The Green Bay Gamblers delivered stuffed animals to Aurora BayCare hospital in Green Bay from its Teddy Bear Toss game, February 10, 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A local hockey team’s fundraising event is scoring big smiles on pediatric patients.
The Green Bay Gamblers held its annual Teddy Bear Toss game over the weekend.
It calls for fans to bring new stuffed animals to the game and when the Gamblers score their first goal, fans toss the animals on the ice to be collected and donated to area children’s hospitals.
On Monday, some of the players made a special delivery to Aurora BayCare hospital in Green Bay.
Aurora pediatrician, Heather Wade Newel, says the donation really lifts the spirits of the hospital’s youngest patients.
“The Teddy Bear Toss is a fundraiser that the Green Bay Gamblers and their fans hold yearly and are donated to our clinic and hospital so that children can have teddy bears throughout the year when they’re here in our clinic, maybe anxious about a procedure or a visit, we’re really fortunate to be able to have these teddy bears to give to them and make their visit more comfortable,” Wade Newel explained.
Gamblers player, Lukas Peterson, says the whole experience is cool; from the game to handing the stuffed animals out to children at the hospital.
“It was a little rough to start, the fans they want to see a goal early but we didn’t score until the third period but it was good that we got the goal, it was really fun, six to seven thousand people, really cool experience,” Peterson said. “It was really awesome to see all the teddy bears flying over the glass, it was really cool.”
Since its inception, the Teddy Bear Toss game has produced more than 111,000 teddy bears for area pediatric patients and other charitable organizations where it has helped a child in a time of need.
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