On December 10, 2021. Raymond knows that Hanna, his dog, saved his life and feels so lucky to be alive.
He survived the horrific tornado with only the clothes on his back.
His house was completely destroyed as were his car, boat and all of his belongings.
Raymond said he was overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity he received from all the first responders during the following weeks and he was inspired to show his gratitude to the community.
Over the next months, Raymond partnered with GBW to
donate teddy bears to the Marshall County first responders. His first, of many bear giftings, was to the East Marshall Fire
Department where he and his neighbors were able to find
refuge on that fateful December day. After the tornado passed
Raymond trekked to the fire department barefooted and without a jacket in the cold weather. He did not even have a pair of shoes left to his name! Walking through debris, wood shards, and glass, the firemen gave him a coat and boots.
They tended to his needs as he was battered and bruised from the flying debris of this huge tornado.

GBW is proud to help with Raymond in his mission.
We are grateful to our members who continue to donate bears for us to share with others. In addition to the like new, previously loved bears, GBW Good Bears were donated for ambulances.
Raymond is still going full steam ahead to make sure all of the
Marshall County Stations are equipped with teddies.
He said the stations have all been very grateful for the bears! He is grateful to help give and of course, we are very grateful for our generous members! A circle of love.

This is one of the fire stations in Ray’s area.

The one near where he lived was destroyed by the tornado.

Several stations are sharing the same facility until the new one is built!! “The men who helped me the night of the tornado!”

Hanna, his dog definitely warned Raymond of the pending storm, and they took shelter in the bathroom. Minutes later they found themselves out in the yard still clinging together and nothing

was left of the house.
“She surely saved my life, and now the bears and giftings uplift my spirit, I am so very blessed.” Raymond said.

“Everyone is truly grateful to have the bears to put in their rescue vehicles.” said Claypool. Often at First Responder’s meetings he is asked “Do you have bears I can put in my police car?” Raymond smiles and says, “sure!”

Linda delivered GBW donation's to the Open Door Youth Facility and more bears for Raymond Claypool for the Marshall County EMS drivers.

Pictured with Linda is Rosey Tibia who donated the fleece blankets, books and crayons for the Kentucky facility.

There was barely room for Linda to sit behind the wheel.

The Sheriff’s Office would like to thank Raymond Claypool (center) for providing Teddy Bears from Good Bears of the World Charity.

This organization provides Teddy Bears for Law Enforcement to distribute to children who have experienced a traumatic event, such as a natural disaster, motor vehicle accident,
or a crime. 

Our Deputies enjoy being able to bring a small bit of comfort to children who have suffered a traumatic event. 

Thanks again!!!

A veteran mommy-to-be, her little sister and their new bear from our Bear With Us den

The Toledo Den learned of a non-profit that builds beds for children called "Let's Build Beds".

We recently gifted several of Rosie's cozy double fleece blankets and a case of Good Bears and will donate more in the future.

t was a "small world" experience because the contact person, Denice Staskiewicz, taught kindergarten and used to do a project where her students would collect bears to donate to GBW!

Our annual holiday giftings look a bit different this year. We were pleased to gift many furry friends to Operation Christmas Child, a non-profit run by Franklin Graham (Billy Graham's son) that delivers shoeboxes of school supplies and toys, etc. to needy child-ren all over the world.

We will do most of our annual holiday giftings, with additional safety precautions. We look forward to delivering bears and other stuffies to nurses at a number of local hospitals, who will make sure the patients receive a new furry friend.

We gifted patriotic bears for Good Bear Day that will be part of our local Veteran’s Home, Veteran's Day Celebration!

Alisa Au gifted 100 stuffed animals to a nursing facility in Honolulu. The bears were donated by Ellie Bryant who was down-sizing her hug to move into a smaller home.

In September, Foodland Hawaii held their annual GIVE ALOHA event where anyone using their Ma’ikai card could make a donation to their favorite charities. Foodland would also give a percentage above the donations made. Our Den benefited and this was our only fund-raiser this year. All other events in our area have been cancelled due to the pandemic.

