'Brave Bags' Donated To Washington Twp Police

LONG VALLEY, NJ — Residents from the Matheny Medical and Education Center created "brave bags" to donate to the Washington Township Police Department to help comfort children during emergency situations.

Adult residents at Matheny, a hospital for children and adults with developmental and physical disabilities, worked to make the bags as part of pre-vocational training. Deanna Willard, Life Skills Coordinator, and Nicole Araujo, Peapack Program Coordinator, came up from the "brave bags" as an extension of the police's existing practice of handing out teddy bears to children.

The residents decided to include crayons, a coloring book, bubbles, bouncy ball, and small game/toy in the small bag that officers could keep with them in the trunk of their police cruisers. Items in the bag are targeted for children between two and ten years old. The bags themselves are brightly decorated, and were colored and designed by the residents themselves.

Image via WTPD