New comfort kits aim to help children during Easthampton emergencies

EASTHAMPTON — First responders see many children on their worst days when responding to a call.

That’s why the area’s Free Masons, as part of a national initiative, recently donated approximately 28 bags filled with plush teddy bears to Easthampton first responders, giving them another tool to help comfort a child in crisis.

“We are honored to present these Project Delta bags so they can help the children in the city of Easthampton and hopefully the residents won’t have to use them,” said Donald Carberry, head of the Free Mason Lodge in Hatfield.

Project Delta is a statewide initiative of the Free Masons, providing first responders with free of charge “comfort kits” to give to children experiencing crisis situations like fires and domestic calls. Carberry says that research suggests that early comforting and support from the comfort bags can reduce PTSD symptoms by about 30% for a child in a traumatic situation.

In partnership with Easthampton Rod and Gun Club and American Legion Post 224, Carberry presented the colorful sling bags stamped with the Free Mason’s logo to Easthampton’s first responders inside the Easthampton Public Safety Building last Thursday, Jan. 15.

“These bags are simple in design but powerful in nature,” Carberry said to the first responders. “They’re meant for a child who is experiencing one of the hardest moments of their life. In those moments when words don’t always work, this can.”

The aim of these bags, filled with one or more teddy bears holding a heart, is to give the child a focal point to provide a sense of safety and calm during a crisis.

“We’re getting children in their highest time of need,” said Brennan Struthers, an Easthampton paramedic. “Sometimes trying to comfort a child with only our words isn’t enough.”

Struthers explained that the kits will be kept on hand in Easthampton’s emergency response vehicles. In cases where children are separated from their parents, such as being taken to a hospital, it gives them something familiar to remind them of home.

Carberry said he and the Free Masons have also delivered the comfort kits to the cities of Chicopee and Westfield.

“With strong evidence it reduces acute stress and fear,” Carberry said in an interview with the Gazette. “There have been studies of pediatric disaster settings that show comfort objects lower visible anxiety, crying and agitation. This matters because the intensity of fear during the event is one of the strongest predictors of PTSD.”

Project Delta has delivered more than 3,000 kits with 12,000 bears across the United States to more than 15 states as far as Hawaii.

Carberry said for the donating organizations, this is a way for them to say to first responders, “We stand beside you, we appreciate you and we support you and we’re grateful for the compassion that you show every day.” A child who receives one of the kits from a first responder tends to cooperate better and shows less dissociation, forming a calmer memory of the event, he said.

Carberry said that the Free Masons’ principles include faith, help and charity, and charitable donations like this embody the organization’s mission.

“Charity is the most important of these because charity extends beyond the grave to the balance realms of eternity,” Carberry explained. “We believe in making the world a better place through different acts of kindness.”

Carberry said while the Free Masons have already expanded Project Delta to many communities in the state, he hopes to take it even further, donating bags to near communities like Northampton and Springfield.

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