It is the most wonderful time of the year for Alabama State Troopers.

Constantly surrounded by tragedy and turmoil, the officers get to bring a little bit of joy around the holidays thanks to the Alabama Department of Public Safety and Alabama State Trooper Association’s annual Teddy Bear Campaign.

“That’s it, to bring a smile to them,” local trooper Durwood White said Wednesday after taking part in delivering the state trooper bears to pediatrics and behavioral health patients at Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital in Demopolis. “Normally kids see us in the worst of times. But this allows them to see us in a different role, one where we’re more human.”

The project has gone on for more than 25 years and allows troopers to get face time — and smile time — with children in hospitals all over the state.

“Each trooper has teddy bears in their car. So if we have an accident with kids involved, we give them a teddy bear to help calm them down.

It’s amazing what it does to help calm them,” White said of the project’s origins. “As a spinoff of that, we give out bears at Christmas time.”