Writer & Photographer

Special Deliveries

When one thinks about Covid-19, not much joy or happiness springs to mind. The pandemic was rough, to say the least. However, the pandemic also brought us Al E Gator, Bruce the Bat, iHop the Frog and, more recently, Chiquita the Chicken. Out of hardship, came hope. 

Enter, Teddy Gram Direct, a program run by Seminole County Public Schools. 

The brains behind Teddy Gram Direct is Felicia Naidu, Exceptional Student Education (ESE) Services Area Administrator for Seminole County Public Schools in Florida, who oversees the county wide program. During lockdown in 2020, she recognized a need for teachable skills for her students with disabilities, which could then be transferred to all walks of life.

The idea is simple: Teddy Gram Direct is a student enterprise, where students with disabilities work alongside their non-disabled peers and staff. The program strives to offer transferable skills to the students, in a fun, rewarding and incredibly wholesome way - creating stuffed toys and delivering them to any student within the Seminole County School system. The entire enterprise, from taking online orders to physically stuffing the bears, chickens, frogs and other assorted animals, creating accessories and then boxing and shipping, is run by the students themselves. 

Melissa Brown, Transition Resource Teacher, now oversees the day to day running of the program, interacting with and supervising the students, typically aged from 14 to 22, at the Student Transition Achievement Center in Sanford. Today, students Eric Ortiz Garcia, Elijah Rudas, Jafet Vega Ocasio and Alex Machain take me through the order process, after introducing themselves with polite attentiveness. 

Orders are placed on the program’s website - bit.ly/teddygramdirect - which offers a wide range of animals, from Chiquita the Chicken and Bruce the Bat, to holiday bears, reindeers, frogs, sloths, cows, alligators, bees and donkeys, to name but a few. The profits are poured back into the program, the goal being to keep the enterprise alive. The toys are assembled by the students, at the Sanford facility, and the entire process is student led. After stuffing, the toys are outfitted with t-shirts or other accessories, placed in their individual cloth bags, and boxed up, ready for distribution to any Seminole County student. As an online program, one of the perks is allowing grandparents in Oregon order an adorable stuffed chicken for their grandchild in Oviedo, Lake Mary or Winter Springs, sending love from afar.

Behind all the fuzziness, laughter and adorable bumble bees, is a serious mission - helping students with a wide range of disabilities learn transferable life skills, the ultimate goal being to obtain gainful employment. 

Teddy Gram Direct provides a different skill set to traditional work experience programs, “These are not necessarily students who might be able to garner work experience at Publix,” says Melissa Brown. The skills learnt within the program are wide and varied - including reading, collaboration, teamwork, communication and following direction. “We follow an approach of “I do, we do, you do” - from demonstration to supervision to the students doing it alone, within a supportive environment,” she explains.

To that end, there is more work to be done at Oviedo High School, where Jordan Rice, ESE Teacher, oversees students in the classroom. Those students who, depending on their disability, might be unable to fully experience an off campus work experience, can instead help in the way that best matches their skill set. They design images and create personalized t-shirts and bags for the toys, using the sublimation printer in the classroom. Other students use their computer skills while others might need more support and are guided through each process individually. General education students are also involved, offering support, and the benefits are felt by both sets of kids.

As Jordan Rice comments, “We’re giving an opportunity to students who cannot otherwise leave the classroom. It gives them job experience in a safe, supportive environment.”

Felicia Naidu is rightly proud of the program she created, “Teddy Gram Direct meets the needs of ALL students, no matter their ability. We connect at their level and everyone is accommodated, there’s something for everyone here. We don’t graduate kids to the couch!”

Teddy Gram Direct Article

A writing assignment for Lake Mary Life publications allowed me to shine a light
on a fabulous program run by Seminole County Public Schools in Central Florida.