The hockey season is getting in full swing and Christmas is coming. This means that the Teddy Bear Tossing season is about to begin. Get your stuffies ready!
The Teddy Bear Toss is a charity initiative that sees people bringing brand new stuffed animals to hockey games. When the home team scores its first goal of the game, everyone starts throwing the stuffed animals down to the ice. The more stuffies, the better.
The idea is simple. All of the stuffies that are thrown on the ice are then collected and donated to charities, hospitals and emergency teams. Over the years there have been some very impressive milestones and some games gather more than 20 000 stuffed animals, others go even beyond 40 000 stuffies!
The first teddy bear toss events are already scheduled. One of them will be at the Yellowhead Centre on Saturday, Nov. 7, as the Neepawa Natives are holding a Teddy Bear Toss. Fans are also encouraged to bring a teddy bear or other type of stuffed animal to the contest and toss it on the ice after Neepawa’s first goal. The Nov. 7 game against the Dauphin Kings begins at 7:30 pm.
The tradition started for junior hockey teams, but it has found its way to some of the major teams. We will keep an eye out for the major events as some of them are going for the Guinness Book of World Records by gathering as many stuffed animals as possible. Like this game from last year.
