As I come in to work now, what did I see
Laid out on the side of the road
A mound full of Teddy Bears winking up at me
Laid out on the side of the road
It turns out this is the work of Korsair Bears on Patrol. It’s a stuffed animal drive; collected by, in this case, United Health Care and Optium. (see their names in the first picture on the sign). They started out at 700, then 4000, and this year it snowballed to 13000+. Today was media day, media was arriving at 11:30, so they were trying to set the bears out to make for a better shot.
But it was really windy. The plastic kept getting blown about. They tried water bottles. I raided my parking lot for larger stones of gravel. Turns out, the solution was to dump more bears down on the plastic, like this boss is doing. They said by the time all the bears get out there, they should have all the plastic filled up. I might swing back out around lunch time to see that.
The lady said that they used to be in the first floor over in our building, but now they’re on the third floor, and its much harder than they first thought to move that many bears. Never fear, the call has gone out to the rest of their company, and they’re getting the manpower together to get the job done. She showed me a picture oh her phone of a fishbowl conference room – the kind with one wall being all glass – stuffed floor to ceiling with bears.
The purpose of the bears: The police officers and firemen keep them in their vehicles. If they encounter a family in a distressing situation, with a child who needs comforting, out comes the bear to provide some luvvin’ in ways only a teddy bear can.
I love people, and I love people doing good things.
Your help was much appreciated this morning. And, thank you for letting us have a glimpse of seeing this through someone else’s eyes. This blog is awesome! 😀
Ronni DeLay
UnitedHealthcare