Kind residents repair dozens of cuddly toys for special teddy bear grotto at children’s hospital in Edinburgh
An Edinburgh resident, who has been repairing damaged soft toys and giving them a second life for the last four years, helped create a magical day for dozens of children in hospital at the weekend.
Rebecca Parr, a community and discovery programme officer at Edinburgh Zoo, has been working in partnership with the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity for the last two years as part of her job and saw an opportunity to help support them during their annual teddy bear grotto.
Throughout the year Rebecca has been collating and repairing cuddly toys that were unable to be sold at the zoo gift shop due to a range of manufacturing defects. And after working alongside her mum Hannah and members of her mum’s church group, the team was able to donate more than 60 animal themed cuddly toys to the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity.
Speaking to the Evening News following the Christmas event at the weekend, Rebecca said: “It was wonderful, I was able to meet with some of the children who I'd met earlier on in the week as part of my regular work so it was lovely to get to see them and spread some Christmas joy.
“We had a slow and steady stream of children coming in throughout the two hours and we were able to visit quite a few wards and give young people teddies who aren't able to leave their bed - so smiles all round, which is exactly what we wanted.”
Rebecca was joined by her mum, Hannah Cunningham, an NHS nurse, and members from the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity who made adorable miniature Santa hats for each cuddly toy.
Children were also given a custom-sized t-shirt to decorate for their new toy, which this year, included a range of zoo animals from lions, snakes and parrots to flamingos and koalas.
Rebecca said: “We had enough soft toys that a few of the children were able to decorate one for their sibling which was really nice. When you're in hospital, you can feel quite helpless, and they felt quite empowered being able to be the one to do a really nice thing for somebody else which was lovely.
“My mum also had a wonderful experience getting to interact with the families and she enjoyed getting to see the end result of all of our hard work. It’s definitely something that we'll do again.”