Today we’d like to introduce you to Roberta Harper. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Hugaroo, Inc. began as a gesture of love and caring that blossomed through a Girl Scout Gold Award project. Hugaroo is a humanitarian effort to provide new stuffed animals to organizations helping children heal during illnesses or traumatic conditions.
Jenna Harper Thrasher accomplished the beginnings in memory of her sister Morgan, who succumbed to cancer at 17. Hugaroo endeavors to provide stuffed animals to children where and when they need them most.
Morgan and countless other children have found great comfort in having a stuffed animal to hug and keep them company throughout their recovery, treatments, and scary challenges.
We all face challenges, but would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We became a 501c3 in 2007 after our family determined that this was a way that we could keep Morgan in our daily lives and pay it forward for all the support provided to our family when Morgan was fighting cancer. The first challenge was to find a way to make Hugaroo happen while still in full swing of our careers and Jenna to successfully finish middle school, high school, and college.
Second, once we retired after a 40-year career and supported the last of our parents and Jenna getting married, the board agreed that we needed to “lean in” and see where we could take Hugaroo. Third, COVID gave us a scare that we might not be able to even deliver the new stuffed animals that we like to call Hugs! We found a way to process and quarantine these hugs, and since 2019, Hugaroo has grown exponentially. We must determine our next steps for continued sustainability and potential growth.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Roberta (Bert) Harper of Fort Mill, SC, is a results-driven leader with superior motivation and interpersonal skills. She is capable of resolving multiple complex issues that maximize missions and values for a Global Financial Services company and retired in 2012 after 40 years of service. She retired as CEO of the Women’s Inter-Cultural Exchange (WIE) in June 2017.
Harper served on the board of Girl Scouts, Hornets’ Nest Council, and was the chair from 2004 to 2010. She was also instrumental in helping create Hugaroo, Inc. in 2006 and became the CEO/CFO in 2019. Her mission is to provide new stuffed animals to children with a diagnosis of cancer or other traumatic conditions. I’m happy to provide my resume/bio if more details are required.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I’m a leader and depend on the skills of the team members to achieve the goals determined and required for the success of the organization. I am motivated to improve the process and make it better than the current ways of work. I believe in success of the entire team.
As CEO of Hugaroo, Inc., it has stretched me as we had to start from the beginning (blank piece of paper). I also had great volunteers but not a huge team with funding to achieve our goals. It all has to do with “heart” to pay it forward by providing these new stuffed animals that we call “hugs!”
Contact Info:
- Website: hugaroo.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hugaroo.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hugaroo.org
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/roberta-bert-harper-5a798a17
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hugaroo-inc/
