Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church in Sherrard held their “Care With Bears” program recently. Wayne Custer read the history of how the bear program was started and Pastor Gary Rankin blessed the bears with a poem that was written by Rita Custer.

Tom Howard, Ohio County Sheriff was there to accept the bears on behalf of the Ohio County Sheriff’s Office, West Virginia and Bill Helms, Marshall County Sheriff was there to accept bears on behalf of the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office. 250 bears blessed and turned over to these law enforcement agencies for use when interacting with children in the community.

Since the program started in 2006, they have since blessed and turned over approximately 4,300 bears. The church has already started to collect for next years’ service.