Teddies for Tragedies is an international effort that provides the gift of a small hand-made toy to children across the globe who have suffered through all manner of disasters, including famine, flood and war.
Since its inception, hundreds of thousands of teddies have made their way into needy hands – and tens of thousands of those have passed through the Puslinch Township home of Liz McCrindle.
Teddies for Tragedies isn’t a charity, or even a program; it’s more a phenomenon.
There is no central organization, just devoted volunteers like McCrindle. It’s just a knitting pattern, sometimes photocopied, often emailed or posted online, and shared among people who enjoy knitting and want to make a difference in the lives of children they’ll never meet.
Teddies for Tragedies has been around since 1985, when the Women’s Royal Volunteer Service (WRVS) in England sent Teddy bears to 2,000 children fighting tuberculosis in a temporary orphanage at a refugee camp in Sudan.
Since then, teddies have been sent to such countries as Mexico, Lebanon, Romania, Costa Rica and Brazil. Volunteers knit bears in Canada, the United States, Australia and Europe.
Coincidentally, McCrindle, who began knitting at the age of five, had been involved with the WRVS during the Second World War, knitting squares which were sold for use as wash cloths to raise funds for the war effort.
She got involved with Teddies for Tragedies in 2000, while visiting a friend in her native Scotland.
“I asked her what she’s knitting these days. Everybody knits over there, of my age group,” McCrindle said.
Her friend told her about the teddies and their purpose and gave her a pattern.
Back in Canada, McCrindle says, “I intended to knit about six teddies or so.” A few friends joined the effort and the output increased.
“I had some relatives visiting from Scotland and I thought I’d get them to take them back. However, I had about 150 Teddy bears and the answer was no, we’re not taking them back. So I had to start finding places for them to go.”
Initially, McCrindle had the bears distributed to children in need with the help of volunteers from the Mennonite Central Committee. The second year, she and other knitters paid the freight to have bears sent to China.
Since then, she’s made contact with a wide range of international relief agencies, including Canadian Food for Children and Medical Mission International, who take the bears with them to developing countries, into war zones and other places where children desperately need the cheer they provide.
“There are people taking them and asking for them,” she notes.
The additional outlets have come in handy, given the volume of bears that end up flowing through McCrindle’s home.
Since 2002, McCrindle has been holding a tea party to which knitters bring their bears for her to distribute and get a chance to socialize. In 2003, more than 70 knitters showed up with about 1,200 bears. The following year, more than 3,000 bears were delivered.
By 2005, the tea party, now an annual event held each year on the Saturday following Thanksgiving, was moved to Duff’s Church to accommodate the growing crowd of knitters and their bears.
In 2012, about 60 knitters brought 876 teddies to Duff Church, adding to another 1,200 that had arrived by mail and other means at McCrindle’s home.
The numbers fluctuate from year to year and McCrindle never knows what’s in store. Knitters send her bears from all across Canada including, in one case, a shipment of roughly 3,000 bears from Newfoundland.
“They had a competition or something,” she recalls.
In that case, the bears were delivered to McCrindle’s home in a truck, by a shipping company which absorbed the cost. However, McCrindle doesn’t encourage people or groups to send her numbers that large.
“I have encouraged people to try to find their own way to ship them because it’s expensive for people to mail them to me,” she explains.
Still, with bears coming in from across the country, McCrindle is thought of by many as the Canadian distribution coordinator for the teddies.
“I don’t know if I’m the only one, but I am one,” she concedes.
McCrindle says she has met many interesting people through her involvement with the bears. Knitters, she says, cover a wide range of ages and circumstances.
“From a seven-year-old to a 92-year-old. The good thing about it is a lot of people that knit are older people and they’re shut-ins and it’s one thing they love to do – they love to knit,” she said.
McCrindle has one regular knitter who has created over 2,000 bears on her own. She also knows of another who knit bears while sitting by the bedside of her husband, who was in a coma.
“He couldn’t say a word. She could talk to him, but at the same time, she knitted bears. It’s good for people to have something to do. It was therapeutic.”
While she continues to devote a great deal of time to the teddy effort, McCrindle no longer makes bears herself.
“I just collect them,” she says. However, everyone who sends a bear gets a letter from McCrindle, including a Newsletter about the current year’s activities and sometimes copies of photographs of the young recipients, provided by members of the delivery teams.
For a knitter, making the bears is not difficult, although it can take quite a few hours, McCrindle notes.
“It’s a pretty straightforward pattern,” she explains.
While knitters are asked to stick to the pattern in terms of size and shape in order to facilitate shipping, unlike British organizers she doesn’t insist all bears be standard in terms of colour.
“The one lady who’s knitted 2,000 and more, they’re all patterns. She said she’d be tired of knitting them if she couldn’t do patterns,” McCrindle points out. “In Britain, they’re very strict about the colour. We don’t think that’s necessary.”
McCrindle’s daughter, Alison, who also helps out with the Teddy bear collection, says the children who receive them are simply grateful for the gift.
“Imagine you have nothing and then suddenly, you have a bear,” she said.
McCrindle stresses that although the instructions indicate a drawstring bag must accompany each bear, knitters who don’t sew, or prefer not to make a bag, are still welcome to send a bear. A group of local volunteers takes care of the rest.
“We have what we call the ‘Puslinch Bag Ladies’ … They don’t make teddies, they make hundreds and hundreds of bags,” she explains.
Those interested in making a bear, or bears, can contact McCrindle for a pattern. The patterns can be found on a number of websites, but McCrindle, who is in her 70s, says, “I don’t do online.”
Completed teddies or enquiries can be directed to Liz McCrindle, RR 2, Cambridge, ON, N3C 2V4.
Anyone who is considering getting involved with Teddies for Tragedies is also welcome to attend this year’s Teddy Bear Tea Party at Duff’s Church on Oct. 19 at 2pm to learn about the process.
The event includes a guest speaker, often someone from the relief organizations that have delivered the bears.
Letters from the volunteers who deliver the bears are often received by McCrindle and shared in her annual Newsletter
One such letter came from Kathy Kinzie, who wrote after delivering bears to Peru:
“I can’t tell you how grateful we are for these bears that can bring a smile to the faces of crying babies. So I would like to thank you personally for changing the world to make it more just and humane. Please continue your work of love.”
