Bears in the air at Saturday night's Condor game
Nov. 27—Bears and dogs and chimpanzees hit the Condors' ice Saturday night during the annual Teddy Bear Toss.
The Condors hosted the San Jose Barracuda for the beloved event.
All the stuffed animals are donated to the United Way of Kern County, which distributes the bears to dozens of local organizations. The teddy bears go to law enforcement officers to give to children in a crisis, for example, or to a school staffer to give to a child during a hardship.
"Every year, we see an increase in the need of agencies requesting stuffed animals, and when COVID hit us, the number of collected stuffed animals decreased significantly," Mari Perez-Dowling, president and CEO of the local United Way, said in a news release. "Every year we have had to turn down some agencies or put them on a waiting list until the following year. This year we want to make sure we satisfy that list and help those agencies."
The Condors and their fans were there Saturday night to fill a need.
