teddy-bear-plaid-2This is a special guest post from Ted, a bear from the fabulous Bears & More. You can even enter to win him this Saturday at the event!

September is my favorite month of the year because the U.S. celebrates me - the Teddy Bear!  And Glendale is my favorite town because they throw the biggest party just for me and my buddies! This is the 9th year that Glendale is celebrating National Teddy Bear Day and it is always tons of fun.  You might wonder why this started, well I can tell you all the beary fun details! Glendale has been home to a teddy bear shop for 22 years, Bears & More and the owners, Linda and Valerie, are just nuts about me and my kind.  One day they met with some neighbors and decided it was time to celebrate Teddy Bear Day and they've been doing so ever since. bears-and-more-shop Every year their neighbors come up with fun ideas all relating to Teddy bears, from face painting to glitter tattoos, bracelets to puppets, games, prize drawings and menus filled with special "berry" items.  You can even make a chocolate teddy bear at Cerreta's and decorate a cookie teddy bear at Shelley's Specialty Desserts.  I like seeing all the fun the people have celebrating me and my furry friends.  And, at Bears & More, their special guests for the past couple of years have been the nice folks and dogs at Arizona Search Dogs.  They do demonstrations all day long, and let me tell you - I am glad they train with stuffed ducks and geese because those dogs do a number on them!  There's always a lot of stuffing in the lawn at the end of the day. teddy-bear-day-collage One of the best things about Teddy Bear Day is all the teddy bears that get donated to the Glendale Fire Department's Trauma Teddy program.  The fire fighters keep bears like me on their trucks to comfort kids and adults in a crisis situations.  That lets us teddy bears do what we do best - comfort people and make them feel safe. I hope to see you during Teddy Bear Day. Start your day at the Glendale Visitor Center and meet one of my beary best friends – Glen, the Glendale Visitor Center mascot bear! It's all about fun with your "beary" special friends, eating berry special treats, and making sure us teddy bears get to do our favorite thing - love people back.