National Society of the Children of the American Revolution (Washington State Society)

https://youtu.be/yIobK73GerU?si=Zb-oTApSz9whJO1L

Every year the Children of the American Revolution (C.A.R.) state needs a patriotic state project fundraiser. This year we are raising money by kids for kids. Our patriotic fundraiser is Operation Battle Buddy!

Operation Give a Hug was a successful national non-profit program that started in WA giving personalized photo holding dolls to deployed families to help cope with being apart. In 2009 my mother reached out to Operation Give A HUG to get a free Huggee doll for my 1-year- old (at the time) brother. Operation Give a Hug responded and gave us one of the free Huggee photo holding dolls. This helped my brother a lot even though he was too young to remember, to be honest, it helped my mom a lot too. Unfortunately, in 2017 Operation Give a Hug was closed due to federal funding issues. This was a letdown to my whole family who had been touched by how this program had helped our family.

The Washington State C.A.R is raising money to get Operation Give a Hug restarted (now renamed Operation Battle Buddy). We hope to raise donated funds so children of active-duty military and civilian first responders under 18 can get a free Huggee doll. Audrey Storch the owner and creator of Give a Hugg and has agreed to pay for shipping and continue her very low retail prices!

Right now thousands are deployed from Wa state. Even without deployments studies show that active-duty military soldiers spend about 45% of their time away from family. Even if they are not deployed, they are still gone and still missed. According to a Blue Star Family poll done in 2019, 95% of military families worry about time away and the stability of their family. Not much research has been done on police families but the long hours away from home has been found to mirror the active duty military data.

As a daughter of a police officer I know what stress it is on my family especially during times of challenge and separation and there are special photo pocket police dolls! The Huggee doll would have helped me cope better with my father’s long night shifts and mandatory overtime.

These Huggee dolls are amazing; they are hypo-allergenic, spot cleanable, color fast, safe for all ages and machine washable!! They have a clear soft pocket to put a photo of their loved one in and change it out when they like! We are going to give one doll to each child who is eligible. Unfortunately, the dolls are not guaranteed, but we will raise as much as we can and get dolls.

So how can you help?

So far we have a list of 1,150 kids (and that number is growing) who need dolls in Wa. We are taking donations towards this amazing program for children and families. All donators will get an opportunity to fill out our “Thanks to Donators” board that will be on display at all C.A.R. events and presentations across WA.

For each donation of $20 will purchase a doll

to a first responder or active-duty child and

have your name put in for a drawing at the

next WA C.A.R. state meeting. The 3 winners

of the drawing will get a blacksmith item donated from Iron B Forge, a local WA veteran owned and family operated blacksmith shop.- so make sure I have your name and amount you donated emailed to me! I am excited for these special photo dolls and their impact on families.

Any requests or needs for dolls please also email the BattlebuddyCAR email below, just as a reminder we are currently focusing on WA state but will hopefully open needs throughout the nation.

According to Huggee creator Audrey Storch “This (Operation Give a Hug) all started in

Washington so it’s like completing a circle!”

Thank you for your consideration,

Danika

WA state C.A.R. President 2025-2026

YouTube: https://youtu.be/yIobK73GerUsi=Zb-oTApSz9whJO1L

WA CAR: http://www.wastatecar.org/