‘Bear hunt’ creates a fun distraction for kids

By Kat Bryant

Grays Harbor News Group

Bears are being spotted all over the South Beach — and they are adorable.

Teddy bear hunts are going on in neighborhoods all over the world as a fun distraction for children during the pandemic. Residents place a teddy bear (or some other stuffed critter) in a front window or on a porch, easily visible from the street; and families driving or walking through the neighborhood see how many they can find.

Sightings are being reported from San Francisco to New Zealand. Some are using the hashtag #GoingOnABearHunt to document their discoveries. In the South Beach, they’re posting pics in a Facebook group started by Robin Lee, called Westport Bear Hunt.

Lee had read stories online about other hunts and loved the idea.

“I’ve got several nieces and nephews around the area. They’re going crazy, and their moms are going crazy with them going crazy,” she said. “With this, they can walk or drive around in their cars and have fun.”

Lee is amazed by the response to her Facebook group, which had about 225 members as of Wednesday morning.

“I had no clue,” she said. “I invited a few people from my friends list, and it’s grown so much I can’t keep up!”

For her part, she has placed her son’s childhood toy in her window. “This bear has belonged to my son Chase since he was a year and half old. He’s 20 now.”

At least two people are displaying family heirlooms.

“It was my great-grampa’s when he was little, and he was born in 1903,” Kelly Redford of Grayland said about the bear in her window. It usually sits on her bedside table. In its new perch in her front window, it’s accompanied by the Christmas lights she recently rehung to bring cheer to her neighborhood.

Gail Huggard has her childhood companion, “Cocoa,” on display.

“He went with me wherever I went. My grandma was a professional seamstress, and she made clothes for him,” said Huggard. “As you can tell, he’s a much-loved bear.”

Folks who don’t have teddy bears are getting in on the action by showing other items — a sock monkey here, a homemade clown there. One is displaying a red balloon with a face drawn on it. The caption on that group post: “Sometimes you have to make do with what you have.”

Julie Smith of Westport is participating both at home and at work.

“I saw the post about the Westport Bear Hunt on Facebook and I thought: What a fun activity for the kids, to be able to get out of the house and still be safe,” she said. “I didn’t have any bears, but I put some other stuffed animals in various windows of my home. I’m also the operations manager at the Westport Maritime Museum, so I went down there and put several marine animals in the windows.”

On Wednesday, Lee posted a call for the group’s members to challenge other communities to join the hunt.

“It’s been really cool to see the different things people are displaying and what they mean to them,” said Lee. “It’s become a way to express themselves during this thing.”