Community heroes team up with Calgary North Stars to launch a Teddy Bear Toss at Max Bell arena

About 300 bears were collected at a Teddy Bear Toss game at Max Bell arena Sunday morning hosted by HEROS Hockey and North Star Cares. The bears will be donated to the Hitmen for distribution along with the rest of the bears collected at their game Sunday afternoon.

There was a special kind of Teddy Bear Toss Sunday morning at Max Bell arena.

It was the fifth annual collaboration between HEROS Hockey and North Stars Cares that was launched back in 2019 when parents of children with visible and cognitive disabilities realized the things that make the Hitmen’s annual event so much fun makes it tough for their kids to take part in.

"Everything that makes it fun to go to something like a Teddy Bear Toss was just too much of a sensory challenge for some of our kids," said Kevin Hodgson, executive director of HEROS Hockey.

"Everything that makes the Teddy Bear Toss fun – the toys, the noise, the lights – there’s reasons why it was hard for our kids to go," Hodgson said.

Instead, the group teams with the Calgary North Stars to play a morning game at Max Bell, where one of them scores the goal that fills the air with flying teddy bears.

“It’s huge – for a number of reasons," Hodgson said. “They need an adaptive way to play hockey and so we’ve been doing that every Sunday and then teams like the North Stars, teams like the Hitmen have just always been a part of helping make kids feel like they belong and feel like hockey players.

“There’s (also) this great chance for us to give back as well,” he added. “It’s also a chance for our kids to see the community rally around them.”

As far as who scores the goal that triggers the teddy bear toss, Hodgson said different kids have a different take on that.

“Its funny because some kids want to be the one who scores the goal and it feels really good, and we have some of our kids who want to be the person who sets up the guy who scores the goal,” he said.

“They really want to see their teammates be successful – everybody just loves it and it’s a really good way to kick off the holiday season.”

Sunday, the goal-scorer was first-year player Mateo.

The Hitmen Teddy Bear Toss game against the Wenatchee Wild starts at 4 p.m. at the Saddledome.