Fort St. John Senior Flyers annual Teddy Bear Toss extravaganza returns for 2025

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — A December ritual returns in 2025 for the Fort St. John Senior Flyers.

The club’s annual Teddy Bear Toss will return on Saturday, December 6th for the Flyers’ home date with the Valleyview Jets at the North Peace Arena.

True to tradition, the object of a Teddy Bear Toss is to throw stuffed animals upon the home team’s first goal of the contest, with the cuddly creatures collected and donated to a local charity.

Bears tossed onto the ice Saturday night will go to the Fort St. John Salvation Army for underprivileged children at Christmas.

Flyers president Paul van Nostrand said the toss is one of the team’s biggest events throughout the North Peace Hockey League (NPHL) season, with it being showcased each non-Covid year since 2005.

“We just wanted to do our part and give back a little bit,” said van Nostrand. “We are proud of our community, and wanted to contribute some help to the Salvation Army.” 

The idea for a Teddy Bear Toss was first conceptualized by Western Hockey League (WHL) team the Kamloops Blazers in the early 1990s, and the practice has been adopted by many minor league and junior hockey organizations.

With the practice spreading to other sports, the current world record for the most teddy bears thrown is held by Polish soccer club Jagiellonia Białystok, whose fans tossed 109,407 bears on the pitch in 2023, according to hockey blog Inside the Rink.

On the ice, the Flyers have one win from seven games so far in the NPHL season for two points, but van Nostrand thinks the team has been “competitive” in each matchup. 

“Four of those games were within a couple of goals,” said van Nostrand. ”With a few breaks, we could have won [some of] them.

“We are on the right track. I think we are going to be okay and looking forward to the rest of the season.” 

The Fort St. John Senior Flyers Teddy Bear Toss game takes place on Saturday, December 6th at the North Peace Arena starting at 8:30 p.m.

More details about the Senior Flyers can be found on the club’s Facebook page.