Sunday, December 10, 2006

Holy Flying Teddy Bears!

Seeing as my son is a hockey fanattic at the tender age of 2, we often seize upon the opportunities to introduce him to hockey at all different levels.

Today was the annual Calgary Hitmen Teddy Bear Toss. The Calgary Hitmen were playing the Prince George Cougars in their regular season WHL match up as for the first goal scored by the Hitmen, the fans in the building were to toss a teddy bear onto the ice in celebration. All teddy bears would then be donated to Toy Mountain (a community Christmas toy fundraiser) as well as a visit by both the Calgary Flames and Calgary Hitmen players tomorrow to the Alberta Children's Hospital here in Calgary. All children that are currently in the hospital will receive a teddy bear from one of the players.

Every year, Calgarians make the trek to this game in efforts to maintain being the record holder for this event. Just last week, the Portland Winterhawks broke the record by tossing 14,000 teddy bears at their game. That record only lasted a short week as the Calgary Hitmen's dedicated fans tossed a whopping 15,540 teddy bears onto the ice. Establishing once again, that Calgary has a generous heart.

Here are a few pictures of the pandamomium that ensued at 14:52 (ish) minutes into the first period, when the Hitmen scored their first goal:

Teddy Bears and other stuffed creatures continued to rain down on the ice for a good 10 minutes.

It took more than 8 trucks stuffed to the maximum to clear the ice.

Picture of Daddy and Kaelen. This teddy bear happened to hit Kaelen in the back of the head from a generous fan in the second level.

From where we were sitting, we often got hit in the back of the head with flying teddies from above - in the higher sections of the building. Kaelen had an absolute blast throwing the 3 large teddies that we brought and then all of the addtional ones that rained down on us. All in all, it was a great way to spend an afternoon as a family. We are already looking forward to next year's event!

3 comments:

sari said...

THAT is so amazing! I love it!

It just gives me a huge smile, I can't believe how covered the ice is!

Anonymous said...

That looks like so much fun! It's great to teach your son at such an early age that giving is fun too!

I'm sorry to report that we are Redwings fans in our family. Well, I'm not REALLY sorry.

Allie said...

Ouch! Red Wings fans? Hmmm. We are a torn household. Both my husband and I are die hard Canucks fans but I also happen to work for the Flames.

Kaelen - well he has already decided that he likes the Flames better than the Canucks. :)