The team at K-Days came up with a memorable idea before reuniting a little girl with her special stuffed animal that saw her through a liver transplant last winter.
Six-year-old Aurora came to Edmonton from Ontario in February to get the transplant. Teddy was by her side every step of the way.
“Even the surgeons and the doctors – whenever she’s had a procedure with her liver transplant, her biopsies, they’ve allowed Teddy to be with her until she’s fallen asleep,” Aurora’s nana Sandra Garnier explained. “And then, when she wakes up, Teddy’s back with her.”
Aurora has been staying at Edmonton’s Ronald McDonald House.
Once she started feeling better, Aurora and Teddy began enjoying everything Alberta’s capital has to offer.
Their adventures included enjoying K-Days last week.
Unfortunately, Teddy got lost at the fair grounds and was left behind, leaving Aurora devastated.
“It wasn’t until we got back that we realized Teddy wasn’t with us,” Garnier said, as Aurora sat on her lap. “And it was very sad wasn’t it?”
Amber and Sarah – who both have children at the Ronald McDonald House – started sending messages all over Edmonton to try and find Aurora’s friend.
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“Social media! Let’s find a picture of Teddy,” Grenier recalls the two women suggesting. “We’ll post the picture of Teddy. And as soon as we posted the picture of Teddy on social media, it took about two hours at most and low and behold, Teddy had been on an adventure.”
The team at K-Days found Teddy, but didn’t immediately return him to Aurora because they wanted him to see the sights first – and document it all.
They took Teddy on an adventure around K-Days and chronicled the journey on social media, using the hashtag #AdventuresOfTeddy.
“Oh Teddy saw everything,” Northlands’ Lori Cote said. “He was over at the TD South Stage, he was at the TD North Stage, he got to hang out with the Canadian Armed Forces. I think he might have been in the fighter jet. He tried all different foods on the fairway. It was a really great adventure.”
After his adventure was over, Teddy and Aurora were reunited on Thursday.
“There was actually some tears,” Grenier said. “There were absolutely some tears when … Amber brought Teddy back to her the next morning. There was a lot of tears and she was really happy to have Teddy back.”
“All of us have children in our lives in one way, shape or form,” Cote said. “We see the kids on the midway everyday having fun and it just makes us feel good and it really does bring up the staff morale when we know we can do something this special for a child who’s been through so much.”
And, after everything he had seen and experienced, Teddy realized nothing could compare to being with his best friend again.
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