Lowrie Place resident meets milestone of 25,000 bears sewed and stuffed
BUTLER TWP — Dottie Slomer lives “in a dizzy world” because of Addison’s disease, a condition that causes adrenal glands to make too little of the hormone cortisol, causing fatigue and dizziness.
But when she sews, it helps her see straight again. And for the past 20-plus years, Slomer has become a living assembly line — cutting fabric, pinning it and filled the shapes with stuffing to create fluffy bears.
And she never makes just one. She stuffs bears by the dozen, creating about 1,000 each year since she started, all of which she gives away to organizations like Butler Memorial Hospital and Operation Christmas Child. At the end of July, she hit one of her major milestones in her bear-making, reaching a tally of 25,000 bears stuffed.
Slomer, who moved to the Addison at Lowrie Place this spring, said she never thought she would reach so many bears, but she kept going because of how receiving a stuffed bear made others feel.
“I enjoy seeing people happy,” she said. “I've seen firsthand when I've been in and out of the hospital children getting a teddy bear, and they just love them. So, it's rewarding.”
On a whim, she started tallying the number of bears she made each day on a piece of scrap paper. Now at 90-and-a-half years old, Slomer said she took a break from making bears after she made her 25,000th bear.
For one day.
She had already been unable to completely assemble bears earlier in 2026, When she injured her femur. She could still work with the fabric people brought her — cutting it and pinning it — but it took her a while before she could sew once again.
“I couldn't do anything, but I dreamed of them,” Slomer said of her sewn and stuffed bears.
Despite going through a lot of fabric and stuffing each month, Slomer always manages to get more. Her daughter, Paula Slomer, brings her material that she gets. Since moving into the Addison, Dottie Slomer also gets supplies from other residents and staff members.
Paula Slomer said her mother has always been a crafter, but the bears have been a project that has helped to keep her active and coordinated. She added that Dottie Slomer has become a popular member of the Addison community.
“It keeps her busy,” Paula Slomer said. “All the residents have bears and all the staff have bears.”
Paula Slomer recalled when Joann Fabrics & Crafts in Butler closed. She brought her mother batches and batches of fabric from its going-out-of-business sale. Dottie Slomer made quick work of it through her assembly line process — because she never makes just one bear.
“She went right through it,” Paula Slomer said. “The fabric colors were things that energized her.”
On Wednesday, Aug. 5, the couch in Dottie Slomer’s room was overflowing with stuffed bears, different patterns grouped together in a show of when they were made on the assembly line.
Paula Slomer has also become the delivery driver for the bears. She drops batches of them off at hospitals and schools, and reports the “thank yous” back to her mom. In a folder Dottie Slomer keeps in her room are letters from people thanking her for the bears. They come from people including Butler Memorial Hospital CEO and president Ken DeFurio.
Paula Slomer said her mother also prays when she is starting to run low on fabric, and those prayers have always been answered.
The staff and residents of the Addison not only bring supplies and materials to Dottie Slomer, whom they call their resident seamstress, they also bring some items they would like sewn.
Tracy Stewart, health and wellness director at the Addison at Lowrie Place, said a staff member asked Dottie Slomer to hem his shorts with her sewing machine, which she “did it no problem.” Stewart also said the resident seamstress has stayed true to her nickname since moving into the Lowrie Place.
“Every time we’d go back to her room she’s at her sewing machine,” Stewart said. “She’s known as ‘the bear lady.’”
Paula Slomer said her mother has stayed true to her calling her entire life. She said she recently found one of her mother’s high school yearbooks, where she was pictured as a member of the Future Homemakers of America.
And Dottie Slomer said she learned to sew when she was pretty young. Her mother was a seamstress, but didn’t even need a sewing machine to make clothing and blankets for the people in her life.
“I remember her making a beautiful gown by hand,” Dottie Slomer said.
After reaching the 25,000 bears milestone, Dottie Slomer said she plans to just keep sewing until she can’t anymore. She said, “I’ll sew as long as God wants me to. When he says it's time to quit, I'll pull the plug on the sewing machine.”
But Dottie Slomer still hasn’t heard that call. She said she may have slowed down a little over the past 10 years — from making about 60 bears per day when she first started to about 10 bears a day now — but that’s still several dozen bears per week.
Even when she’s not giving the bears away to hospital-bound people, Dottie Slomer is giving them to people in her life. She said the other residents put the bears “on their walkers and their housekeepers say everyone has a special place for their bear in their room.” There are stuffed bears on staff members’ desks in the offices of the Addison.
All the positive feelings from her neighbors and staff members at the Addison are pretty compelling reasons for Dottie Slomer to keep on making the bears, she said.
“Until my hands give out, I'll continue,” Dottie Slomer said. “It's just making somebody happy.”
