Chance of a shower or two during the morning, followed by partly cloudy skies this afternoon. High 77F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..
A few clouds. Low 51F. Winds light and variable. Big Plush Doll
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Dr. Pam in her trusty white lab coat ready to start a day of surgeries. On the docket was fixing a broken leg, stitching a dog bite and remedying a nasty bee sting.
One bear in recovery after suffering a broken arm. He should be ready to head back home in about a week, said Dr. Pam.
Dr. Pam in her trusty white lab coat ready to start a day of surgeries. On the docket was fixing a broken leg, stitching a dog bite and remedying a nasty bee sting.
One bear in recovery after suffering a broken arm. He should be ready to head back home in about a week, said Dr. Pam.
Behind the plush toys and forever cuddle friends found at Vermont Teddy Bear Factory are hours of hand stitching and stuffing from a dedicated production department.
But who among them is responsible for fixing a broken bear and ensuring Vermont Teddy Bear’s lifetime warranty?
That would be Pamela Fay, better known as “Dr. Pam,” the factory’s resident “M.D. of bearology,” as the official certificate that sits over her desk at the “bear hospital” reads. Fay has been an employee of the Vermont Teddy Bear production team for 28 years, moving up to the rank of doctor within the last three years.
The move was a natural fit. She has nearly mastered how every bear is built and manufactured, so learning how to fix and patch them was an obvious next step and one that seems to run in her blood.
“She is one of our most skilled colleagues and one of the few people who can do every step of making a bear, so it makes her the perfect bear doctor,” Cassandra Clayton, the company’s brand director, said.
Her office, located a short walk behind the doors of the retail area, quite literally replicates a small hospital set-up, with patients filling the cubbies on the wall with all different ailments: kidney stones, broken bones, bee stings, dog bites — you name it, and Fay can likely fix it.
From 9 a.m. until noon, Monday through Friday, she works on roughly 10 patients a day, moving the joint press, stitching busted back seams, adding extra filling and replacing weathered paw pads — but not without a few Smarties from her secret candy stash under her desk to satisfy her sweet tooth.
Some around the factory argue she has a magic touch, but she would say that this is just something that makes her really happy. And it shows. Staff refer to her only as “Dr. Pam” and the moment her white doctor’s coat goes on every morning, that identity becomes a certain part of who she really is.
The process is simple. Loved teddy bears are sent from their family with a hospital admittance form that explains where exactly the injuries lie. Dr. Pam receives the packages sent to the hospital and gives each bear its own patient wristband.
“They have their names and everything on the paperwork, so we all know them. It’s just like a real hospital that you or I go to … except a lot less hollering, and a lot less expensive,” she joked.
From there Dr. Pam works to fix the stitching or replace the broken limb — something that’s almost second nature to her since she’s spent decades manufacturing the toys from their early beginnings — with miscellaneous pieces of furred fabric and stuffing.
On any given day, observing Fay is like watching a real doctor at work. Apart from her own expert seamstress skills, she remains careful and dedicated, knowing that each bear that comes to her is loved deeply by someone from around the globe.
“For some, it’s not just a bear, it’s a person, more or less. Even humans break sometimes,” Fay said, letting out a jovial laugh as she fixed the back seam on one bear who had suffered a particularly rough attack from the family dog.
In line with the company’s lifetime guarantee policy, if there is something that Fay can’t fix — which happens rarely — the company sends a bear of the same make and model back to the family. But Fay said she keeps the older bears for a while, just in case the family requests them back, and partially because she said it’s difficult to just throw them away.
The Bear Hospital has been an important part of Vermont Teddy Bear’s operation since its beginnings in the 1980s. Before Fay there was Dr. Nancy, who worked for the business for 37 years, before passing the doctor baton off to Fay three years ago.
More than anything, this job helps maintain a certain childlike spirit and imagination in Fay — and those around her — as she reads the personalized notes attached to each form and the many personalized letters she receives daily, all of which are tacked up on different walls in her office and remind her just what makes the job of a teddy bear doctor so special.
“It makes me happy. It’s a happy place because you’re making other people happy, you know? I sometimes can’t believe how important these bears are to people, but they certainly are,” she said, holding tightly to a bear that was undergoing surgery.
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