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Thanks to her efforts, and support from community groups, every abused child who has to make a scary trip to the courthouse will get a fuzzy bear to hold on to.
Demichelis, a dentist, hopes the stuffed animals bring some comfort during closed-door hearings where a court commissioner or judge decides if a child should be removed from his or her parent's home.
"When you hug a teddy bear, you've just got to feel better," she said, noting that she modeled her program on a similar effort in Los Angeles.
Soroptimist International of Modesto raised $1,000 to buy 400 teddy bears and get the program started.
Members of the Country Crossroads Quilt Guild, including Superior Court Judge Sue Siefkin, are making vests to dress up each bear.
And Stanislaus County's Court Appointed Special Advocate program, which assigns trained volunteers to the neediest children in the system, will give a bear to every child who comes to court.
The children will be able to hug the bears during adoption or guardianship hearings, and take them to the witness stand if they must tell the court about the abuse or neglect that brought them there.
Lona Stonebreaker, executive director of the CASA program, hopes the bears show the children that adults do care about them.
"They've lost their innocence, and there's no way you can bring that back," she said. "But we can give them hope."
Enthusiastic support
Demichelis got the idea for the program when she was sitting in a doctor's waiting room, leafing through a magazine. She noticed a story about a teddy bear giveaway program in Southern California, and got busy.
An attorney who started Comfort for Court Kids in LA offered advice, and Fiesta, of Vernon, a wholesale manufacturer that supplies the LA program, offered bargain rates on teddy bears.
Demichelis also got enthusiastic support from court officials who know that the legal system is rarely warm and fuzzy, and may be especially intimidating for children.
"A lot of adults that they don't even know are making decisions for them," Commissioner Nancy Williamsen said.
Every child who comes to court for a dependency hearing will get a bear, to ease him or her through the day. A select few have a CASA volunteer assigned to help as well.
The volunteers act as fact-finders for the court, making sure the child isn't lost in the system or sent to an inappropriate foster or group home.
Each volunteer is assigned to one child, or one set of siblings, and is privy to confidential information. The volunteers speak on the child's behalf in court but may not talk publicly about any case they work on.
"They're really an extra eye and an extra ear for the court," Williamsen said. She said court officials handpick the children for the program, because there are many more needy youngsters than volunteers.
The county's CASA program, one of 900 across the nation, got started in October 2001 at the prodding of Judge Marie Silviera, then the presiding judge of the Juvenile Court. She now hears criminal cases.
'TEDDY BEAR IS A SYMBOL'
The court began assigning cases to CASA in September, after the group adopted bylaws and created a 36-hour training program to make sure volunteers can deal with children who have special needs.
Currently, 12 volunteers are working with 31 children.
Stonebreaker said she believes the CASA program will grow. She said the teddy bear program is a big step forward.
"The teddy bear is a symbol," Stonebreaker said. "It's a symbol of a community working together collaboratively."
To volunteer for CASA, or donate money to the Teddy Bear for Kids program, call 567-4230.
Bee staff writer Susan Herendeen can be reached at 578-2338 or sherendeen@modbee.com.
 If you would like to support the Teddy Bear for Kids program, you can sponsor a CASA Bear by sending a check for $25.00 payable to CASA of Stanislaus and noting Teddy Bears in the memo line. Mail check to CASA of Staislaus County -
P O Box 3488 Modesto, CA 95353.
Our Advocates are Sworn In
 
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The Teddy Bears for Kids Program
