Teddy Bears

Ruth Frank, a Phoenix resident with a collection of 351 teddy bears, died of cancer Thursday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. She was 78. Born Ruth Zinkhan, Mrs. Frank was one of two girls in a German family with 12 children. She was raised on a farm in Monkton, called to do chores alongside all her brothers. She met her husband, Paul J. Frank Sr., because two of her brothers had married two of his sisters. He was trained as a carpenter and later worked as a construction contractor.

Elizabeth Ann Schimpf never met a teddy bear she didn't like -- which was proved by the scores of the cuddly, stuffed critters that adorned her Severna Park home.Mrs. Schimpf, 83, who died Nov. 1 of heart failure at her home, had more than 400 teddy bears, some in nearly every room of the house. She had brown ones and white ones. Somber ones and happy ones. Little ones, big ones and really big ones."Let's put it this way," said her husband, Robert E. Schimpf, whom she married in 1959, "I'm 5 foot 7, and there are bears here that are bigger than me."

With new light displays and milder weather, attendance at Howard County General Hospital's annual holiday light show has increased from last year's disappointing turnout.By the show's 22nd night, at the beginning of this week, 10,399 vehicles had visited the Symphony of Lights exhibit, up from 8,253 by the 22nd night last year.The 917 vehicles that drove through the show on its first night, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, was almost double the 473 recorded last year.As attendance declined in the two previous shows amid increasing competition from similar seasonal light shows in the Baltimore area, organizers took steps to liven up this year's show.

Correction: In last Sunday's column item on Forget-Me-Not, the company that recycles furs into teddy bears, the contact number was listed incorrectly. The correct number is 800-551-2327.Pub Date: 8/03/97

Jesselyn Johl had more than the Monday blues a week ago -- she also had a black eye.The 67-year-old Columbia woman got those distinctive bruises when she spent the day at St. Agnes Hospital having a cancerous tumor near her right eye removed. She was feeling down in the dumps.Her mood did an about face Wednesday when Lynn Spence, owner of Here's a Hug and a self-described "oBEARator," delivered a cuddly white teddy bear. The idea was to cheer Johl up. It worked."Oh my goodness," Johl said as she clutched the bear in her hands.

Seventh-graders at Oakland Mills Middle School donated teddy bears to Howard County General Hospital yesterday and dedicated a flag to promote the new identity of their school.The 23 teddy bears were made by the students to help fulfill their service learning requirement and will be given to children who are in the hospital."I'm glad we'll able to help the kids and make them feel better when they're sick," said Ashley Hardester, 12, one of the two students who led the project.Before presenting the bears to hospital President Victor A. Broccolino, the students unveiled their flag -- a red falcon with yellow and orange around its wings that includes the school's name, the words "Falcons Achieve" and the opening date of the school, 1972.

CHILDREN BETWEEN the ages of 2 and 6 are invited to a Holiday Storytime at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Brooklyn Park Library, 1 E. 11th Ave. Children can enjoy holiday stories and music and help trim a tree. No registration is required.Cantata of carolsSunday school students of St. John Lutheran Church, 226 Washburn Ave., will perform "A Cantata of Carols" by Benjamin Harlan, during the 10 a.m. worship service Dec. 22. The music and speeches will take you from the preparation stage to Christ's birth.

THEY GREETED me with open arms and sly smiles. Some were aloof, and others so friendly that they begged me to hug them.A particular circle of friends was dressed in Sunday-best finery, gathered around the dining room table waiting for tea. Another group clustered on an antique tricycle in the living room. Still another rode an antique sled suspended above the staircase.What a group it was that filled the home of Bonnie and Perry Miles of Union Bridge when I visited.This was no ordinary gathering, but the collection of hundreds of dolls and teddy bears that Mr. and Mrs. Miles have accumulated over the years.

When Brenda Minatee was looking to make a contribution to charity last year, she wanted to donate her time, not her money.She didn't have to look very far.Ms. Minatee joined the hundreds of volunteers who help the Salvation Army of Annapolis dress 1,000 teddy bears in homemade costumes for local children."The bears caught my attention," recalled the 38-year-old county payroll employee, who persuaded 100 of her colleagues to outfit 168 bears last year. "I never heard of that before."This year, the nonprofit organization is looking for about 400 more volunteers like Ms. Minatee to outfit the stuffed animals before Christmas.

MARK YOUR calendars for a round robin of craft shows. From Frizzellburg to New Windsor and on to Westminster, you'll find lovely things to admire and buy and good things to eat.Where to start? You might want to begin your tour of crafts at the St. Paul's United Methodist Church Early Bird Christmas Show.This one is a perennial favorite, with flower arrangements by Trudy Jo Snader of New Windsor and teddy bears and other fanciful crafts by Nikki Alban of Pennsylvania.The rooms, upstairs and down, will be filled with things that have been crafted by hand by area artists.

