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Rough Riders brighten young lives

Tribune photo by LENORA LAKE

Spencer Sommer talks with Jacob Gadberry, 6, of Apoka, during an ice cream party at Shriners Hospitals for Children.

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 1, 2009

Updated: 07/01/2009 12:33 pm

USF CAMPUS - Alexis Marie Ashby wanted a teddy bear with flowers or a heart.

The 9-year-old patient at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Tampa got a black bear with a red heart sweater and quickly named it Valentine.

Other patients and family members got bears in pink, brown and tan when members of the Rough Riders made their summertime Teddy Bear Run to the hospital recently.

About 15 krewe members also brought ice cream, cookies and punch to about 20 patients, their parents and siblings.

Rough Rider Spencer Sommer said, jokingly: "We get them all sugared up. They can't sleep ... but it's only two times a year."

The krewe, based on President Theodore Roosevelt's group of Rough Riders, delivers the stuffed bears two times a month to various agencies and charities in the Tampa Bay area, said Marty Mantel, co-chair of the teddy bear service project.

"Then we do a Teddy Bear Run almost every day during December. And on Christmas Eve, it's all day and night," Mantel said.

"If we can put a smile on a child's face, then we have done our jobs."

Lenora Lake

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