Commentary on Teddy Toss -- LONG

Sean had told me that the nets were on a cable system and that he could just drop them in seconds, but this violated the manufacture’s warranty. Requests to remove the netting for the evening didn't work either due to insurance issues.

So the nets had to make a slow but stately decent and fans in the end zones were asked to please hold their toys until the nets were down. Some complied but most tossed their toys too early or could not throw far enough and so the toys ended up in the nets. Happily, this did not seem to damage them, although there were about a dozen dangling bears in the nets for the remainder of the game.

When I entered the arena, I was informed by Tom, the doorman that handles the Breakaways/Cypress Club area that all the toys had to be put into plastic bags before they were tossed. This was due to the toys getting wet last year, and that the wet toys were thrown out. I asked why they didn't just dry them out. Something about taking too much time and anyway the wet ones mildewed and they were thrown out. So an inventive fan came up with the idea of putting them in plastic bags.

Are we having a toy toss, I wonder, or a garbage bag toss? This rather disturbed me, in part because the Junior Blades wanted pictures of the toss for their program next year and taking photos of a lot of garbage bags, instead of cute cuddly toys on the ice, was going to look terrible. Hrumphed up to Breakaways and seethed through my Breakaway Burger.

Besides, the thought that fans had spent money to bring in toys, only to have them tossed in the garbage really got me angry. What about all those poor kids who didn’t have toys? Were they "TOO MUCH WORK" for our arena staff? Of had the Blades just gotten too cheap to play their salaries? Heck...give me cart and I've have carted them all out into the parking lot and let them sun for a few hours and brought them all back inside for FREE so the kids could have toys if that's what need to be done!

Went downstairs afterwards, walked straight to the season ticket holder table and gave Bench Warmer to Kelly and Brandon. “Here. Might as well put him in the back now. No sense in getting him wet and then having him be thrown away, is there?” They agreed as he was a wonderful large bear and was never going to fit into the cheap small little trash bags Tom said were the best they could get for free. Now…Brandon wasn’t there last year, but Kelly was and I even expounded a little bit and said if that’s the way the team feels about the whole thing, then maybe we should just switch to a Toys for Tots drive and then NOTHING would get wet.

(Frankly, I’d like to see a Toy for Tots drive held in conjunction with the Teddy Toss so fans could bring regular toys instead of just plush toys if they wished. But that’s a discussion for another time.)

Neither of them disagreed with me or seemed to wonder where I was coming from. Dropped the rest of the toys (along with trash bags for them to fit into) a the Fan Club table like promised and went over to the tunnel to wait for the team to come out. Mr. Hershey comes out and said, “Are you enjoying yourself tonight?”

I told him flatly I wasn’t and he inquired as to why. I told him what Tom had said, not just to me, but to everyone who was coming through that door. He was outraged! Which is pretty much how I was feeling too. “That’s completely untrue!” he said. We take them in the back…there are three rooms and we put big (carpet drying) fans on them for a few hours and they’re good to go. I run this arena, I know how it works. Who told you this?” He took off running toward Tom, and trying to raise Darlene on the radio.

I did NOT notice where the other entrances to the arena had doormen giving out cheap plastic garbage bags to fans for them to put their toys in. If anyone had a similar experience with that at any of the other entrances, I’d like to know about it.

I did take some shots of the staff and fans with their toys prior to the toss, just in case the actual event lived up to the ugly picture my overactive imagination was painting. Tried to get shots of some of the Junior players with the toys and the tree but could never quite get the kids, the toys and the tree in the same area of the concourse at the same time.

Now…some people brought toys sealed in plastic bags (clear ones if they could manage it) so that their toys wouldn’t get wet. So obviously, there was something going on last year with the promotion that some of the fans were aware of. Additionally, a couple of other staff members confirmed that some of the toys were destroyed last year HOWEVER, it was also pointed out to me that because they asked for both new and used toys, some of the toys donated were pretty ratty and ready for the trash anyway. And yes, evidently some of the toys at the back of the rooms did mildew and were destroyed for that reason, but I was assured that the staff did whatever they could to make sure the toys were properly dried out and distributed.

Tom on the other hand told me that no one wanted to take the time or do the work to properly dry the toys, which indicated neglect by the arena staff. Evidently, that wasn’t really the case. (Tom was also fairly rude about my questioning of him on his plastic bags and his story, but that’s generally his nature. He’s also still angry at me because Darlene chewed him out the other week when I went up to Breakaway’s a bit early. Big Lou and the Staff at Breakaways told me to come up whenever I get to the arena, but either Darlene wasn’t informed or doesn’t like the idea.)

So the real truth about the Teddy Bear Toss is somewhere in between those two stories.

The event went off fine however, except that I got hassled by a few people for not bringing a toy. I brought FIVE actually, which you can confirm with Kelly, Brandon and the Fan Club if you doubt my word.

And I did get some decent shots of the event, so the Junior Blades should be happy.

(On a side note, Sean was pretty much running the show – sound and matrix board -- by himself up in the booth. He put everything on automatic, and a really wonderful job handling what usually takes two or three people to manage. A nice round of applause goes out to him for all his hard work on making the game a success, and for getting the nets down as quickly as he did without violating the warranty.)