5-Year-Old Donates Teddy Bears To Pittsburg County Sheriff's Office

A five-year-old McAlester boy made a special donation to the Pittsburg County Sheriff's Office this month.

Teddy bears are not what many would expect to see lined up in a sheriff's office, but that's exactly what you'll find inside the Pittsburg County Sheriff's Office.

Many of them came from little Jackson Sellmeyer.

“They were big bears,” said Pittsburg County Sheriff Chris Morris.

Jackson decided he had enough toys. So for his 5th birthday, instead of getting gifts for himself, Jackson asked his friends to bring him teddy bears so he could donate them to the sheriff's office.

When he did, he got to meet deputies and Sheriff Chris Morris too.

“You can just tell he's a good kid,” said Sheriff Morris. “It's pretty neat. It's touching.”

Three churches and a woman in the area have also donated bears in recent weeks.

“She handmade these teddy bears and brought us ten or 12 and she said, 'I'll go make you some more and bring more up,’” Morris stated.

The sheriff said deputies keep the bears in their patrol cars. They give them to children to help comfort them on scenes that could be scary, like domestic violence situations or a crash.

“If you get out on a car wreck and mom or daddy's hurt, even if the child's hurt a little bit, and you give them a bear, it helps put a smile on their face,” said Morris.

Until the donations, the deputies were buying teddy bears themselves.

But now, they're stocked for a while. They even sent Jackson home with his own, fittingly dressed as an officer.

“It was a pretty neat little deal,” said Morris. “I think Jackson thought it was a pretty good trade.”