Booster Club ‘Teddy Bear Toss’ will help local children in foster care

The Springfield Boosters’ Club will hold a Teddy Bear Toss at a varsity basketball game Saturday to benefit Tatum’s Totes, a local organization that provides backpacks for children ages 0-18 going into foster care.


www.eagletimes.com

Booster Club ‘Teddy Bear Toss’ will help local children in foster careFree Access | January 29, 2018 By TORY DENIS Volunteers with Tatum’s Totes show items collected at a recent donation drive in Springfield, Vt. The organization has scheduled a Teddy Bear Toss on Saturday to collect plush toys as comfort items for local children transitioning into foster care. — TORY DENIS / file SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Boosters’ Club will hold a Teddy Bear Toss at a varsity basketball game Saturday to benefit Tatum’s Totes, a local organization that provides backpacks for children ages 0-18 going into foster care. The bags are filled with items to help them with that transition and can include the bears as well as new personal belongings, personal care items and academic materials. Tatum’s Totes also provides the children with either a diaper bag, duffel bag, or backpack. Items could include a book, toy and soft blanket. “Both Springfield and Windsor have partnered to help this important cause,” Rachel Hunter, president of the Booster Club, said in an email. The Tatum’s Totes Teddy Bear Toss is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Riverside Middle School gymnasium during the game between the Springfield Cosmos and the Windsor Yellow Jackets varsity girls’ basketball teams. Anyone who wants to participate can bring a new stuffed animal to “toss” onto the court at halftime. The stuffed toys will be donated to Tatum’s Totes of the Springfield Region. The volunteer-run organization serves children in Springfield, Windsor, Ludlow, Ascutney, Bellows Falls and surrounding areas. Volunteers spend all year collecting items to create the bags, which are distributed after agencies contact the organization and identify a child who will be placed in foster care. The children entering foster care often have few or no personal items or necessities with them and may have to make the transition at any hour of the day or night. Other donations for Tatum’s Totes will be collected at the Junior Varsity and Varsity games, beginning at 1 p.m. Items that would be helpful to the organization include backpacks, socks, hats and mittens, travel-size shampoo, conditioner, soap or toothbrush and toothpaste, hairbrush, diapers and wipes, bottles or sippy cups, rash cream, pacifiers, tampons or pads, and books, toys and art supplies.