When Sadie relapsed in December 2023, she had her port put back in. She didn’t love that this was happening, on top of everything else. It was right before Christmas, she was missing out on a ton of fun holiday activities and she was feeling terribly. To help cheer her up and make the port access process a little more tolerable, our wonderful Childlife Specialist, Riann, gifted Sadie a Build-a-Bear with his port accessed. The bear was cute and cuddly, and something that made her feel like she’s not alone. It was a special gift, and of course my first instinct was to give him a bear sized Zippaport shirt! I quickly whipped one up, and it turned out so great!
Immediately after I made this first outfit, I knew I wanted to do this for more kids….and I hatched a plan for Zippaport Teddy Bears.
Our plan included sourcing 300 large teddy bears and teddy bear size shirts that could be modified with a zipper. We wanted something cuddly and soft – not a pocket bear or something cheap and rough. It took a bit of time and effort, but we found the most beautiful 14” bears. They have a beanie bum to help them sit up on their own and are the softest bear ever. We found some plain white tshirts that fit the bears and are large enough for a zipper. The shirts are also being customized with a Zippaport logo.
The butterfly needles were sourced from an online medical supply company, but as they aren’t actually toy needles, we had to snip off the needles. We’re attaching the butterflies with Tegaderm, which is a sticky film that is used to cover and protect the needle when it’s attached. The Tegarderm was also sourced online through a medical supply company.
Our incredible sewing volunteers each took a batch of shirts and we’ve had 2 productive assembly events, where volunteers removed tags and bows and accessed the teddy bear ports. We now have 300 bears at Zippaport HQ, ready to be dressed (our final event is on September 8).
The plan is to send the bears out to hospitals in September, to celebrate Childhood Cancer Awareness month.
Our original plan was to only distribute the bears via our hospital partners (usually Child Life Specialists) and not put them on our website. The bears take up a ton of space and shipping them individually would be quite expensive. BUT, when we got our final hospital list, we knew we should keep a few bears for our website. So…we’ll have approximately 10 bears available for order through our website (for free!), and the rest will be distributed through hospitals. Here’s the list of participating hospitals:
BC Children’s Hospital
Centre Mère-Enfant Soleil de CHUL
CHEO
Children’s Health Foundation/London Children’s Hospital
Dr-Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre
Grand River Hospital
IWK Health
Janeway Children’s Hospital
Kingston HSC
McMaster Children’s Hospital
Montreal Children’s Hospital
Northeast Cancer Centre
Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital
Peterborough Regional Health Centre
Scarborough Health Network – Centenary hospital
SickKids (through OPACC)
Southlake Paediatric Oncology Clinic
Winnipeg Children’s Hospital
But wait, there’s more! We have approximately 25 extra shirts, butterflies and Tegaderm stickers, and have created some kits that will be available for ordering on our website. This way, families can use the kit to convert their own teddy bear or doll into a medical toy. These kits will be available (for free!) in mid-September.
This project has been a labour of love and we are beyond thrilled for our Zippaport bears to find their new homes. If you receive one, we’d LOVE to see a photo and hear about how it’s helped your child.
~julie