SANTEE, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) -- Santana High School alumni in Santee, who survived the 2001 deadly shooting that spring, chose to send support in the form of ‘weighted hugs’ to hundreds of survivors of the deadly school shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga. that happened last month on Sept. 4.  The Santana High alumni packaged and shipped 200 Comfort Cubs to those students, families and staff at Apalachee High School at a community center in Santee.  The alumni chose to ship weighted, therapeutic teddy bears from a San Diego nonprofit called The Comfort Cub. The Comfort Cub makes stuffed bears that weigh about four pounds each.  Kristen Dare is a 2001 survivor of the deadly shooting at Santana High School. She is part of the alumni group shipping Comfort Cubs to Apalachee High School.  “My healing journey has been ongoing for over two decades, but there is still something very special about a new feeling, a new sensation, but holding these teddy bears (weighted teddy bears) even just doing it now as we are getting these prepped to go to somebody else… you want to give these bears some love that gets passed on to the next person,” said Dare, who is also the president of the Santee Chamber of Commerce. “The Comfort Cub is doing something amazing by extending these out to survivors who maybe just need a real hug.”  Marcella Johnson is the founder of The Comfort Cub and started it in 2000, one year after Johnson and her husband, Matthew Johnson, lost their newborn son, George Gabriel Johnson, the day he was born. Johnson left the hospital empty handed and she never wanted another parent to leave the hospital the way she did. She created a weighted teddy bear. She said the weight of the cub mimicked the weight of a newborn baby. The extreme emotional and mental suffering directly impacted her heart at the time. She had Broken Heart Syndrome. Years later, it was given a medical diagnosis called Takotsubo Syndrome or stress-induced cardiomyopathy. Johnson said her doctors describe it as happening when someone’s mental and emotional pain causes a physiological reaction in their heart. The left ventricle swells and it can be deadly. It is soothed through mental and emotional relief from grief, trauma, anxiety and stress. Items from Ocean Beach Pier cafe being auctioned off She had experienced that heart attack-like pain, but carrying around and sleeping with a weighted object helped heal her broken heart. She never wanted another parent to leave a hospital again, the way she did nearly 25 years ago. She created the weighted teddy bear that was designed to give you back a weighted hug when you hug it. She started donating them to hospitals across the country. Then other people who had experienced infant loss were requesting the Comfort Cub. She gave them out to any person experiencing loss, grief, stress, anxiety, fear, or emotional or mental illness. The cub is scientifically proved to work to soothe emotional and mental pain. “When you hug the Comfort Cub, it releases the "feel good" hormones in your brain like serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin. When those are released in your body, it helps soothe the physical pain in your heart brought upon by stress-induced cardiomyopathy or Broken Heart Syndrome. It hurts badly and this saved me,” explained Johnson. “We have had people tell us that The Comfort Cub has saved their lives. Old, grown men have told me they sleep with it to help them through their PTSD and they would be lost without it. They even take them to travel with as carry-ons on an airplane. We are deeply moved by the growth and care our Comfort Cubs provide.”  VIDEO: Dolphins swim through neon blue bioluminescent waters in San Diego She said her nonprofit has donated to over 23 mass and school shootings since the first one they donated them to at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. They donated over 1,000 cubs to the families, students, teachers and staff at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex. They donated to the survivors of the Las Vegas shooting, too. They also donate to victims of natural disasters like the families who lost their homes in Maui, Hawaii in August of 2023.  “The parents there at the first school shooting we donated to at Sandy Hook asked for more weighted cubs along with the community,” said Johnson. “Now we always donate to anyone who is in crisis where we know people are going to experience Broken Heart Syndrome. Even during the holidays, the Comfort Cub has helped people with hard times and depression. I feel as though I am simply a steward of the Comfort Cub and all the hope and comfort it shares with people.”  If you’d like to donate to The Comfort Cub nonprofit so it can donate more weighted cubs, or if you need a cub to help through your struggles, please visit TheComfortCub.org.  For every Comfort Cub purchased, one is donated.