The bears Sister Lauren knits take between five and seven hours to complete. With 1,000 bears finished, that’s more than 5,000 hours — or roughly 208 full days — of work.

But Sister Lauren said she’s been richly rewarded.

She’s received dozens of pictures of children holding Mother Bear teddy bears. A Zambia man who visited Minnesota made a special trip to Mankato just to see her. And In commemoration of her 1,000th bear, Sister Lauren was given a plaque of three pictures — all of them African girls wearing warm smiles and clutching teddy bears made by Sister Lauren.

“You would have to be made of stone to not be moved,” she said.

The Mother Bear Project has knitters in all 50 states and in several countries. All tallied, the Project has shipped more than 22,000 bears to Africa.

Anyone interested in getting involved can go to www.motherbearproject.org and click on “Beyond Bears.” For $10, people can sponsor a bear and have it sent to Africa with their name on it. People can also volunteer to be a knitter.