def _create_regex_pattern_add_optional_spaces_to_word_characters(word):
    """Add the regex special characters (\s*) to allow optional spaces between
       the characters in a word.
       @param word: (string) the word to be inserted into a regex pattern.
       @return: string: the regex pattern for that word with optional spaces
        between all of its characters.
    """
    new_word = u""
    for ch in word:
        if ch.isspace():
            new_word += ch
        else:
            new_word += ch + ur'\s*'
    return new_word