Naomi Pascal/Photo Courtesy of Facebook
Last fall, 6-year-old Naomi Pascal lost her teddy bear toy on one of Glacier National Park’s trails in Montana. The young girl was reportedly adopted from an Ethiopian orphanage and received the toy from her future adoptive parents while still living there. Last month, the park made a viral Facebook post documenting how the gifted toy found its way back to her, which involved an attentive family friend and a helpful park ranger.
According to the post, which has 12,000 reactions and over 600 comments on Facebook, Pascal’s parents
said that the teddy bear “kept her company until she could come home for good.” The Associated Press reported that she took the toy with her as she traveled around Croatia, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Greece with her family.Ranger Tom Mazzarisi, a bear activity specialist, was tidying up around the park when he and other officials discovered the teddy bear dripping wet. In the snow, the national park stated. A lover of bears, he then decided to keep the toy inside of his patrol car, reportedly saying, “Bears are my passion. I just didn’t have the heart to throw it away. There was something special about this teddy bear, so I adopted him and named him Ceasar.”
According to the Associated Press, a family friend of Pascal, Terri Hayden, was with the 6-year-old when she lost the bear last year. Though she initially made a lost item report to the national park, she was reportedly still on the lookout for the teddy bear when she made another trip there in September 2021.
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According to the Associated Press, Hayden said about her plans to locate Pascal’s teddy bear, “I’m a woman of faith. And that morning, I said, ‘OK Lord, if this bear is around, please put that bear in my path and let me come home with that bear today.’”
Luckily, Hayden was able to catch a glimpse of the toy inside of a park ranger’s vehicle, with Glacier National Park employees soon handing it over to her. After shipping it to Pascal, the Associated Press reported that Hayden also bought a new teddy bear for Mazzarisi, which he named Clover.