Friends for comfort

It hasn’t been easy for Jenna Shapiro to make it through the entryway of her house the last few weeks.

Jenna, a seventh-grader at Harbor Day School in Newport Beach, started a project in October to collect stuffed animals for charity. The 13-year-old launched a Southern California chapter of the nonprofit Stuffed Animals for Emergencies, which provides toys for children in shelters and other crisis situations, then posted fliers around her synagogue, school and neighborhood asking for donations.

Within a few weeks, friends and neighbors provided Jenna with hundreds of stuffed toys — and then the boxes began flowing in from across the country. Donors found the chapter’s e-mail address online and wrote asking to contribute, and teddy bears, Hello Kitty dolls and Beanie Babies soon packed the Shapiro residence.

“We’ve gotten things from Wisconsin and other Western states,” said Jenna’s mother, Margot Shapiro. “Evidently, there aren’t enough of these chapters and not enough distribution options for people.”

This week, Jenna and her mother plan to begin distributing the animals to shelters around Southern California. The two drafted a list of 49 recipients, including the Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter, the American Red Cross in Santa Ana and the Orangewood Children’s Foundation.

Jenna, whose bat mitzvah — a traditional Jewish coming-of-age ceremony for girls — is scheduled for January, discovered Stuffed Animals for Emergencies online. She had grown up with a large collection of stuffed animals and ended up contributing some of her own to the donation boxes.

“They’ve just been around the house, so it’s a good opportunity to get rid of them,” said Jenna.

She added that even after the holiday, she intended to keep her chapter alive and divert more stuffed animals to charity. “I think every kid needs a stuffed animal to be a comforting pal or friend,” Jenna said.

• To contribute to Jenna’s chapter, visit www.stuffedanimalsforemergencies.org and click on the “Chapters” link.

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at michael.miller@latimes.com.