The Association of Legal Administrators’ annual vendor luncheon last week included a menagerie of 1,000 stuffed animals. The Atlanta Chapter of the ALA brought the “fuzzy friends” to the event at the Ritz-Carlton Downtown.

The “Bags, Bears and Bunnies” program donated the toys – plus more than 500 duffel, tote and gym bags – to the Atlanta Police Department. The donated items will be given to children whom police officers have to remove from dangerous homes.

Sandra Moss Mallory, chairman of the chapter’s community relations committee and Administrator at Smith, Gambrell & Russell, says the officers will keep the toys and bags in the trunks of their squad cars. Children who are removed suddenly from their homes, says Mallory, often don’t have time to pack their belongings. Officers frequently will stuff a few of a child’s things into garbage bags, Mallory says.

The duffel bags will replace those. And, Mallory adds, “because of the great people in Atlanta’s law firms, many of Atlanta’s children who are unfortunate enough to find themselves in bad situations will now have a fuzzy friend to provide a little comfort.”