Teddy Bears' Picnic

As part of our curriculum we have to volunteer at a not-for-profit organization once a week. I volunteer at the Canadian Liver Foundation. The Atlantic region of the organization is run almost entirely by volunteers, with the one paid employee being Shayla Steeves, the regional director. It is a big region and there is a lot of educating and fundraising to do.

I have really enjoyed my time at CLF and working with Shayla. Shayla is a very sweet woman with a real passion for livers. One would have to love the job to take on such a daunting task. That being said, she was really appreciative when I expressed interest in doing my volunteer placement with the CLF.

I have worked on several projects with the Canadian Liver Foundation over the past few months, the largest one being the Teddy Bears’ Picnic in memory of Olivia Weir.
Olivia Weir was born April 18, 2001. At six weeks old she was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a disease affecting the bile ducts in infants. The cause is unknown. It is neither hereditary nor contagious and cannot be attributed to any aspect of prenatal care. During her 22-months of life she underwent many operations, including a liver transplant from her mother Melanie. Olivia passed away on March 14, 2003.

For the past several years Olivia’s family have been holding a memorial walk in her memory. This year, in coordination with the Canadian Liver Foundation, they decided to try something different. Yesterday, Sunday, June 14 the first Teddy Bears’ Picnic in memory of Olivia Weir was held.

In February, the first meeting of the TBP committee took place at the Killiam Library on the Dalhousie University Campus. The committee was made up of Melanie, Olivia’s mother; Susan, the Chair and a board member of the CLF; Dae, a graphic designer; Sherri, a reporter with the Chronicle Herald and the mother of a child with biliary atresia; Shayla and me. My role was to do the public relations and promotional materials for the event.

The committee met once every two weeks at the beginning. We had to come up with ideas for a location, activities, create a sponsorship package and secure sponsors, design work, etc. It was a slow process at first because we all have prior commitments like work and school. We tried not to expect too much, because this was the first year it was being held. We decided an attendance of 50 people raising $1000 would make the event a success.

I was windy and cold when I arrived at 11:30 yesterday morning to set up. The picnic would begin at 1:30, so I hoped that Mother Nature would pull through for us. My responsibility for the day was to organize the Teddy Bear Hospital. This was where children could bring their bears (or elephants or monkeys) to cure their ailments.

People began to arrive at approximately 1:15. Before I knew it there was a line up of patients! We fixed broken limbs, tummy aches, sore throats and more. There was a bad case of Teddy Bear Bronchitis going around! Acting as a doctor, I was reminded how imaginative small children can be. We had two emergencies, where teddy bears were sent to the ICU and we had to break out the thread. With the help of our volunteer teddy bear surgeon, they were patched up in no time.

Because I was so busy with my station, it was a while before I was able to take in the event. At one point we had approximately 100 people in attendance. Around 2:30 a cameraman showed up from CTV and interviewed David, Olivia’s father. Snap Halifax took pictures of the event to be published. I saw a few other photographers, but was unable to talk to them to see where they were from.

At 4 p.m., as the day drew to a close, Shayla announced the grand total of our fundraising efforts. Since this was not the primary goal of the Teddy Bears’ Picnic, the $4300 seemed to be a grand accomplishment.

The weeks of work put into this really paid off. The children had a great time, money was raised, awareness of liver disease was spread and, most importantly, it was all done in memory of Olivia.


Abbie