181 TEDDY BEAR BARRAGE

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TEDDY BEAR BARRAGE

Stuffed animals provide joy to their owners and a sense of satisfaction to those who give them, and it was no different last week at a Hershey, Pennsylvania, hockey game.

The American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears hosted the Rockford IceHogs Sunday at the Giant Center for the 2026 edition of the “Teddy Bear Toss.”

At each year’s annual event, when the first-goal horn sounds, fans inundate the rink with stuffed animals of all sorts, not just teddy bears.

This year, the Bears collected more than 81,796 stuffed animals for charity, as part of their annual cuddly tradition.

“It is unbelievable. It is even bigger in person,” new Bears center Ilya Protas said. “It is an unreal experience.”

“Just to see the support from the community and people trying to help others in need, it is awesome,” Aaron Ness, a Bears’ captain, said.

“I have heard of it, and I have been part of it with different visiting teams,” first-year Hershey head coach Derek King said. “But this takes it to a different level. I got hit on the head with a flying animal that knocked my glasses off. I was like, ‘All right, better take cover.'”

It took 40 minutes from the time the goal was scored for the ice to be cleared. During those 40 minutes, players were seen jumping in piles of stuffed animals and posing with teddy bears.

The plush dolls were later donated to over 60 local charities as part of the club’s Hershey Bears Cares program.

Beneficiaries include the Milton Hershey School, Harrisburg School District, and the Elizabethtown Fire Department, among many others.

Since the Hershey Bears first started the event 25 years ago, fans and the team’s corporate partners have supplied nearly 650,000 teddy bears and other stuffed animals for charity.

The Bears set a world record at last year’s event with 102,343 toys tossed.

Judging from the video, the coach was not the only one who got hit on the head during the bear barrage. But, charitable Hershey fans are good sports, and they finally did beat the IceHogs 5 to 2.

SOURCES: abc27.com newsnationnow.com