HAMPSTEAD — Dennis Couturier's goal is to place three teddy bears in every fire station in New Hampshire.
Couturier, of the Patriarchs Militant of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, lives by the creed of his order: to visit the sick, relieve distress, bury the dead, and educate orphans. As department commander, he decided to undertake the teddy bear project.
"In the event of a fire that destroys a home in which they have small children, they could receive a teddy bear to be able to take with them either a hotel, motel or to a family member's home for some form of comfort," he said. "I have been at this for a year, and I am almost finished."
The Hudson resident has been traveling around the state on weekends, delivering the teddy bears to the fire stations. In larger towns and cities, this has meant several stops, as cities such as Manchester and Keene have multiple stations.
With more than 234 municipalities in the state, Couturier estimated there are more than 250 fire stations, which means he will have distributed more than 750 teddy bears by the time he is done.
"The biggest problem I have had is unmanned stations," he said. "I then try to go to the police station and leave the bears there, and ask them to give them to the firefighters. But in many of these small towns, there's no one there either, so I have had pretty good luck finding the corner store in towns and asking for their help."
This past weekend, he visited Hampstead's Central fire station on Little's Lane. There, he handed the on-duty firefighters three teddy bears. The firefighters agreed to help him by giving similar packages containing three bears each to neighboring fire stations in Atkinson, Kingston, East Kingston, Danville, Newton and Plaistow.
After leaving the Hampstead fire station, Couturier said he was headed for the Seacoast to cover as much of that region as he could. He said he still has fire stations to visit south of Keene, along the Vermont border and around Lake Winnipesaukee. He hopes to be finished by the end of the month.
