Due to the overwhelming response to our plea for knitted teddies, we are not seeking any more Teds at this time. We have been truly bowled over by the amazing support of the public and wish to thank you for your positive engagement with our project.
Can you help bring comfort to a child affected by an emergency incident? Do you love knitting or crochet?
Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service is called to a range of incidents every day. Many of these incidents involve families and are obviously incredibly distressing times.
To provide comfort and reassurance to affected children during incidents, our firefighters carry teddy bears on our fire appliances. Each bear has accompanying information for parents/carers that signposts to support for the child/children following the incident, if needed.
The teddy bears are kindly knitted or crocheted by wonderful members of the community. To make sure that we have enough teddies for all the children who may need them across our service area, we are asking keen knitters and/or crocheters for their help with making bears and donating them to us.
Traditionally we have used bears knitted to the internationally recognised “Trauma Ted” pattern. The free knitting pattern for this can be found below. It is important to remember these are for young children and so the teddies must be stuffed with child safe padding – please do not use foam rubber as it is not recommended as babies/young children might chew it. For those feeling more adventurous, the teddies can be embellished. However, please do not use any buttons or beads or anything that may become detached and be a choking hazard to young children. Each teddy bear should be approx. 20cm (8 inches) tall before filling or approx. 23cm (9 inches) tall after filling to ensure they fit in their designated teddy bags.
To arrange delivery of any bears that you have kindly made, please contact Natalie Waters, Partnerships Officer for DWFRS – [email protected] / 07775 760936.