Bears on the ice floes in Pennsylvania, it’s possible… at least in stuffed animals. This Sunday, the American Ice Hockey League match between the Hershey Bears and the Providence Bruins was interrupted for several minutes due to an unusual charity action. Home team fans threw thousands of stuffed animals onto the ice after Hershey’s first goal.
To be very precise, the 10,514 spectators at the Giant Center threw a total of 102,343 stuffed animals. A world record for the club which shatters its own mark established last year (75,599). It took more than forty-five minutes to make the terrain passable.
The American ice hockey championship is used to this type of operation, called “teddy-bear toss”. The teddy bears are then given to around thirty associations helping sick and/or disadvantaged children. Since the initiative began in 2001, 566,460 stuffed animals have been distributed to the Pennsylvania club alone.
In France too, the public indulges in this type of festivities. At the end of December, supporters of the Strasbourg basketball club carried out a giant throwing of stuffed animals in connection with Secours populaire. Same thing a few days later in Gravelines.
Other than that, the Bears won 5-1 against the Bruins.
