It’s coming up to our Teddy Bears’ Picnic on Sunday when there will be all kinds of teddy bear fun at Didcot Railway Centre.

Teddy Crump will be entertaining everyone all day and visitors can follow the Teddy Bear Trail to win a prize.

As always, children with teddies (or cuddly ducks, elephants, dinosaurs, lambs, and so on) get in for free.

The Teddy Bear was invented in honour of Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States.

The Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace Museum tells the story of how he was on a bear hunting trip near Onward, Mississippi, on November 14, 1902.

He had been invited by Mississippi Governor Andrew H. Longino, but unlike other hunters in the group, had not located a single bear.

Roosevelt's assistants cornered and tied a black bear to a willow tree, then summoned Roosevelt and suggested he shoot it.

Viewing this as extremely unsportsmanlike, Roosevelt refused.

The news of this event spread quickly through newspaper articles across the country: the president who refused to shoot a bear.

Not just any president at that – it was Theodore Roosevelt the big game hunter!

A political cartoonist by the name of Clifford Berryman read the article and decided to lightheartedly lampoon the president.

Berryman's cartoon appeared in the Washington Post on November 16, 1902.

A Brooklyn candy shop owner by the name of Morris Michtom saw the cartoon and had an idea: he and his wife Rose made stuffed animals, so Michtom decided to create a toy bear and dedicate it to the president who refused to shoot a bear: he called it 'Teddy's Bear'.

After receiving Roosevelt's permission to use his name, Michtom mass-produced the bears which were so popular that he soon founded the Ideal Toy Company.

Today, the Teddy Bear is an international symbol for comforting children (and their families), for which reason we will be using our picnic on Sunday to raise funds for another institution which provides immeasurable comfort to children and their families.

Ronald McDonald House at Oxford Children’s Hospital offers 17 rooms where parents can get some much needed rest but under the same roof as their children.

Such is the demand for its kitchens, laundry facilities and lounge that the charity is now raising funds for a new 62-bedroom house in the hospital grounds, which we are delighted to support.