By Samantha Russell

WESTPORT — Calling all teddy bears! 

To celebrate National American Teddy Bear Day, The Porch at Christie’s partnered Thursday with children’s author Diana Blau for a Teddy Bear Tea Party and “fun-raiser” for nonprofit Sweet P Bakery, which provides the treats served at The Porch. 

Children and mothers gathered for a storytime reading of Blau’s first book, “Beary & Tinker: Young at Heart,” then separated for bear-themed crafts and treats.

Teddy bears of all shapes, sizes and colors were welcome to join youngsters for the party. A suggested $10 donation benefited Sweet P, which offers training and employment for adults with disabilities. 

“It’s very sweet all around,” said Andrea Pecoriello, owner of Sweet P and founder of The Porch. She had approached the author with a proposal to host a teddy bear-themed tea party, something she always wanted to do.

That idea evolved into The Porch’s first “Teddy Bear Tea Party.” After storytime, children turned to markers, baubles and googly-eyes to decorate bear cutouts.

Two-year-old Riley Cooper decorated a bear alongside her mother, Madeline. “She’s having a great time,” Madeline said. Behind the Coopers, Dot and Poppy White and Annie and Millie Streit focused intently on their crafts, hardly allowing even a quick photograph.

Tinker the featured bear in “Beary & Tinker: Young at Heart,” is author Blau’s real-life teddy bear that has been a companion since childhood. Years later, she found a teddy bear from her husband’s childhood stuffed into a bedroom drawer, which she felt should not have been hidden away.

So, she decided their toys needed new life, featuring them in her book. And Beary and Tinker also turned up at Thursday’s gathering, sitting together on a stool.

“It’s a very personal story,” Blau said, particularly because she asked the book’s illustrator to use her family as inspiration for the characters. Both of the family teddy bears as well as their two children, Charlotte and Eli, are main characters in the book. Charlotte always played with her parents’ teddy bears despite all her other new toys, her mother said.

“She knew they meant something to us,” Blau continued.

Her teddy bear tale has struck a chord with readers, Blau said. One boy asked if he could FaceTime with her teddy bear, and parents often tell her the story evoked memories of their old teddy bears.

“I’ve gotten really good feedback from kids,” she said.

Blau, who published “Beary & Tinker: Young at Heart” in January 2022 , is working on her second, “Losing Lambie,” focused on Eli’s favorite stuff lamb toy and the adventures he takes it on.

Samantha Russell is a Westport Journal intern.