Teddy Bear Picnic returns on Sunday to Lake Placid
LAKE PLACID — After a pandemic-era hiatus, the Teddy Bear Picnic is once again returning to this village. The event will be held Sunday, Sept. 29. at St. Agnes School. It starts at 2 p.m. and the parade, led by Aggie the Bear, will start at 2:15 p.m.
This year’s theme is the Olympics, so kids and their furry friends are encouraged to dress up like athletes. There will be food, drinks and fun prizes.
Kids can bring their own stuffed animals (they do not need to be bears) and can also choose from donated toys at the event. Critter’s Hotspot, a mobile stuffed animal building service, will also be there. After the picnic, any leftover bears will be donated to the North Elba Community Christmas Fund.
“It’s a celebration of the love between a child and their stuffed animal and the imaginative play of children,” said Nicole Trainor, Interact Club adviser at Lake Placid Central School and co-organizer of the event.
Before the pandemic, the Teddy Bear Picnic was run for many years under the Kiwanis and Rotary clubs. Now the event is run by the Interact Club, which is the middle/high school equivalent of Rotary.
The Interact Club students brainstormed ideas for the Teddy Bear Picnic revival and contacted businesses they wanted to partner with, said Katier Turner, principal at St. Agnes School and the event’s other co-organizer. As a result of their efforts, Stewart’s Shops will be providing an ice cream sundaes, and Starbucks is donating coffee and lemonade.
One change this year is that the event will not be held at Teddy Bear Park on Hillcrest Avenue. Turner said that timing is the main reason behind the location. The picnic is being held a bit later in the year so that the Interact Club students could be more involved in organizing the event and they wanted the option to use the St. Agnes gym in case of bad weather.