Southeast Teddy Bears Anonymous online auction raises $7,000
January 6, 2025, 10:41 am
Ashley Bochek
Linda Machniak and Donna Stanhope organized Southeast Saskatchewan’s first ever Teddy Bears Anonymous chapter and held an online auction that raised $7,000 for teddy bears to help children in hospitals and in ambulances across the province.
Machniak says she has always supported Teddy Bears Anonymous and helped deliver teddy bears to the Southeast Integrated Care Centre in Moosomin.
“I have always wanted to volunteer with Teddy Bears Anonymous, and a year and a half ago I helped bring out three cases of teddy bears to Moosomin Hospital when I was in Regina and I just wanted to help more,” she says. “So, I asked Donna to help and we decided to do an online auction to help.”
Stanhope says she got involved because of her love for children.
“I just really love kids and I think it is so scary for them to have to go into the hospital and this is just a way for them to feel comfort.”
The Teddy Bears
Machniak says the bears are factory sealed to be delivered to the children in hospitals.
“These bears come sealed from the factory so they’re sterile and the kids can take them right into surgery with them, and they can’t take anything else in. The teddy bears are in the ambulances and hospitals. Teddy Bears Anonymous is a registered provincial children’s charity, and there is a connection to the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon.
“The bears are also in police cars in the cities because when the police go to domestic violence calls the little kids are traumatized so the police can give them these little bears, and some of the firetrucks have them in the cities as well. That is part of the reason why I wanted to get involved because we get the bears out here in our hospitals and ambulances like Esterhazy, Yorkton, and Moosomin, but the cities supply them all and I thought it would be nice if we gave back for our area.”
Stanhope adds, “We just wanted to give recognition to this charity too because there are lots of people who still don’t know about it.”
“The $7,000 we raised will supply 1,400 teddy bears. It is $5 a bear,” Machniak explained.
Annual fundraiser in Southeast Saskatchewan
Machniak says she hopes to do a similar fundraiser next year.“We are hoping to do it again next year, but maybe organized as something different rather than an online auction with all handmade or homemade items and I think next year will be something different. I have an idea.”
Overwhelmed by local support
Stanhope says she is thankful for the local support from surrounding communities.
“It was really overwhelming to see the amount of people in the area donate their items for the online auction.
“We didn’t even realize the amount of talent in our area with homemade items. We had all kinds of paintings and prints, quilts, wood carvings, food, and dream-catchers from a little 10-year-old girl from Wapella. It was amazing. We didn’t realize it was going to grow as big as it did. We had 166 items in our online auction. Our community is just amazing. People are just so generous.”
Lots of work
Stanhope says the group will be looking for more help for next year. “If anybody wants to help next year, contact Linda! We would love the help,” she said.
Machniak adds, “For two people it was an incredible amount of work. We had a little bit of outside help with helping set up the auction online because we had never done anything like that before.”
Creating awareness
Machniak says their goal was to create awareness of the Teddy Bears Anonymous charity across Southeast Saskatchewan.
“A lot of people don’t know about Teddy Bears Anonymous and that was part of the reason why I wanted to do this was to bring awareness to the Southeast rural area about the charity.
Stanhope explains the provincial charity celebrates 16 years this year.
“Also, Luke Lawrence, the organizer of all of Teddy Bears Anonymous, told us Moosomin hospital was the first rural hospital that had teddy bears. It also has been a provincial charity for the past 17 years.”
Machniak adds, “When we started this a few months ago, the province had already gifted over 200,000 teddy bears to kids. That is a lot and it’s just amazing.”
Stanhope says they are surprised and overwhelmed by the amount of support from the area. “We definitely didn’t think we would raise $7,000 either on our first fundraiser for Southeast Saskatchewan. We didn’t have an idea. It went really well and we are so thankful.”
