Northborough resident Tricia Campero has kicked off the local collection for the 16th Annual Keith Urban Fans Valentine’s Day Stuffed Monkey (and mates) Drive. The worldwide effort, collects stuffed monkeys to be distributed to sick and hospitalized children on Valentine’s Day.
Monkeys donated through Campero’s effort will be donated to the UMass Children’s Medical Center in Worcester, MA. If donations are high, a second hospital location will be determined.
Monkeys must be new with all tags still on and should be a minimum of 8 inches long, not including the tail, and most importantly must be huggable.
In 2022, Campero collected a total of 438 monkeys. She has set up an Amazon wish list to make convenient for anyone wishing to donate a monkey (or two) and have it directly delivered to her.
View the Amazon wish list. Deadline to donate is Wednesday, February 8.
When ordering, please choose the gift receipt option so Campero knows the donor’s name, city and state.
If purchasing monkeys at local stores (such as Kohl’s, which currently have them in stock), email cpcampero@msn.com for Northborough drop off information.
The original organizer Eileen Henri was a member of Keith Urban’s fan club, ‘Monkeyville’. That year Keith had a campaign where he urged his fans to get involved or volunteer in their communities. She was looking for ideas of ways to get involved when she saw an article about a local garage collecting stuffed monkeys for abused and neglected children at a safe house for Valentine’s Day. They called it ‘MonkeyLove‘. Henri thought this would be perfect since Keith’s fan club, at that time, was called ‘Monkeyville‘. And so the effort began and grew.