North Jersey Mom Helps Kids Fleeing LA Fires Reunite With Lost 'Stuffies'

NORTH JERSEY, NJ — Randi Jaffe, a former Hoboken mom who now lives in Marlboro, helps children through tragedies for a living — like when they're facing surgery or if a parent is chronically ill. As a "child life specialist," she works with hospitals and individuals.

But she woke up with a different mission last Tuesday: She felt she had to find a way to help the children fleeing the fires in Los Angeles. But what could she do from New Jersey?

Then it hit her.

"I couldn't stop thinking, what would I grab if I had to leave?" she said in an interview. "My 3-year-old's stuffed animals. And I thought, all these kids are missing their stuffies and they're not sleeping anyway...."

Jaffe said stuffed animals are often the one constant that a child can hold on to through a hard situation.

"[My] job is to help kids feel a sense of normalcy in a circumstance that's extremely challenging," she said. "The first thing we [child life specialists] say to parents coming into the hospital is, remember to bring their comfort items. Bring your lovey, bring your stuffy."

But sometimes, a child will hold on to a favorite stuffed animal for years, past the point when it stops being manufactured. If it's gone, it's tough to replace.

Last week, Jaffe and her sister-in-law Jen set up an Instagram account to help families who want to find a certain stuffed animal. Jaffe gets a photo and tries to find someone in the world who has the same toy, blanket, or pillow.

While some items can be replaced just by buying it again, Jaffe said, the parent still has been thankful. "One mom said, 'You're taking one thing off my plate,' " she said.

Flying Hippo Pillow

So far, Jaffe has had a hippo pillow sent from Spain and a sock creature from the Netherlands. She said that she has volunteers who sleuth on the internet and figure out where an item can be bought, based on a photo.

"We found him…all the way in Amsterdam!" wrote Jaffe on her "LA Lost Stuffy Project" Instagram page last week, of a white "Artis de Partis" zoo mascot. "Biggest thank you to a native Angeleno who now lives in Amsterdam for heading to the zoo this morning to pick up this special guy and ship him to LA. You are all amazing."

Jaffe grew up in Marlboro, started a family in Hoboken, and recently moved back to Marlboro with her husband, who's also from there, she said. Her kids are 7 and 3.

Since starting her page last week, it's taken off, and she's gotten $20,000 in donations, which go toward mailing the animals and other costs.

She also said that she connected with a company, Budsies, that will rebuild an animal by looking at a photo, if all else fails.

"It's their tiny little piece of home," she said.

If you want to help out, or if you need to find a lost stuffy, there are forms on her page here. (Note: They're not looking for donations of random stuffed animals right now.)

To reach Jaffe professionally, see Kid Cope Specialists.