A new Teddy Bear Toss milestone was achieved over the weekend, as the Hershey Bears (AHL) saw over 34,700 teddy bears thrown to the ice for a new world record.
A longstanding hockey tradition around the holidays, the Teddy Bear Toss is a promotion in which fans hurl stuffed animals on to the ice. The stuff animals are then gathered and donated to charities.
The Teddy Bear Toss has usually been met with a positive reception as an annual promotion at the Bears’ Giant Center and that trend continued on Sunday, when a total of 34,798 stuffed animals were thrown after the Bears’ first goal of the game. That not only shattered a previous team record, but also broke a Teddy Bear Toss World Record that was set in 2015 by the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen. More from ESPN:
The previous world record was set in 2015 by the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League. The previous high for the Hershey Bears was 25,017 collected in 2017.
The teddy bears and stuffed animals are collected and donated to more than 30 local organizations, including schools, food banks, churches and lions clubs. They’re also donated to organizations such as Children’s Miracle Network and the American Cancer Society.
As is tradition, Bears players jumped into the piles of teddy bears on the ice and posed for photographs in them. The first intermission of the game was moved up because of the volume of teddys, and the teams took a break with 11:45 left in the first period.
We can watch this a thousand times #TeddyBearTossHershey pic.twitter.com/aonDNfOsjw
— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) December 2, 2018
🧸🧸🧸🧸#TeddyBearTossHershey #BearsCares pic.twitter.com/wkhBgx2uBR
— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) December 3, 2018
The Bears will give the donated items to more than 30 charities across Central Pennsylvania. Along with the world-record-setting promotion, the Bears gave their fans another highlight on Sunday by defeating the Binghamton Devils 6-3. A reported crowd of 10,046 was on hand for the game.
