Gamblers players surprise pediatric patients with new teddy bears

GREEN BAY – Pediatric patients at Aurora BayCare got a furry surprise after checking in for their appointments Monday, Feb. 2, as Green Bay Gamblers players were handing out stuffed animals collected during the annual Teddy Bear Toss at their game on Saturday, Jan. 31.

“It’s a once in a life experience seeing all those bears rain down — something you don’t get to see everyday,” said Gamblers player Elliot Gulley. “Everyone came out to support us and the amount of bears on the ice, I think it took like ten minutes to clean up, it was pretty crazy… It reminds us that there are more important things than just hockey.”

This year’s Teddy Bear Toss yielded 7,880 teddy bears and other stuffed animals from fans.
Since its inception in 2000, the Teddy Bear Toss has been put on annually, collecting more than 145,000 stuffed animals to be given to community organizations and pediatric patients throughout Northeast Wisconsin.

For the pediatric patients receiving bears, Dr. Donald Beno, a pediatrician at Aurora BayCare, said they provide a sense of comfort in an environment that can be scary for many kids.

“The hardest part of coming to the doctor is, of course, the fear of coming in and the interactions that are going to be here, whether that’s a painful procedure or the anxiety of coming to a new place and seeing new people,” said Beno. “The teddy bears give them a little positive thought of coming here. We give them out to kids… so they can hopefully forgive us at the end of it and to give them a little less anxiety for coming in the next time.”

“The kids really enjoy the gift the community has provided them,” Beno said. “It’s something unexpected which is wonderful, and then they get the comfort of something nice and soft after all of the trauma has occurred.”