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UCLA students get over election blues with massive teddy-bear playdate

The night before the election, UCLA’s Sproul Hall advertised a Nov. 15 “Build-A-Bruin” event in which students would assemble teddy bears. It read:

Come join us in building a Bruin Bear, to either keep for yourself, or to donate to those in need. Decorate cute little teddys with bows, ribbons, and more! Come mingle and enjoy some refreshments in the Sproul Lecture Room, aka the Winter Wonderland Workshop!

The advertisement got a single Facebook “like,” and only two people responded on the event page before this week.

Then Republican Donald Trump was elected president, and suddenly everyone wanted to make teddy bears.

MORE: UMich scrubs post-election Play-Doh playdate following scrutiny

The residence hall government belatedly imposed a checkpoint, requiring ID (!) before allowing students to exercise their ursine rights. It told disappointed would-be builders Monday:

With the overwhelming amount of interest in this program and our limited supply of teddy bears, we will be having a card reader at the entrance. This event is offered for Sproul Hall Residents, and we apologize for disappointing the remainder of our hill community.

We encourage you to connect with the Resident Government Council in your respective buildings to put on another Build a Bruin event!

Note the cascade of frowny faces on the post update.

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The Daily Bruin has a photo slideshow of Tuesday night’s bursting-at-the-seams Build-A-Bruin party:

About 200 Sproul Hall residents decorated teddy bears with bows and ribbons Tuesday. … Some students kept the teddy bears for themselves, while others gave them to their friends.

An unopened case of bears went to the UCLA children’s hospital, and the “customized” bears went to a dialysis center for children, according to the Daily.

We’re not saying there’s anything wrong with building teddy bears, especially to give to sick children, but the sudden swell of interest in this event after Nov. 8 is certainly … curious.

Read the Daily report.

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