Oshawa Generals hosting Drive-Thru Teddy Bear Toss this Saturday

The pandemic has put a damper on the Oshawa Generals’ annual Teddy Bear Toss for the second year in a row, but for the second year in a row the club and its fans will ensure children in need will get a gift they “may not always get to have.”

This year’s Drive-Thru Teddy Bear Toss will take place this Saturday between 10 am and 2 pm.

The Teddy Bear Toss gives children in need across Durham Region an opportunity to receive a gift around the holidays. While Christmas may have passed, there is never a wrong time to give back to children and families in need – and ‘GensNation’ has always proved this to be true. This year, the bears collected will be donated to multiple local charities around Durham.

In addition to the Teddy Bear Toss, fans are asked to also bring non-perishable food items for Feed the Need in Durham.

Fans can also send in videos of them cheering on the Generals or drop off handmade signs to display around the arena while attendance is restricted. Fans are encouraged to bring their signs to the drive-thru as well to have them displayed at the fan-less home games.

To participate in the drive-thru event, enter the drive-thru line via Bruce Street, east of the Tribute Communities Centre and continue into the back parking lot at Gate 3 of the arena. Fans will be required to wear a mask and remain in their vehicles. Staff will come to your car and will ask that you pass your bear and/or food donations through the window. Following the drop-off you will continue through the parking lot, exiting back onto Bruce Street.

There was no season at all last year, so the team hosted the first Drive-Thru Teddy Bear Toss, and despite a raining and cold December day, fans showed up and donated more than 700 bears, $300 in cash and gift cards, and 1,246 lbs. of food for families in need.

This year the Generals had a date picked out – December 19 vs Kingston – for the traditional Teddy Bear Toss, but the arrival of the Omicron variant put the whole season on hold that very day. The team played in Peterborough the night before, winning 8-4 in what would be their last game for nearly a month.

The Teddy Bear Toss dates back to the 1998-99 season and the first-ever toss happened when Gens defenceman Jim Baxter potted a first period goal to send the bears through the air. Since then, the list of players to score the iconic goal include current NHL players like Cal Clutterbuck and Anthony Cirelli and current and former Gens captains like Jack Studnicka and Ty Tullio, who scored the Teddy Bear Toss goal in 2019.