TODAY – This is a story about a boy, a bear and bathroom tissue. When a giant corporation took time out to send a token of affection to a small admirer, it made a family’s day.
First, meet 9-year-old Cash’an Clark, a happy, easygoing kid who also faces some big challenges, his mom Grace Clark said.
Diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder when he was 2, Cash’an has problems communicating and socializing. He talks very little, he doesn’t play with other kids and he fixates on certain things, Clark said.
Enter the Charmin bear – the cuddly cartoon logo featured prominently on packages of Charmin toilet paper and in the company’s commercials. While so many aspects of life make Cash’an withdraw into his own world, something about that bear speaks to the little boy. Even his family has a hard time explaining it.
“Autistic children are very particular, very precise in the details that they take in,” Clark, who lives in Manchester, Conn., told TODAY Moms.
“It’s got to be something about that bear that is just staying with him and I honestly don’t know what that precise detail is. I can’t ask him because he can’t verbalize it for me.”
She still remembers the moment when she realized Cash’an was fascinated by the logo. They were at Target one day when he was 4 and he suddenly bolted away from her and ran to the bathroom tissue section.
“This little kid is looking at this big aisle full of toilet paper rolls with a bear, and he started putting all these packages in my cart that I did not want. And then he climbed in the cart and he looked at them,” Clark said.
It’s been five years now and Cash’an continues to be transfixed by the bear. If there’s a commercial for the product playing, he’ll run to the TV set to watch it, Clark said. He rarely speaks, but he knows how to vocalize “Charmin bear,” and asks to see the cartoon when he’s at the computer.
Taking note of his affinity, Clark has tried to introduce him to other furry creatures popular with kids, like the Bear in the Big Blue House, but it’s no contest. So Clark has given up analyzing Cash’an’s fixation and has been blogging about it instead.
It turns out the company was watching. As it monitored social media, Charmin came across Clark’s posts and recently sent a care package to the family, complete with a rare stuffed Charmin bear for Cash’an.
“We were touched by his story… and we hoped it would make Cash’an smile,” said Laura Dressman, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, the parent company of Charmin.
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