127 Bears Handed Out - Just in Time for Christmas

The past week has been a successful one for the Bear Necessities Project - we've managed to hand out 127 bears to foundation phase children in the wider Chintsa area, just in time for Christmas.

Children at Mzwini with their new friends

The first bear drop took place at Mzwini Daycare Centre in Mooiplaas where 60 knitted animals were delivered. The drop included some special creatures including stunning knitted elephants, mice and hippo's from supporter Julie Hoolie in the US, and 13 fun festive toys made by the grandmother of volunteer Nicole who recently passed away. Nicole was a part of the bear drop at Gwegwesha Pre-school in 2014 and wanted to ensure that her grandmothers stunning toys went to loving homes.

The second bear drop saw the African Angels foundation phase classes each getting bears at the end of the school term. 67 bears were delivered there in total - photos to follow!

I want to say a huge thank you to all of the Bear Necessities knitters - it's amazing to receive support from so many corners of the world - plus the team who facilitated the drop off and Mzwini. Thank you for supporting the Bear Necessities project :)

Bears, Bears, Bears Everywhere!

Apologies for such a delayed update on the Bear Necessities Project! We're still up and running and going strong - here's the latest news:

Latest Bear Hand-Outs

8th December 2014 - the lovely Lynne (I Left my Heart in Africa) and Sal (Buccaneers Backpackers) together with a team of little helpers created a fabulous teddy bears picnic for the youngest learners at Chefani School. The children enjoyed juice and a few sweet treats before taking their new friends home for the Summer holidays :)

3rd March 2015 - a team of Bear Necessities supporters including myself and my mum Sue (visiting from the UK - star knitter of bears ;) ) visited Ngxingxolo Preschool in the Mooiplaas village to deliver bears and sandwiches to the children at the school. A little overwhelmed by our presence the children tucked into their sandwiches and then joined in with a few songs and games. When we left some tried to give us their bears back not believing or understanding that they were theirs to keep and take home with them. It's always quite special for me when the official "hand out" is over and the children are playing and getting on with their own thing, bear in hand. As we drove away from the school I spotted a little boy on a bike with his bear riding in front of him - priceless :)

What's Next

Bears are coming in thick and fast - there are 30 ready to be handed out and another 50+ waiting for labels sewing before they are delivered. These bears will be handed out in the fourth term before the Summer holidays - keep an eye out for pictures of the hand-outs on this blog!

Thank you

As always, a huge huge thank you to all of the knitters, sewers, delivery ladies, sandwich and juice makers and everyone involved in this project. It wouldn't happen without you all.

The Big Bear Hand-Out

After several months of knitting, lots of wool shopping, lots of stuffing and sewing with creative and patient knitters - the day has finally come to hand over the Bear Necessities bears to the kids of Chintsa East Pre-school!

The Plan

Excitement from the children as they ran
to the sports field for the picnic :)

Thursday 20th Feb was marked as the day for the Bear Necessities first hand-out - with a little planning and some inspired ideas from Friends of Chintsa administrator Kate and VA32 volunteer Charlotte we were good to go; a short walk from school and sing-along to the Chintsa sports field where our knitters and support crew would be waiting with picnic blankets, bears, sandwiches and juice. Teddy Bears picnic! :)

The Hand-Out

The morning went swimmingly well with lots of support from the Bear Necessities crew, local businesses, Friends of Chintsa and Volunteer Africa all involved.

The walk to the field from school with teacher Phumla,
volunteers Charlotte, Deyse and Nadine 

Preschool teacher and local hero Phumla
explaining the day to the children

Check out some of these great photos of the morning and the pre-schoolers with their new bears:

The kids really loved their new friends and had a great time feeding them sandwiches and playing football with bears in hand. Phumla's preschoolers showed their appreciation with song, dancing and two BIG cards to say thank you for their bears.

A HUGE thank you to everyone involved in the project: to all knitters (both local and international); to local businesses Tea in the Trees, Prana Lodge, the Chintsa Village Bistro, Buccaneers Backpackers, Volunteer Africa 32 Degrees South and Tracy Norris Photography; a special thanks to Kate for organizing blankets for the picnic, Sarah for baking cakes, setting up with Kate and making picnic sandwiches, to Nadine for taking time off to take pictures and share them with us; to Friends of Chintsa for being so supportive of the initiative and giving so much help and support in organizing both the initiative and the hand-out event.

What Happens Now?

Our total bear count was 76 completed bears before the hand-out with a few more bears in progress! We handed out 43 bears and so have 33 left to give. The next step is to work with Friends of Chintsa to choose another preschool, work out how many bears they need and organize another hand out.

Keep posted for more updates and the next Big Bear Hand-Out!

Printing Labels for the Bears

Having spoken to Friends of Chintsa chair Lou, we decided that it would be nice to print labels for the bears so that the children's names could be written on them. We also decided to print the Friends logo on the tags.

Local businesses Tea in the Trees and Prana Lodge were both kind enough to sponsor the fabric and printing as well as needles and thread to sew the labels on to the bears.

The printing process was quite exciting and the labels are ready to be attached to bears as they are made up!

The labels coming out of the printing press

Labels completed with thread and needles!

Thanks for your support guys :)

The Knitting Revolution in Chintsa

At a recent family braai Kate & I brought along our bears to try and finish knitting them. It was a great occasion! Kerry also began a bear, even granny and the kids joined in on odd rows - proving that a simple bear is a great family project...

Fancy joining in? Grab the pattern from our previous blog "A Simple Charity Bear Pattern", along with some wool and needles...and join the knitting revolution. Don't forget to send any finished bears to:

Friends of Chintsa
PO Box 19
Chintsa East
5275
South Africa

Or drop them into the African Heartland Journeys office in Chintsa East.

Successful First Charity Knit-Off

 The first Bear Necessities knit off was a great success! The knit-off was hosted at the Chintsa Village Bistro with fresh tea and coffee for every knitter (kindly donated by Lynne Crawford - owner of the Bistro). There was tons of local support with knitters of all ages and abilities taking part - many of them bringing pre-knitted bears along!

The morning was super warm and relaxed with knitters coming and going as and when was suitable for them, and nattering as we knitted!

Lou, Kate and Kathy knitting up a storm!

Tracy working on the pattern 

Kathy and Kathi working on their creations

Lynne making up the pile of bears!

A huge thank you goes out to Kathy, Wendy, Lynne, Gail and Tracy who all brought several pre-knitted bears with them to be put together at the knit-off; to Lynne for putting the bears together on the day and to all the other knitters: Kate, Stacey, Megan, Lou and Kathi. An extra special well done to Kiki who came along to knit for the first time ever - can't wait to see your first bear :)

Kiki working on her first EVER knitting project
(with help from Wendy and Megan)

By the end of the knit-off the bear count is up to 25 completed bears with 5 in need of faces sewing onto them and several bears that were started and taken home to be completed. That's half of our original aim of 60 bears already!

A whole host of completed bears!

I was totally overwhelmed by the amount of support from the community with local knitters sending bears along to the cafe, tons of stuffing donations (including a huge donation of old pillows from Sal at Buccaneers Backpackers) and generally a great encouragement from both our local community and the international Friends of Chintsa community. Thank you!

The next knit-off will be held on Thurday 28th November at the Village Bistro at 10am. If you would like to get involved please bring along wool and needles. We will be knitting up a storm!

One last HUGE THANK YOU to all the Bear Necessities knitters for their wool, needles and time and energy to get this project off the ground :)