Anthony Cano hopes to bring comfort to patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

The resourceful Auburn High School senior is asking the public to generously donate stuffed animals at AgriShop Auburn Ace Hardware, 308 W. Main St., between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8.

Any cash donations will be used to directly purchase stuffed animals prior to delivery at Children’s.

A member of Boy Scout Troop 474, Cano designed the campaign to serve as his Eagle Scout community project.

Cano was inspired by a turn of events that unfolded in May, according to his mother, Lori Sheehan. Three educators at Olympic Middle School had sons who had fallen seriously ill, one of whom later succumbing to cancer.

Sheehan found herself with her son in the hospital’s isolation ward battling an unknown illness. Cano ended up in the hospital the day after the one boy passed away and just a few days prior to the other boy’s scheduled brain surgery.

Cano and the other boy are doing well today.

The mother of the boy who had died brought Cano a stuffed monkey to comfort him while he was at the hospital.

“(The mother) took Anthony a very special gift that gave him inspiration for his project,” Sheehan said. “She said that although her son passed away, she did not want anyone else to go through the same thing.”