A green cast covered Barry's right leg Saturday afternoon. The teddy bear also wore protective plastic sunglasses for her lazy eye and a colorful Band-Aid covered one of her wounds.
Sarai Garcia's stuffed animal went through a lot at the MSU/Mid-Michigan Children's Initiative, or MSU/MMCI's, Second Annual Teddy Bear Picnic, which took place off of Service Road, across from the Clinical Center.
"She had a broken leg," the 8-year-old Lansing resident said. "She had a lazy eye, and she had a blood thing and a heart transplant."
Sarai brought Barry to the event's teddy bear hospital, where area doctors performed X-rays, blood tests, eye exams, surgery and other procedures on the stuffed animals. As practitioners treated the toys, they shared information about what they were doing and the importance of healthy lifestyles with the children.
Dr. Dele Davies, department chairperson of MSU/MMCI, said the program is designed to educate children about taking care of themselves.
"We want to promote a good, healthy lifestyle," he said. "Not just physical, but mental … It's a fun event for kids, while at the same time demystifying medicine as much as we can."
Tickets were $5 per person with proceeds going to promote upgrades in children's medical facilities in the Lansing area, Davies said.
Davies teamed up with women's basketball coach Joanne P. McCallie in 2004 to create MSU/MMCI after witnessing children leaving the city for medical treatment in other areas, he said.
"There was a lot of leakage of the children from the community to get care," he said. "We don't have as many of the specialties as a community of this size should have."
Davies said there might be negative consequences when families must travel to find adequate care for their children.
"We are trying to minimize the risk of children leaving," he said. "What happens is the parents have to take the child somewhere else to get care. If you're a single parent, it can be devastating. Having one parent away may also mean that one parent might have to quit their day job."
Besides the teddy bear hospital, the fund-raiser offered face painting, a DJ, three blow-up jumping tents, demonstrations from the East Lansing police and fire departments, and basketball lessons from members of the women's basketball team.
Team members Aisha Jefferson and Rene Haynes were present at the event, meeting children, playing basketball, racing through the air tents and doing the Hustle with children half their size.
"This is a big fan base of ours," Jefferson said about the children. "We've been meeting a lot of people."
Lansing resident Sonya Butler held her 3-year-old son's Toy Story Woody doll as he watched the excitement around him.
"He really likes the X-ray station," she said. "He wants to be a doctor when he grows up."
