A mammoth trans-Tasman bear making mission has seen a local retirement village knit more than 130 teddy bears for Ukrainian children.
Ernest Rutherford residents Lyn Nelson and Elaine Mildren together knitted almost 30 of the 130 bears the village is contributing to the Yuri Bear project.
Yuri Bear, organised by Ryman Healthcare, was aiming to gather 20,000 knitted bears for some of the 5 million children displaced since the Ukraine was invaded by Russia.
Ryman’s Victorian sales and community relations manager Debra Richardson says the project was a meaningful way older people could make a small difference to the lives of the youngest members of war-torn Ukraine.
“Being so far away it can be difficult to know how we can help,” she says.
“Thousands of Ryman village residents are avid knitters and this project empowers them to use a skill that they are experts at to send a symbol of love from afar.”
Lyn and Elaine both jumped at the chance, along with many others in Stoke’s Ernest Rutherford. “We have a knit and natter group that meet every Wednesday,”
Lyn says, “So it fitted well, and Elaine has been able to share tips and shortcuts, and now look at the pile,” she says of the 130 bears piled on a glass tabletop in the main reception area.
The bears will be collected this week and combined with the rest of New Zealand’s Ryman villages efforts.
“We are one of the smallest villages, so imagine how many some of the bigger villages can create,” Elaine says.
They started creating the bears in blue and yellow colours of the Ukranian flag, but diverted into making each one unique. Some have ‘NZ’ stitched onto the front of their shirts.
Both Lyn and Elaine hope they can spread a small bit of joy to children who have lost so much.
Lyn says the knit and natter group usually make clothes for prem babies and the Specialist Care Baby Unit but will continue to make some more teddy bears for St John Ambulance.
