Tuesday Oct. 20 marked the kickoff date for the 6th annual Emery Miller Teddy Bear Drive. Junior Emery Miller started the drive to collect and deliver teddy bears to children spending the holidays in the hospital.

Born with a hole in his heart and severe valve issues, Miller was frequently in the hospital. “I had 4 open-heart surgeries, the first one when I was 6 months of age.”

In the fifth grade, Miller came up with the idea for a bear drive after hearing a church sermon about giving more than receiving. “I went to my mom after school and I said, ‘Mom I want to give back to the hospital that helped me so much in my childhood.’”

As a child, Miller was a patient at Phoenix Children’s Hospital (PCH). “She posted our conversation on Facebook and within 3 minutes we had 45 likes and over 30 comments.” The drive took off running as they collected 485 bears in two weeks to deliver to the 400 beds in PCH.

All kinds of people pitched in, raising funds and donating. Many clubs and sports got involved along with families. Two years ago, Miller approached Perry Administration about getting the school more involved in the drive. “I gave him [Emery] the green light and talked to the other principals,” Principal Dan Serrano explained, “He [Emery] already had a plan.” The drive came to Perry in a variety of ways. Every year, there are announcements made asking to donate bears during the holiday season.

After a few years, the drive had taken off. “Our 5th year we decided we have all these bears, we are bigger than the state of Arizona.” Miller then extended the drive out to Wisconsin, California, Texas, Nevada, with more states to come. Miller’s friend and drive partner Basha sophomore Clayton Reible traveled to every state with him last year to help. Reible is a major part of the drive as a whole, “I have family up in Wisconsin that helped with it a lot last year and that’s where I’m going to school next year so I think I am going to run it up there.”

The drive is a simple, easy way to help children. The bears that have been donated previous years have ranged in price from $1 from the Dollar Tree, to $50 from Costco. Miller explains the variety of ways that people can pitch in. “If you don’t even have the money to buy a bear, get the word out. Tell people, tell your neighbors, scream it from the rooftops.”

As the drive grows, Miller and the foundation are trying to make it easier to participate. Contributing varies from donating bears, money or even just time; it is a perfect way to make a difference during the holiday season.