On Halloween morning, Aloha Den held a Zoom meeting courtesy of Carla Rogers. Carla, Alisa Au, Pat Bilyk, and Mary Jo Segawa were accompanied by their bears and a cupcake celebrating Teddy’s birthday. We shared information regarding how everyone is doing, what our Den is looking forward to, and how we are looking towards a better year. It was a happy, informative and beary good meeting.

Take care, stay safe,

ALOHUGS from Aloha Den.

On July 4th, a day that should have been a day of celebration, we mourned the loss of a Toledo Police officer shot and killed in the line of duty.

Officer Anthony Dia, 26 years old, leaves behind a wife and two young boys.

On July 6th, Jan Tropf, our GBW International Treasurer, delivered 2 Good Bears along with a sympathy card to the Dia Family. This unfortunate tragedy will be a long road of healing for the family, but this is what Good Bears is all about, giving a little bit of love to children who need to heal.

Toledo Den’s newest Bearo, Colton Barnhizer (L), presented his first gifting to Sylvania Fire Department #3. The world is facing troubled times and the fire department was appreciative of the donation.
Colton is a second generation Bearo!

This picture is our Memorial Day tribute! Patriotic teddy bears surround the pictures of (left) Frank Goedde, father of (right) Tom Goedde (our Vice-Chairbear) in their Navy uniforms. Thank you to all who have served!

We gifted Valentine bears to a shelter for abused women. They loved them and were touched that someone cared. In April we gave them (and their children) Easter animals. We also gave Easter animals to a shelter for women in recovery. Because of Covid-19 we could not deliver them personally, but staff from each program picked them up to hand
out for us.

One of our annual, and favorite, giftings involves personally handing out patriotic bears to residents of the long term care facility at our Local Veterans Medical Center. We have the bears ready to go but are still waiting on the
ok to deliver them.

We look forward to the upcoming GBW online sale. Four of the bears from their first sale went to members from our Den!

Remember to keep safe and hug your teddy bear daily!

Pictured are Jim Ownby’s grandson and great-grand daughters with their GBW 50th anniversary bears.

Our next meeting was at the Cheese Cake Factory. Since then, Den members have been practicing social distancing, wearing masks when we venture out, and mostly staying at home.

Den members Alisa, Kristen, Judy and Mary Jo have been sewing cloth masks using a variety of patterns.

A friend of the Den, Lei Batty, owns a fabric shop and has been making masks for sale and has also donated them to Pacific Gateway, a program that delivers food to senior citizens.

Kayecee Cervantes, from Lihue, Kauai, requested 10 cases of bears to be used by the Kauai Fire Department.

Judy Magin made contact with founder Jim Ownby’s family in Mississippi through FaceBook.

Den members have several projects this year, including grant requests.

Dentists Without Borders was given tiny teddy bears that fit perfectly into suitcases going overseas!

One hospital requested 250 bears every 2 months and it is a challenge we are glad to undertake.

We shipped several hundred bears to Florida for a Homeless Veterans Bear Drive.

1,000 teddy bears went to a company in Los Angeles for Hospitals, Police and Fire Departments. 

We partnered with Alliance on Aging who works with over 300 places in the county.

Our application was accepted to Monterey County Gives again this year – we will receive up to 14% in matching funds.

We have such a great and giving community we look forward to the challenges ahead.

This year 96 First Graders and 5 Aloha Den members filled 100 shoeboxes and attached a Good Bear to each box. As usual, members of our den gathered and filled the boxes with caps, t-shirts, gift cards and snacks. We’re positive the youngsters receiving them were thrilled. Many of them went to low income, or homeless children and teens.

Three giftings were done during the month of December as follows: four cases of Good Bears to Child Protective Services, one case to Toys for Tots and four cases plus four bears to Iolani’s Shoebox gifting (what a sight to see the 100 Good Bears attached to each box - Judy and Mary Jo attended this gifting on December 19th).

Alisa has started to set up events for 2020 to include the celebration of Teddy’s Birthday, Valentine’s Day, and collection of membership dues. We will do our best to take pictures (but, sometimes we have so much fun that we forget.)

