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ABC News
ABC News
Lifestyle
By Manika Dadson

'We're staying safe, that's the main thing': How Australia's 'bear boy' is living in coronavirus isolation

Self-taught bear maker Campbell Remess has spent much of his life trying to uplift others, and even in self-isolation that is his focus.

Campbell, 16, has been making teddy bears for children in hospitals, and to sell to raise money for charity, since he was nine.

His family is now in self-isolation in their southern Tasmanian home due to coronavirus, but it has not stopped Campbell from making more bears.

Around his online school lessons, Campbell has started livestreaming bear-making classes on Facebook from his sewing room.

"I thought it's a good idea to get kids involved in something over the lockdown and quarantine period," Campbell said.

"I find it pretty fun, so hopefully they do too."

Campbell says he can make a bear using fur, fabrics and his sewing machine in one hour, but admits when he first started, it took him around six hours to make one.

"I'm still making them because I love it," Campbell said.

"Every bear that I make, I give it away and then I get the [positive] reaction back, so that's what's motivating me to still do it."

Mum Sonya Whittaker is the camera operator behind Campbell's live streams.

She says her son initially planned on making bears during the family's lockdown to donate as thank-you presents once the pandemic is over.

"His idea was sending them to all the emergency services that are looking after people when this is done," Ms Whittaker said.

"And then he said, he might film himself for others to watch.

"It's really lovely and it's nice just to be back in the old world of 'let's just make a bear'."

Choosing to self-isolate early

The family of nine made the call to lock down early due to their own health battles.

Ms Whittaker has Parkinson's disease, her husband has previously had cancer, one of their children is an asthmatic, and another is allergic to most kinds of antibiotics.

"Half of us were really high risk and for any of us, it just wasn't worth risking it," Ms Whittaker said.

Tasmania had recorded seven cases of the coronavirus when the family went into lockdown in early March.

"It just got to a point where we thought, 'no I'm out, I don't want to play this game', so we decided to lock down," Ms Whittaker said.

The family is instead playing fun games in the yard.

As well as hosting bear-making workshops, Campbell is also filming and editing his younger sister Erica and brother Dylan's coronavirus home school project called the Whittaker Kid News program.

"They've created a few characters like the serial soapers, who keep soaping their dad when he's having a nap," Ms Whittaker said.

The family has also designed its own obstacle course on its five acres of land.

"It's awful watching everything happen outside, but inside our yard, inside our house, it's actually really fun," Ms Whittaker said.

Campbell's advice to other kids his age is to try not to focus too much on the bad.

"Go outside and do something in your yard and just have fun," he said.

"I like lockdown in some ways, but others I don't, but we're staying safe, that's the main thing."

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