Strode Teddies Start Their Tour

Our Touring Teddies are finally allowed to go exploring! We have six touring teddies: Charlie, Stanley, Poppy, Reggie, Lola, and Fred who have all been assigned a home to represent and have been spending the last four months at that home. They are now allowed to start their tour across Kent and beyond to spread awareness of Strode Park Foundation, to raise money, as well as to celebrate our 75^th anniversary.

Teddy bears have long held a spot in our hearts at Strode Park Foundation. In the early years of the foundation’s existence many of our residents at Strode Park House would use crafts to build up skills as well as raise money for the charity. Teddy bears where the most popular crafts by far and we are still contacted today by people finding their old hand-crafted Strode Teddy Bears.

As we are turning 75 this year, we thought it would only be right to incorporate our much-loved teddy bears into the celebrations. Even though we own some of our original bears they would have been much too frail to go on tour for us, so we have recruited six new bears to help us out.

The six Touring Teddies were supposed to start their journeys back in January to help everyone celebrate our 75^th anniversary. However, due to lockdown restrictions, we felt it was best they also stayed inside like everyone else. They all spent the last few months at their respective homes, helping in celebrations, trying out new equipment and joining in with the day to day running and activities in the homes. You can see all the photos from the last few months by following our Touring Teddies Facebook page: www.facebook.com/groups/strodetouringteddies/

As Lockdown restrictions have now eased, the teddies are now off on their adventure. They have all been passed onto someone who has a connection to our homes and will stay there for a few days, get some pictures taken and maybe go on a little adventure or two before being passed on to someone new. You never know one might be coming to you sometime soon. If you get a teddy this is what you need to do:

1. Take a photo with your teddy
2. Share your photo and a caption on our Touring Teddy Facebook page: facebook.com/groups/strodetouringteddies/
3. Pass on the teddy bear to someone else
4. If you would like to you can make a donation – strodepark.org.uk/donate

Director of Fundraising and Communications, Karen Jeal, said: “We are very excited to see where the bears will end up, we hope they have some great adventures, and everyone keeps us updated on our Facebook group. We hope this will help spread the word about our charity and make more people in our local community aware of the vital work we have been doing for the last 75 years.”