Thousands of teddy bears and other stuffed animals that fans threw onto the ice at Sunday’s Hershey Bears game will translate into a generous donation for Penn State Health Children’s Hospital. The game marked the Bears’ 21st annual “GIANT Teddy Bear Toss” to benefit local charities and children’s organizations and set a new world record with 67,309 teddy bears on the ice.
For the past seven years, the Sweigart Family Foundation in Lancaster County has supported the GIANT Teddy Bear Toss by donating a dollar to Children’s Miracle Network at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital for every bear thrown on the ice. This year, the foundation pledged that if fans surpassed the total number of teddy bears thrown last season, they would donate $50,000. Fans not only surpassed that number, but they also broke the all-time record for number of bears thrown on the ice during a hockey game, bringing the Sweigart Family Foundation’s total donations to over $275,000 since 2016.
More than 80 volunteers collected, counted and sorted the teddy bears, which will be donated to more than 35 local organizations. Since the first event in 2001, the GIANT Teddy Bear Toss has collected 389,508 teddy bears for local charities.
Miracle Child Benjamin Grumbine and his parents Nathan and Danielle, from Harrisburg, were interviewed on the ice during intermission. “Children’s Miracle Network gave so much to us in the services, the support and the equipment that was there for us,” Danielle said.
In addition to sponsoring the event, The GIANT Company made a $10,000 donation to Children’s Miracle Network during the game.
