Charity founder happy with online auction
Teddy Bears Anonymous founder and president Luke Lawrence says Southeast Rural Teddy Bears Anonymous support is overwhelming
January 6, 2025, 11:36 am
Ashley Bochek
Luke Lawrence, the founder and President of Teddy Bears Anonymous, says he is overwhelmed by the support for the Southeast Rural Teddy Bears Anonymous online auction.
Linda Machniak and Donna Stanhope of Rocanville organized Southeast Rural Saskatchewan’s first ever Teddy Bears Anonymous fundraiser to support the provincial charity.
Lawrence explains his personal reason for founding Teddy Bears Anonymous.
“My daughter passed away to a hereditary form of gastric cancer in 2007. My wife predeceased her, passing away from the same form of cancer. That is what Teddy Bears Anonymous is founded on. The charity is in memory of my daughter, Erin Lawrence.”
Lawrence says the charity has grown over the years.
“It has grown into a provincial charity. We are pretty well all over the place. On our website it lists we have 22 hospitals and 50 EMS services participating in Saskatchewan in the Teddy Bear children’s program right now.”
Teddy Bears symbolize hope for hospitalized children
Lawrence explains the teddy bears’ purpose is to help sick children in the hospital.
“Sick children are always a sensitive thing for most people because you can’t protect them from diseases. Our bears are exactly that. They’re in hospitals and EMS, so our bears are SHA approved. It is a special application and it is dear to our hearts. They are cello sealed and sterile, we order them directly from the factory so the children can keep them in surgery with them.
“We’re really targeting the EMS right now. We pretty well have the hospitals blanketed. We have Saskatoon and Regina as our two hubs in the province, but we would like to get more bears out to the rural EMS because children are transported to pediatrics and it is nice to give them a bear sometimes because it is quite a journey.”
17 years of Teddy Bears Anonymous
Lawrence says the charity continues to grow each year.
“We are into our 17th year because it is now 2025 and 205,000 kids have received our bears so far. That number keeps getting bigger.
“Every time we order a bear from the factory we can increase that number by 15,000-20,000 and we ordered two shipments of bears last year because the demand was skyrocketing. There was the pandemic, the flu, there is a big demand for what we do.”
He says their goal is to have teddy bears accessible for all EMS services.
“We haven’t even got all the EMS on the program, I believe there are 250 in the province, there is a lot and we only have a fraction of them so our goal is to reach out to as many of them as we can.
“Right now, the money for them is being funded provincially from companies, personal donations, we don’t get a lot of out-of-province donations so we keep the money where it comes from—in the province.”
Overwhelmed by support
Lawrence says he is surprised by the amount of support for the first Southeast Rural Teddy Bears Anonymous online auction.
“It is overwhelming. We were shocked with the numbers from the Southeast Saskatchewan Teddy Bears Anonymous this year.
“Teddy Bears Anonymous has a personal connection to the Rocanville area and the Southeast Integrated Care Centre in Moosomin—it was the first rural hospital on the Teddy Bears sick children program and the third hospital in the province to come online, so it’s special.
“I was told by a parent, ‘To many it is just a bear, but to a sick child it is so much more than that. It is a hand to hold in the middle of the night while you’re being rolled into surgery, a warm hug when you fall asleep in an OR, it is a soft touch when you wake up feeling anything but yourself, it is a friend that never lets you down it shows up, it is hope, it is love, it is so much more than a bear’ and that is true, and that is one of the parents that sent us that quote. It sums it up.
“It is a scary thing for children because mom and dad can’t go into surgery, but these teddy bears will go anywhere in the hospital whether it be diagnostic testing, pediatrics, children’s ward, and emergency services. We try to blanket all areas, diagnostic testing, MRI, and CT. It is a scary thing for kids for sure.”
Lawrence says he is thankful for the donations toward the Southeast Rural Teddy Bears Anonymous charity.
“I just want to thank Linda and Donna for organizing the Southeast Teddy Bears Anonymous.
“It is the first time they have done the Southeast Rural Teddy Bears Anonymous online auction and the community support was overwhelming.
“I want to reach out to everybody and say, thank you, for that. They raised $7,000 and that is huge and very successful and every $5 of that purchases one factory cello sealed and sterile teddy bear for a sick child in Saskatchewan.”
