“If you have bears, gently used, you can bring them to the NBT [Bank] branches prior to Friday, Sept. 22,” said Kiwanis Club President Kelly Conway, manager at NBT’s Placid Outpost branch. Teddy bears can also be dropped off at NBT’s main Lake Placid location at 2483 Main St.

The Kiwanis Club of Lake Placid introduced its Teddy Bear Picnic children’s festival in 1993 at the Hillcrest Village Park, now known as the Kiwanis Teddy Bear Park. Organizers are proud to say they’ve “raised a generation” of children in the past 24 years, as young parade marchers are now bringing their children.

The Teddy Bear Picnic was designed to help fulfill the mission of Kiwanis International: “the belief that the most effective way to enhance a community is to enhance its children. When you give a child a chance to learn, experience a dream and succeed, great things will happen.”

There will be hot dogs and ice cream, a Bear Store, crafts, face painting, the ever-popular parade and lots of teddy bears. Children are encouraged to decorate their bears and floats.

Prizes are given out for parade floats and costumes. No motorized wheels are allowed except for official vehicles. Registration begins at 11:30 a.m., and the parade starts at noon. The route for the parade goes through the park from the Hillcrest exit to right on Elm Street back to Hillcrest and the park. The event will wrap up around 1:30 p.m.

The Teddy Bear Picnic was first conceived as a free community service project, not as a fundraiser, and still remains so with no fee for admission or services.