YORKTON – The bears were hitting the ice at the Terriers' Dec. 3 matchup against the Flin Flon Bombers during the club's Teddy Bear Toss and First Responder Night.
The teddy bear toss is a long-running tradition with hockey clubs across North America that sees stuffed animals thrown onto the ice after the home team scores their first goal. The bears are collected and then donated to local charitable organizations to be distributed to kids who may otherwise not receive a gift for the holidays.
"This is something that hockey in general has adopted throughout the years just to kind of give back to kids that may not be able to get a gift for Christmas," said Grayson Neufeld, Director of Marketing and Public Relations for the Terriers, adding, "it's just something that we like to do in the holiday season that gives these kids an opportunity to get a gift."
"The concept originated with the Kamloops Blazers in 1993," read an article on Wikipedia, noting, "the first recorded teddy bear toss occurred on Dec. 5, 1993," and "the tradition spread quickly through the Canadian Hockey League and around the world."
"We donate all of our bears to the Salvation Army here in Yorkton," said Neufeld, "they give them out to the kids over the Holiday season — they go to hospitals and they give them to sick kids — it's just something that everybody else has been doing and it's great for the Terriers and giving back to the community."
The night saw the club collect 226 stuffed animals to be distrubuted to children.
In addition to the teddy bear toss, the club offered free admission to first responders in their respective fields.
