Tossing for a Cause — Mariners Fans Fill a Truck for Toys for Tots

There is a moment at a Teddy Bear Toss game that happens at no other hockey game: the ice vanishes under a rain of stuffed animals, thrown from the stands by fans who carried them in from home for exactly this purpose.

Maine Mariners fans delivered. Once the bears were gathered and counted, the haul came to more than 15 bags of teddy bears and stuffed animals — enough to fill a pickup truck at Quirk Chevrolet of Portland, roof to cab, with bags still stacked on the showroom floor.

All of it went to Toys for Tots, the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve program that has been putting new toys into the hands of children at Christmas since 1947. Local campaigns distribute within their own county, so every bear thrown onto the ice that night stayed close to home.

To everyone who threw a bear — or several — thank you. A lot of Maine kids had a better holiday for it.