Every year, Elizabeth “Lisa” Michalski hangs a new ornament in honor of Teddy, her first son, who was stillborn in 2018.
The tradition keeps Teddy present in the Michalski family's holiday celebrations.
And what started as a way of remembering sparked something much bigger: if a small teddy bear ornament could bring her comfort, maybe it could do the same for others carrying the same kind of loss.
I remember how devastating it was going to get that first ornament after Teddy passed,” Lisa says. “I thought something this small could ease that for another parent.
A Mother’s Way of Remembering
Lisa founded A Touch of Teddy in 2023, a nonprofit based just outside Cleveland, Ohio.
Every October during Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, the organization sends free teddy bear ornaments to families across the United States who have experienced pregnancy or infant loss.
In the last 3 years, A Touch of Teddy has sent over 8,000 free teddy bear ornaments across the US to families who have experienced pregnancy/infant loss.
Lisa reads the stories families share when requesting a bear. And for many of them, losing their precious babies left them with little or nothing physical to hold onto.
It's such an honor to be trusted with some of the most intimate parts of someone's parenthood — the moments before and after their loss.
Every bear comes with a custom hang tag, personalized with the baby's name at the parents' request, and a short poem of comfort.
"Giving them something physical, even something so small, feels bigger than I ever thought it would."
A Print Partner That Grew with the Mission
As A Touch of Teddy grew, Lisa needed a reliable way to produce her printed materials. For a small nonprofit, that meant vetting every option carefully before committing to one.
She found the right combination of quality, value, and ease of use with UPrinting.
Their website is user-friendly, and the prices are the best I’ve found for the quality they provide. As a small nonprofit, I did a lot of pricing before landing on a company to make sure I was getting the best deal!
Lisa’s printing needs have expanded alongside her vision for A Touch of Teddy.
After ordering thousands of tags for the teddy bears, custom flyers that helped spread their mission, and a table runner for events, she returned to UPrinting for stickers and plaques for her other nonprofit initiatives.
One of her latest projects involves installing Wind Phones, unconnected phones that offer grieving families a place to speak to loved ones they have lost.
I ended up using UPrinting for one of my latest projects — putting up Wind Phones, phones for grievers — and have ordered multiple aluminum composite signs, which are absolutely beautiful.
When Service Matters as Much as the Product
"UPrinting was the MVP from the get-go," Lisa shares.
But even a reliable print partner can make mistakes; what matters is how those mistakes are handled.
When she received her second order of hang tags, Lisa noticed that roughly 100 of the 1,000 were printed off-center. She reached out, and the issue was resolved right away.
Everyone makes mistakes, but the resolution was top-notch. Within a few days, a replacement was sent out, and they even sent extra! I was so grateful, as that was a very nice surprise.
The experience only strengthened her confidence in the partnership.
Carrying Teddy’s Legacy Forward
From personal loss to 8,000 (and counting!) acts of comfort, A Touch of Teddy has transformed one family’s tradition of remembrance into an act of compassion shared across the country.
Behind every teddy bear, every tag, every poem, is a mother who knows exactly what emptiness after losing a baby feels like — and a print partner who's helped her fill it.
Don’t second-guess it — you can count on UPrinting to get the job done and done right.
For Lisa, that trust isn't just about print quality. It's about knowing that every meaningful detail, the ones that give grieving families something physical to hold onto, will arrive exactly as it should.
Learn more about A Touch of Teddy's mission, request a teddy bear ornament for a family in need, or learn how you can help at atouchofteddy.org. Follow along on Instagram @atouchofteddy for updates.
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