Baltimore's mayor wants people to be more responsible, and the police commissioner wants people to be more accountable, and I couldn't agree more. So let's start trying to understand why somebody would steal at least four teddy bears that were part of a public memorial for this year's victims of homicide. I, for one, had thought I'd lost the ability to be outraged. Who could - who would - steal teddy bears? Each was attached by a wire to the railing at the entrance to the city branch headquarters of the NAACP on West 26th Street.

The teddy bears, all 80 of them, are piled in a living room at a home in Northeast Baltimore. Most are hand-me-downs - "pre-loved," Faith Bocian calls them - each representing one of the persons who has lost a life to violence in the city this year. Wednesday night, the bears will be displayed as part of a vigil called "Teddy Bears Crying" at the Baltimore branch of the NAACP at 8 W. 26th St. Each will be wearing a laminated name tag of a victim: "Andre Thorpe, 17, Jan. 2, 2009, 800 block of N. Kenwood Ave., shot; Andrew Goodwyn, 22, 11:10 p.m., March 13, 2009, Normandy Ave. Shot."

. Nina Woehlke, 8, of Millersville gazes at shelves full of fancy dolls. She strokes the soft fur of an antique teddy bear, made from mohair. For her and her sister, Rachel, 11, a visit to the Bearing Gifts store is a treat. "It's bribery for the children," said their mother, Nancy. "They get to pick something ... and [then] they have to be nice while we antique." Owner Kathleen Warshauer enjoys the shop almost as much as her youngest customers. "I love selling. ... Putting together displays is fun," she said.

Ruth Frank, a Phoenix resident with a collection of 351 teddy bears, died of cancer Thursday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. She was 78. Born Ruth Zinkhan, Mrs. Frank was one of two girls in a German family with 12 children. She was raised on a farm in Monkton, called to do chores alongside all her brothers. She met her husband, Paul J. Frank Sr., because two of her brothers had married two of his sisters. He was trained as a carpenter and later worked as a construction contractor.

David Stollery recalls arriving for dinner at the house of an acquaintance. It was supposed to be a meal for two, but Stollery noticed eight place settings. "One by one, he brought in six big, beautiful, teddy bears," Stollery said. "He introduced the bears to me by name, told me a story about each one and then sat them in a chair at the table." After dinner, Stollery beat a hasty retreat. "I remember driving home and thinking to myself that I had just met my first nut case," he said.

The Laurel College Center, a partnership of Howard and Prince George's community colleges, will hold a drop-in open house from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Aug. 16 at 312 Marshall Ave., Suite 205, Laurel, adjacent to the Laurel Shopping Center. A tour of the center will be offered. There will be an opportunity to talk with academic and financial aid advisers and learn how to register for credit or noncredit classes. Representatives from the Career Services Office of Howard Community College and the Laurel College Center's higher-education partners -- the College of Notre Dame, Towson University, University of Maryland, University College -- will be on hand.

The Free State Happy Wanderers Walking Club will sponsor a 9/11 memorial walk Sept. 11 at Montpelier Mansion, 9650 Muirkirk Road, in Laurel. The 5K and 10K trails include a walk along residential sidewalks, and are suitable for wheelchairs and strollers. A commemorative button will be given to the first 200 walkers. Registration is to be held between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Walks should be finished by 7 p.m. Information or to request a brochure: 301-717-3604, or e-mail, kindfellow@comcast.net.

Everyone is familiar with the signs that shout out the cost of driving these days, the ones that say $2.97, $3.08, $3.16, $3.27, that chronicle the rising price of a gallon of gasoline. Those signs get the public fuming, the politicians posturing and the president investigating. But there are many other signs of the cost of America's love affair with the automobile that seem to fade into the background like drab wallpaper. Take those small memorials - the crosses, the plastic flowers, the teddy bears - that mark the site of a death by automobile.

How to keep score On the giant board at Camden Yards, the score of the game isn't the only number in lights. There are numbers of runs, the percentages of outs to hits and lots of other statistics. But how do those numbers get there? Saturday, come find out what all those numbers mean at the "Scoring Made Official" program at the Sports Legends at Camden Yards museum. The museum will host Jim Henneman, lead official scorer at Camden Yards and former president of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

MARYLAND'S FIRST bear hunt in more than half a century was over in just one day last week after nimrods bagged 20 bruins. (I believe that I have my hunting clichM-is in order there.) The first Ursus americanus tagged was a very modest 84-pound female (about the size of a big Labrador retriever). The beast was said to be 10 months old, in bear terms a small child, probably still with its mother in Western Maryland. Most Americans know bears only from children's literature, in which the bear is a fixture.