Ashley Reckdenwald founded Land of Lovies after the LA wildfires to help restore — or replace — stuffed animals that had been lost or damaged in the disaster. Now, after the floods in Texas, they are back to work.

Texas

Land of Loveys, a nonprofit organization established by Ashley Rechtenwald following the LA wildfires, is assisting families in Texas by recovering and replacing stuffed animals lost during recent floods. Volunteers, including Erica McLemore, are retrieving these sentimental items from flood-affected areas and working to return them to children and families.

When original stuffed animals cannot be found, the organization provides exact replicas to those affected. Community members are also involved, cleaning and posting found items online to help reunite them with their owners. The effort highlights the emotional significance of these keepsakes, especially for families who have suffered losses.

Why one nonprofit is returning keepsakes lost in the Texas floods

A stuffed animal can be a child's best friend. After the floods in Texas, community members are on the ground to retrieve lost stuffed animals from the devastation. Volunteer Erica McLemore is one of them. Okay, TikTok, do your thing. Pull these out of Sandy Creek, Wind Valley area of the unincorporated part of Leander, Texas today. Ashley Rechtenwald is the founder of Land of Loveys, a non-profit that replaces stuffed animals for free after catastrophic events, an idea born out of the L.A. wildfires. She's been working with Erica to find missing stuffies. Why do you think it's so important to reunite these stuffed animals with these children, with these families, and even with these parents who may have lost a child? People know that stuffed animals hold memories. They hold emotions. They play such an integral role in a child's life, and we really want to give that back to them. Well, it's not just any stuffed animal. It's the stuffed animal. It's the one that they've experienced everything with, shared memories with. If the group can't find the exact stuffed animal, they'll send these children exact replicas. We found really rare items such as a Build-A-Bear from 1999 that a child has had since they were born. It is being shipped out to Texas right now. The floods have taken the lives of at least 36 children, according to the Kerrville Police Department. So many people are pulling items out of the Guadalupe River, and it's been heart-wrenching to see how ravaged these items are. But again, that power of community, people are scooping them up, taking them home, cleaning them up, and then posting them on these Facebook groups because they care. They know these are cherished items that people want back. I thought if I could carve out my own little piece here and help out the children by helping out the parents too, then this is where I belong and what I should be doing.

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Jerusalem

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Kyiv

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Center Point

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