Thursday, April 9, 2020

Please meet Daniel, a handsome Artist Teddy polar bear handcrafted by Carrousel bears by well-know Teddy bear experts and artists Terry and Doris Michaud in Chesaning, Michigan.   He's made of white mohair and is a limited edition bear, number 22 of only 100 made, and he wears a ribbon to prove it!   He has a pronounced hump and is solidly stuffed and very clean.   I believe he was made in the 1990s.   He is 14 inches tall, and is in excellent condition.

Daniel is slightly embarrassed when other bears refer to him as handsome.   Of course, when you're only one of one hundred polar bears in your clan, it does make you rather special, but Daniel has never thought of himself that way, though he does have his certificate on hand in case some black bear questions what he's doing in Michigan.    He knows there are other polar bears out there more deserving than him.

Polar bears love to travel, and Daniel is no exception.   When his friends ask him about his favorite place to visit, with no hesitation he mentions the White Chapel Memorial Cemetery in Troy, Michigan.   He can tell you all about the large marble statute of a polar bear erected in 1930 to honor the forgotten heroes of the Polar Bear Expedition during World War I.  

Near the end of the Great War, the local Army Regiment was sent to Archangel, Russia in September of 1918 to fight the Russian Army in an attempt to keep stockpiles of supplies from falling into enemy hands.   The commanders thought being from Michigan, they would be used to the cold, but Daniel knows even polar bears wouldn't like temperatures 40 degrees below zero.  The Russians had 45,000 troops compared to the American troops of only 5,000.  Even after the war was over in November 2018, they were in conflict with the Red Army and spent the coming winter there, fighting in deep snow.  Just like real polar bears, they had white coats so they wouldn't be seen too easily.  When they were finally recalled by President Wilson in July of 2019, more than 200 men had died on Russian soil and over 300 were wounded.   Until 1983, there were memorials held at the monument, but all the Polar Bears have passed away now.

Daniel knows he would be hard to find in the snow with his white fur.    He's quite comfortable in the cold, but he wouldn't want to go to war in Russia.   He is glad to he's learned about this little-known Allied intervention, and he hopes others will discover it, too.  

Sometimes Daniel sits below the memorial on a hot summer evening, thinking about the men from Michigan Polar Bears who suffered and died in Russia and lifts his frosty ice drink in a toast, proud to be a polar bear himself.


 


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