Teddy bears for charity

Teddy bears littered the ice during the second intermission of the Humboldt Broncos Bantam “AA” game against the visiting Yorkton Xerox Terriers.

The Broncos hosted their second annual teddy bear toss where players and fans were encouraged to bring teddy bears to the game instead of paying admission.

The Broncos first started hosting a teddy bear toss last season, donating all of their bears to the Humboldt Fire Department.

The event was such a success that they decided they would host it again.

Lisa Ochitwa coordinated the teddy toss because it was a great way to teach the players about giving back.

“The teddy bear toss gives the boys the ability to donate back to the community so we ask everyone to forgo their admission and instead of paying the team admission they bring a teddy bear and we collect the teddy bears and donate them back to the community.”

Ochitwa also said that the teddy bear toss was a perfect event because teddy bears are a very common item.

“Teddy bears are something that everybody has in their home so whether it’s a new one or a gently used one, we just felt it was a good way of giving back.”

The Broncos teddy bear toss was slightly different from the traditional teddy bear toss.

Instead of throwing teddy bears on the ice after the first home goal, the team decided to instead throw them on the ice during the second intermission.

This was done as a way to not slow down the game. Young minor hockey players waited patiently on the ice for the teddy bears to be thrown so they could pick them up.

Once they were collected, the bears were being donated to Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Humboldt as well to the Humboldt Regional Newcomers Centre. The team decided to donate to a pair of charities this year with the hope of spreading the bears throughout the community.

Ochitwa hopes that the donation made by the team can go a long way towards helping a family this holiday season.

“It’s important for our kids to be giving back to the community so this is a really simple way that the team and the kids can give back to other kids in the community and help make someone have a really good Christmas hopefully.”