It’s one of the greatest traditions in hockey – the teddy bear toss!
Originating with the 1993 Kamloops Blazers, teddy bear tosses encourage spectators to bring teddy bears or other stuffed toys to games and throw them onto the ice when the home team scores its first goal. Over the past 30 years, teddy bear tosses have become a great community initiative for many CHL teams, including our friends – the Calgary Hitmen.
These events – while undoubtedly fun, providing joy to many kids who receive the bears throughout the holiday season – can prove to be overwhelming for young people living with sensory challenges.
Karen, a SuperHEROS mom in Calgary, had the idea for SuperHEROS to host their own teddy bear toss, giving players the opportunity to participate in such an important tradition in a safe and controlled environment.
“He [Karen’s son Tye], was watching the Calgary Hitmen’s Teddy Bear Toss one day, and it was a bit of a sensory overload for him,” said Karen. “But he did say that one day, he wanted to jump in a pile of teddy bears!”.
That dream of having her kids enjoy this experience led to Karen contacting HEROS’ Executive Director, Kevin, who immediately saw it as a great opportunity for all SuperHEROS players.
“Like everything in our SuperHEROS world, it starts with an idea,” said Kevin. “It really is just a way to give our kids a chance to do something they see their friends; the Calgary Hitmen do in a way that’s safe and comfortable for them.”
December 1st marked the fourth edition of the SuperHEROS teddy bear toss, and over these past four years it has evolved into one of the most important days of the year for our Calgary SuperHEROS.
Of course, the success that this event has seen would not be possible without the support of the community, who Kevin was quick to praise for their continued generosity. “Each year we do this the community helps out more and more,” said Kevin.
For this year’s event HEROS partnered with Shaw GMC, with Shaw providing crucial funding that helped us collect almost double the number of bears as last year. Shaw even went as far as lending us one of their incredible new BrightDrop EVs to load up the bears at the end of the day so that they could be delivered to the Saddledome to support the Calgary Hitmen’s teddy bear toss later that evening.
Together with the U17AAA Calgary Northstars, who proved to be worthy opponents for the mighty SuperHEROS team, and Ryley Budd’s #BeABudd Collective, the day was an incredible success. A total of 550 teddy bears were collected from the event which were later added to the Calgary Hitmen’s total that evening where they collected a grand total of 22,013 bears!
But the biggest accomplishment of the day, was seeing our SuperHEROS be welcomed into the sport of hockey by their community.
“They [the Northstars players] are showing you all the good things about hockey. Our kids feel like they belong, and they feel like hockey players, because they’re sharing the ice with other hockey players,” said Kevin
At the end of the day, this is what these special days are all about. While it’s easy to get caught up in the hundreds – or sometimes thousands – of bears flying overhead, teddy bear tosses provide something much bigger than hockey, and are an important part of hockey culture, both here in Canada and around the world.
They unite entire cities and are now helping bridge gaps where young people like our SuperHEROS have traditionally felt left out of the sport – all while doing some good for their community.
This year’s teddy bear toss was a great kick off to the holiday season, and we’re already looking forward to next year’s!