Share a Bear Because You Care” program through which supporters can purchase small teddy bears from Teddy Bears With Heart and personally share them with people they encounter in everyday life — a neighbor, a senior, a child having a tough day, a first responder, or someone who just needs a moment of comfort.
Since she started the all-volunteer organization, Hanson, who is known as the “Chief Bear”, and her team have distributed bears – along with a menagerie of other animals including puppies, giraffes, mice, snakes and sea creatures – throughout Monterey County and as far away as Napa, CA. She also gets calls for bears and stuffed animals from other parts of the country and even overseas. One thing is certain, if she can figure out how to get the toys there, she will.
A “full time” volunteer for Teddy Bears with Heart, Hanson actually has a full-time day job, but you wouldn’t know it considering all of the effort she has invested in this successful nonprofit that brings so many smiles to children, seniors, and others who are in crisis or facing personal challenges.
Hanson’s episode on SideBar: Optimism in Action goes live Tuesday, May 19, 2026 on www.kazu.org/sidebar. To learn more about Teddy Bears with Heart, go to www.teddybearswithheart.org.
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KAZU 90.3 radio and SideBarMedia are excited to collaborate to add SideBar: Optimism in Action podcast to KAZU’s digital programming on the station’s website (www.kazu.org/sidebar). KAZU is the NPR affiliate station for Monterey, Salinas, and Santa Cruz. The SideBar: Optimism in Action podcast – sponsored by Monterey College of Law, a long-standing nonprofit sponsor of KAZU 90.3 radio – has become the first non-newscast, locally produced podcast featured on the KAZU website and mobile application.
SideBar: Optimism in Action is hosted by former law dean Mitch Winick, produced by David Eakin, a local theater composer, media consultant, and podcast producer, and promoted by Dena Dowsett, social media specialist. “The podcast features nonprofit leaders, advocates, and community members who represent extraordinary work that is improving the humanitarian, public policy, and charitable needs of our local, national, and global communities. Our focus this season is on the amazing individuals who are pursuing positive change during challenging times,” explained Winick.
New episodes of SideBar: Optimism in Action are published on the first and third Tuesdays of each month at www.kazu.org/sidebar. To learn more about the podcast, read our blog, and to preview and listen to more than 90 previous episodes, go to SideBarMedia at www.sidebarmedia.org.
Mitchel Winick
SideBar Media
+1 831-241-8999
email us here
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