The 25th Annual Teddy Bear and Doll Show was just held in Marietta. It showed off great toy projects and also gathered lots of toys for charity.
This year the popular show was held at the Lafayette Hotel in Marietta. It stuck to the tradition of being held for one day, usually the second Sunday of January.
While you can see all kinds of vintage teddy bears and dolls and also lots of special projects by toy collectors, the show has a special goal. All of the admission money from the hundreds of visitors are used for buying teddy bears and donating them to children in hospitals.
At three dollars for adults and two dollars for children, that amounts to a lot of teddy bears. “Last year we gave out 1,551 stuffed animals and that’s a lot of bears. It keeps raising every year cause now we’ve expanded to Wayne Street campus, Belpre. The staff tells me teddy bears make such a difference when you hand them to a child,” said the show director, Anna Vukovic to TheNewsCenter. There is also the Marietta Area Teddy Bear Fund which stores the money and accepts donations in order to keep the project of donating going.
At the show there were over 20 presenters and toy collectors showing of the best of their collections. You could see some very rare stuffed animals with a value of over $4000.
