How the Teddy Bear Drive started by Coronado Officer Brian Hardy

The "true" way I started the drive was in December 1990, I was at
Children's Hospital on duty (follow up) and got lost looking for the
exit nearest to where I parked my patrol unit. I passed a laundry bin by
a side entrance door marked "Toy donations." I noticed there was only a
few toys in the bin, and when I asked the nurses station about it, they
told me the donations were way down that year.

Approximately 2 days later, I was off duty shopping in Plaza Bonita
when I noticed Montgomery Wards had a sale on Teddy Bears for 50% off. I bought a dozen bears to donate. The following day I asked Chief Jack
Drown if I could use a marked unit to deliver the bears because I
thought the kids would get a kick out of seeing Teddy Bears in a police
car. With Chief Drown's blessings, I delivered the bears to the front
desk of the hospital where I filled out a donation slip for "Coronado
Police Department Marine Division" (there were only 2 of us assigned to
the boat at the time).

The following year, Officer Mark Porter saw me carrying Teddy Bears in
Plaza Bonita and asked if I was doing the donation thing again. He
bought more bears, and we were able to push the numbers to 30. The third
year, Officer Anthony Graytok joined us in "mugging" other cops in the
hallways to buy Teddy Bears, and "Kaffeen's Coffee Cart" became the
first commercial business to join us for the "Coronado Police
Department's Teddy Bear Drive For Children's Hospital." Our donation
reached a mind-boggling 60 bears that year, which I left with the
volunteers at the front desk of Children's Hospital.

The fourth year, SDPD sent over 5 officers with bears to help out, and
Rod Luck of KUSI morning show began broadcasting live from the PD the
day of the delivery, raising our donation to 400 bears. It was then that
I had to tell the volunteers at the hospital we couldn't just leave them
behind her desk and the hospital administration began to take notice.

** An interesting story branched out of this. When the 5 SDPD guys
arrived, I warned them that we only hand delivered bears to the children
in the terminal ward and it was extremely difficult. As we arrived in
the cancer ward with the 5 officers, and a CoPD officer dressed in the
McGruff the Crime Dog suit, we heard a little girl screaming from the
activity room. As we entered the room where the girl was screaming in
pain, a nurse was holding the girl who was about 9 years old in an
attempt to comfort her. On seeing McGruff and the Teddy Bears, the girl
stopped crying and broke out in a huge smile as she clutched her new
bear. The nurse leaned over to McGruff who gave her the bear and said "I
don't know who you are in that suit, but God bless you." It turns out
the little girl was in advanced stages of cancer and was in extreme
pain, beyond what could be safely treated with more medication.

As for Angela Bear, in the fifth year I set up a collection bin at a
Christmas Hay Ride put together by Kitty Jackson in Navy Housing 2 weeks
before Christmas. A Navy guy was putting a bear in the donation bin, but
it looked like he was having a hard time letting it go. I commented that
it looked like he was having difficulty putting the bear in the bin, he
replied that he bought it as a Christmas gift for his daughter, Angela
Montgomery. I told him he should hold on to it and give it to her for
Christmas, to which he replied she died of Leukemia a week earlier. I
asked if I could make Angela our mascot and have her ride in the lead
car of the caravan every year. She would come back and be displayed in
the PD lobby glass case every year. He agreed, and Dave (her father)
actually helped us deliver the bears that year and for many years after
that. To this day, Angela is on display in the glass case of our PD
along with a photo of Angela Montgomery and her brief story. We still
take her out to ride in the caravan every year, usually in the lead car.

Angela's bear being held by Officer Christine Sperry during the 19th Annual Teddy Bear Drive.

Somehow, since leaving Coronado, Angela kind of took a back seat to a
more commercialized mascot with the patches all over it's uniform shirt,
but I won't fail my promise to keep Angela's father to memorialize her
in the form of Angela Bear.