An event filled with live music, arts and crafts vendors, games and activities for kids, amazing food, a chainsaw woodcarver, fireworks, and lots of friendly folk!
Today we prepared teachers packets to send to 4th grade teachers. Included in each was the Teddy Bear story with related activities. We hate we can’t hold Youth Ed Day this year but hope this class will still learn a little about President Roosevelt’s bear hunt in Sharkey County and black bears in Mississippi today!
Look! It's Teddy Bear Day! Read the story here: greatdeltabearaffair.org/about-us/the-story/Do you know why stuffed bears are called teddy bears? The toy bears got their moniker after a toy maker heard the story about then President Teddy Rosevelt’s famous bear hunt in Mississippi.
#teddybearday #Mississippi #blackbear
The Great Delta Bear Affair committee has made the decision to cancel the 2020 festival. While the Great Delta Bear Affair has been cancelled, and even though a traditional festival will not take place, some festival-related activities will still occur.
The GDBA planning committee had been going forward with plans in hopes that the Covid 19 pandemic would have played out by festival time. However, with recent numbers in both Sharkey County and Mississippi on the rise, it has become evident that this is not the case.
Teddy Bears for Kids at Blair E Batson Children’s Hospital has been an annual outreach partnership between the Bear Affair and SIA’s Beta Club for the past several years. Individually packaged teddy bears will still be delivered to the hospital for all the patients, but there will not be visitation this year.
Traditionally on the Friday before the festival, 4th Grade Youth Education Day is held in downtown Rolling Fork. This educational field trip provides students the opportunity to visit with and learn from professionals in the fields of safety, conservation, wildlife, and natural resources. But, this year, area teachers will be provided with packets of information and activities related to black bears in Mississippi.
Festival coordinator Meg Cooper said, “We already had a great theme and t-shirt design that we developed pre-pandemic; with only a few covid-type modifications, t-shirts, bears and posters will still be sold for 2020.”
Those items which could become collectibles, will be available for purchase at the Sharkey-Issaquena County Library by October 1.
“Festival patrons have been so faithful, and we have already received quite a few donations toward the festival,” Cooper said. “These donations will be used toward Great Delta Bear Affair 2021, which will be better than ever as we come back from this unprecedented moment in time.” Mark your calendars for October 23, 2021.
Today our carved bears got a little TLC from Dayton and Jerry. Selfie bear’s arm was reattached and the others were all treated with wood preservative. The Twin County lineman Bear wanted a little extra love. Thank you Dayton,Jerry, Steven Cooper and Rob Bussey!
A presidential hunt in 1902 led to the naming of stuffed toy bears as Teddy Bears. Each year a different teddy bear is sold at the Great Delta Bear Affair. This year’s bear looks like he has Covid hair!
We’re moving forward with plans for the 2020 Great Delta Bear Affair.
