J.I.C.S. NEWS

Pennsylvania Teddy Bear Project

DATELINE 2001:  In 2000, Lori Jean Karluk was among the teddy bear artists asked to create and loan a teddy bear to the Pennsylvania Teddy Bear Project 

to help celebrate the teddy bear's 100th birthday.

The State of Pennsylvania joined Teddy Bear and Friends for a Teddy Bear Christmas. As part of the project, Lori Jean Karluk created God's Angel to help

decorate the Governor's Residence in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

As a participant in the Pennsylvania Teddy Bear Project,  Lori Jean Karluk was among those invited by former Governor Tom Ridge

and former First Lady Michelle Ridge and Governor Mark Schweiker and First Lady Cathy Schweiker

to a holiday reception for artists and their guests at the Governor's Residence on December 7, 2001.

Here are scenes from "God's Angel's" appearance at the Governor's Residence

in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, part of the Pennsylvania Teddy Bear Project.

God's Angel helped to decorate the Mellon Parlor of the Governor's Residence.

Lori Jean with her creation.

Lori Jean met Marianne Clay, managing editor of Teddy Bear and Friends Magazine.

ABC's Bob Woodruff Presented with Work of Art

 DATELINE 2007:  Lori Jean Karluk of Throop recently presented Bob Woodruff, former anchor of ABC's World News Tonight,

with an original crocheted blanket.

Bob was injured in Iraq when a roadside bomb exploded near a Humvee in which he was riding.

He suffered a traumatic brain injury along with additional life-threatening injuries.

Lori Jean is a former employee of ABC, Inc. She was technical editor for McCall's Needlework, owned by ABC, in the early 1990s.

She was contacted in January of 2006 with a request to assist Bob's family with any needs that

would arise while he was in a coma in Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

Lori Jean phoned both Bob's sister-in-law and a friend of his wife Lee's.

As it turned out, Lori Jean's schedule and the fact that the Woodruffs live in Rye, New York made it difficult for her to assist.

Since she has been a professional crochet designer and teddy bear artist for 26 years, she decided to create a special blanket.

She researched Bob's personal life. Up until then she only knew him as being a news reporter and news anchor. Her design, the BOB'S LIFE AFGHAN,

features when and where he was born, schools and colleges he graduated from, his marriage, family and career.

It also is contains a quote from Henry David Thoreau that Bob inscribed in his high school yearbook,

"I wished to live deliberately …and not when I came to die discover that I had not lived."

The blanket is 78 inches square and took 8 months to design and complete.

If, unfortunately, Bob did not survive the injuries or was too incapacitated to view the afghan,

Lori Jean hoped that it would bring some comfort to his family.

A series of scheduling problems led to a delay in presenting the blanket to the Woodruffs. After Bob awoke from the coma, he began a

long road of recovery and therapy that lasted for months.

He and his family stayed with relatives for the summer while he was still receiving therapy over a web cam.

The blanket was presented to Lee at their home on February 3, 2007 by one of the family's best friends.

Bob finally returned to journalism and was in California interviewing injured troops for his upcoming news special at the time.

Lee and her friend wanted to wait to open the box containing the gift until Bob returned home

but Lee said that she "couldn't resist." When Lee saw the blanket, she could not believe that it was handmade. She loved it.

Upon arriving back home, Bob phoned Lori Jean to express his appreciation. Bob said "I will lie under it with my kids" and "when I am not home,

they can lie under it and think of me and pray for me. I mean… that's my life on there." The afghan is on display in the family room of the Woodruff home.

During their long phone conversation, they discussed Bob's injuries, his remarkable recovery and challenges he still faces,

his comeback to reporting and his family.

They also talked about his upcoming special. He requested that Lori Jean phone him after viewing the special to discuss it,

which she did. They also talked about Lori Jean's design work and the fact that Lori Jean's niece and nephew have served in Iraq.

They quickly became friends and planned on meeting in the near future as their schedules permit.

Lori Jean has since exchanged emails and phone calls with both Bob and Lee. During the summer of 2007,

Lori Jean was honored to meet the Woodruff family in New York.

She found the Woodruffs to be a caring, loving family who expressed that by showering Lori Jean with hugs and kisses in appreciation for the gift.

Bob and Lee have started the Bob Woodruff Family Fund (BWFF) to assist and bring awareness to the injuries U.S. troops endure.

Lori Jean has become involved by donating her artwork in the form of collectible artist teddy bears to be

auctioned to raise funds to assist the troops in different aspects of recovery.

Her creation God's Angel was recently auctioned on the Charity Folks website with funds going to BWFF.