(L to R front row) Judy, Mary Jo, Tulu and (back row) Tulu’s friends who came to pick up the gifts. In Hawaii, a lei is given to the speaker and guests.

Whispering Forest Den Chairbear Kay Cooper recently opened a teddy bear hospital and orphanage in her shop in Helmscott, Australia.

When one of the orphans gets adopted the proceeds go to purchase Good Bears.

She is pictured on opening day!

A win-win fundraiser for our Toledo Den. Everyone loved volunteering at the annual German American Festival in August.

Our Den and Boosters helped by transporting festival guests in golf carts (Linda Hitchings is driving this cart).

A bonus...we got to talk about GBW!

The banquet tables looked festive with the cute decorations made by our Den member, Linda Hitchings and the 50th anniversary balloons donated by Jeff Ruhnke. Jeff also created and donated an amazing balloon arch with 50th anniversary balloons. The arch was the perfect photo backdrop! We are lucky to have so many talented and generous members!
    There were several Boosters in attendance. Everyone was excited to be with Pat and Bailey! The Boosters celebrated Theodore’s birthday with party hats and more balloons!
  Everyone enjoyed the delicious banquet food. Special thanks to our Jan Tropf for spearheading this celebration and for all of her efforts! Our den is grateful to everyone who attended the banquet and Octo-Bear-Fest.

We also had other super fundraising events this quarter with the many raffle baskets made and donated by our industrious and dedicated Rosey Tiabai. Rosey, also known as the “Cookie Lady”, always outdoes herself with yummy cookies and baked goods throughout the year. Her Halloween cookies and assorted baked goods are always a sellout and were a huge hit at Octo-Bear-Fest.

(L to R) Donna, Peggy, Lorene, Veronica, Julie, Linda with our gift exchange treasures.

We had another wonderful time decorating Christmas trees with Teddy bears and other adorable stuffies! We were able to include some Good Bears this year because of the generosity of our GBW benefactor.

It gave us much joy to gift teddy bear trees to Community Hospital's Pediactrics burn unit and their burn unit survivor's Christmas party, and Terry's House which is a home away from home for the patients families.

We also gifted a teddy bear tree to the rehab unit at Valley Children's Hospital in Madera and the Ronald McDonald house next door!

We had fun at our December den meeting-especially with our annual "cutthroat " gift exchange! Enjoyed another tradition of gathering at Black Bear Diner for our January den meeting.

We are excited to add a new charity to our giftings in February and look forward to sharing it with you in the next issue of Bear Tracks. Bear hugs to all!

Our Holiday luncheon was held at the Renaissance Restaurant in December. Den members, friends and families had a great time. The food was good, we had a gift exchange and enjoyed the afternoon. One of our traditions is to put presents under the tree wherever we have the luncheon. The management usually gives them out during the season to kids who are there and need a hug.

Den members Laura and Darlene were happy to pose with their winning teddy bears from the annual 10 cent bear raffle. Laura won the Elizabeth Taylor artist bear and Darlene won the mink artist bear! Our Den raised nearly $170 from this raffle and we always buy Good Bears with this money!

Forward, Anthony Petruzzelli, carried 3 really big stuffies off the ice to the bagging area! All the players helped and we wish there was room to print all their pictures. Komets players and fans are awesome!

A group of our members known as Kingwood Bag Ladies create sleeping mats for the homeless from discarded plastic bags. Giftings were recently done as follows: MinhChau Epley and Tammy Holekamp, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, recently distributed Heartbeat Bears with a "pink poem" to survivors of all types of cancer at the Hi Neighbor luncheon Oct. 9th. Marilyn Butler and Margret Ayers delivered 60 bears to the Memorial Hermann NE Cancer Center, and 24 bears to the Bereavement Program. Nancy Foisner also distributes these precious stuffed animals to exhausted and stressed children going through the U.S.O. at Bush Airport.

(L to R) Birthday cake was enjoyed by all when we celebrated these outstanding women at a recent meeting - Tammy Holekamp, MinhChau Epley, P.V. Fitzharris and Margaret Ayers. Kingwood Heartbeat Bears Den