In case you missed it, The Bear Collection has arrived!
Why this sudden interest in bears, you ask?
Well, I have actually always loved and respected bears - especially with spending part of my early life in South Lake Tahoe.
This interest is more than that, though. This collection came to fruition for a VERY special reason, and that is our 3 year-old nephew, Teddy aka "Teddy Bear". Since the beginning of 2025, Teddy has been fighting a type of cancer called Neuroblastoma. It is aggressive and the treatments have been equally aggressive - this is nothing that a toddler should have to go through. Of course, it is not just Teddy going through all of this but his entire family including his parents Ken Sr. and Michelle, and his older brother Kenny.
There have been multiple life-flights to get him from their home in southern Oregon to OHSU. Countless trips back and forth for each treatment. Lost work due to all the travel. The family living out of a trailer in the OHSU parking lot. Parents taking turns spending their time with each boy - often switching nights so that they could each get some decent sleep. Countless errors by the nursing staff that were luckily caught by his parents. A whole new definition of "advocate" has been learned and implemented. The whole time, trying to balance each kid's needs while maintaining some state of normalcy and sanity. It has been difficult, to say the least.
The good news is that in December, his scans came back with no tumor and no cancer growth. Since then, he has gone through 4 immunotherapy treatments with the last one on the horizon.
So, with all of this, I have designed The Bear Collection - all of the proceeds go directly to Teddy and his family to help with expenses. So far, we have raised $550.
There is also a GoFundMe that is ongoing to help cover bills and ongoing expenses from the past 18 months as well as looking forward to the next 4 years of continued tests and recovery.
You can find The Bear Collection on my website - always feel free to ask questions if you have them!