Stuffed Animals Fly

I’ve always thought the Teddy Bear Toss was really cool. I wish I could get a chance to see it in person. I think that would be really neat. As many of you know, but some of you may not be aware; this is a tradition in minor and junior hockey leagues. It’s all for a great cause and it looks like it’s loads of fun. Last year, a whopping 23,096 stuffed animals were donated to the Alberta Children’s Hospital.

While I thought that was amazing, you won’t believe how much was donated this year! About 25,000! That’s crazy. Can you imagine how long that would take to pick up? I would love to be one of the people who gets to clean it up even, because then I’d get to really understand how many were donated.

Have any of you ever been to this event? If so, what was it like? Did you get a chance to donate anything? I have a ton of stuffed animals that I don’t need and I think donating them for a great cause would be the best option. It’s much more rewarding than selling them at your garage sale.

What’s so funny to me is this year (2011), all the bears were thrown on the ice after the first goal was made. I wonder how long it took for them to be able to continue the game. I personally didn’t see it on TV or anything, although I want to find a video. I’m curious if the players act in on it and throw something out, too.

I bet he fans were amped up this year because it took about 40 minutes before they were able to start throwing their toys. How exciting!