Collectors Bearing Up Well Under Pressure of Population Explosion

Gordon and Sylvia Ting’s condominium is suffering from an unbearable population explosion.

The couple is expecting a family expansion in February with the birth of their first child, but they already provide a home to a burgeoning crew, including Don Diego de Los Osos, Robearta, Paddington . . . and about 60 other cute, plush, cuddly, stuffed bears of all shapes, sizes and colors.

The Tings, you see, are wild about teddy bears.

Their stuffed bear collection takes up an entire wall of shelves in their living room, and then some.

Several Varieties

There are at least four different Paddington bears. There is a bear from Australia sporting a “G’day” T-shirt. There is a serious-looking bear who is dressed like a guard at Buckingham Palace. There is a giant bear, about the size of a 5-year-old child, sporting a crown.

There are brown bears, black bears, panda bears and koala bears--although the Tings point out that among serious bear collectors, there is some dispute as to whether koalas can be considered true teddy bears.

“They are actually marsupials,” explained Gordon Ting, a Thousand Oaks dentist.

Ting is so into bears that he is likely to greet visitors to his home wearing giant bear-feet slippers.

The couple’s Christmastime Nativity scene is populated by bears--from a winged bear angel to a tiny cub bear swaddled in the manger.

Take Them on Outings

The couple even take their bears along with them on outings and vacations: One of their Paddington bears accompanied them to Australia. They presented the customs officer with a passport for the bear, complete with his picture inside. And the officer obliged with a stamp in the passport.

But the Tings are not selfish about their 12-year-old hobby. They want others to enjoy the warm, comforting benefits of teddy bears.

To that end, Ting has organized a local chapter of Good Bears of the World International, a Hawaii-based organization that specializes in donating teddy bears to hospitals, institutions and fire and police departments.

The small local group--or den, as the chapters are referred to--is called Bear-Cal, which serves Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties. Ting is the group’s Chair Bear.

Bear-Cal’s current project is donating bears to the Tri-Counties chapter of Make-a-Wish, a group that grants the wishes of seriously ill children.

Linda Jensen, president of the local Make-a-Wish chapter, said that she first learned of Bear-Cal after giving a talk at a Kiwanis meeting.

“After I talked about Make-a-Wish, Dr. Ting came up to me and said that his bear den was looking for an organization just like this,” Jensen said.

Bear-Cal donated 26 bears to the group. Jensen took them with her to a national Make-a-Wish convention, where she distributed them to various chapters around the country. Since then, Bear-Cal has donated half a dozen more bears to the local chapter.

“They are adorable little teddy bears,” Jensen said of the 10-inch bears. “We use them as an icebreaker when we go to a family for the first time. When we give a teddy bear to the child, they warm right up. You can’t be unhappy when cuddling a soft teddy bear.”

That philosophy is apparently shared by other service organizations around the country. Police in a small Florida community go on patrol with bears in their cars in case they need to comfort a traumatized child. Firefighters use them to coax frightened children out of dangerous situations. Some nursing homes use them to cheer up depressed elderly people.

Hospital Uses Bears

Ting told of a Honolulu hospital that has developed a special teddy bear for use by patients who have undergone open heart surgery. Those patients need to cough following surgery to expel fluid that has gathered in their lungs. With the healing incision, that can be a painful proposition, Ting said.

The hospital’s Sirkoffalot, a teddy bear with a hard back, is useful for the patients to brace against their chests to lessen pain while they cough.

“And it’s a psychological benefit for the patients to hold a bear,” Ting said.

Sylvia Ting can testify to the comforting qualities of bears. She said she took one into the orthodontist’s office when she had her braces removed, and that she packs a bear in her suitcase on her frequent business trips.

“They help me sleep,” she said.

The Tings said that while they are serious about their bears, they are not serious bear collectors.

Collect Valuable Bears

That group includes people who collect only valuable bears, such as German Stieff bears, considered the Rolls-Royce of the teddy bear world, or antique teddys, which date back to the Theodore Roosevelt presidency.

The term was coined after a series of Clifford Berryman cartoons, which depicted the bully President with a bear cub. A Brooklyn couple made and marketed a stuffed version of the bear, launching the Ideal Toy Co.

The Tings prefer to collect their bears for sentimental reasons and for fun. The reason is simple: “Just because we like to hold them,” Sylvia Ting said.