More than 700 teddy bears from the Lethbridge Hurricanes annual teddy toss were donated to Alberta Health Services this week. Players visited the Audiology and Children’s Allied Health Services office inside the Melcor Centre on Monday to hand-deliver some of the toys to children.
“We haven’t been able to do it for a couple years now so finally being able to get back and helping the community and the kids is an awesome feeling,” said Hurricanes goalie Bryan Thomson. “It really puts into perspective what we do this for. It’s a great cause and to be able to bring a little bit more joy into the childrens’ lives in the holiday season is a good feeling.”
The toys will be spread across different AHS departments, such as the emergency room, intensive care and mental health area, according to Jodie Anderson-De Boer, child life specialist at chinook regional hospital.
“Hospitalization can be really stressful [and] increase anxiety — just the ability to give the teddy bear helps calm everyone’s nerves, normalize the hospital experience a little bit and make it a little bit more palatable for the family to be in hospital during a stressful time in the child’s life,” she said.
Anderson-De Boer said the Hurricanes are the only donor for the teddy bear program and it would not be possible without the team. She added the donations do not only help during a traumatic event, but have a lasting impact also.
“Some of the experiences that I have had with kids, giving them these teddy bears — it might be after a new diagnosis, it might be when they’ve arrived in the middle of the night and it’s 2 a.m. and they don’t have their comfort item from home or their blanket or their special toys from home. So now that they’re able to get a toy in its place, it also helps kids tell the story and it’s a form of medicine. It’s a narrative therapy to be able to tell the story of, this is the teddy bear I got when I broke my arm,” she said.
The Hurricanes hosted the annual teddy toss on Friday and beat the Medicine Hat Tigers 5-3.