Knitting for kindness: Trauma Teddies
Trauma Teddies
Knitting for kindness.
Over 1 million children have cuddled a colourful, comforting Trauma Teddy since we first started hand-knitting them back in 1990.
Trauma Teddies provide care in so many ways:
- comfort to children fleeing bushfires, floods and other emergencies
- a warm welcome to refugee children
- company in a speeding ambulance
- friendly security in hospital
- a happy face in a lonely time.
At last count, more than 600 volunteer knitters and knitting groups hand knit Teddies in Australia. They lovingly craft around 50,000 Trauma Teddies a year. That’s a huge number of children who each year receive the care of a teddy bear.
A teddy bears' picnic with Red Cross Ambassador Kate Ritchie.
It takes about 5 hours to knit and finish each Teddy. By our calculations, that's a whopping 250,000 volunteer knitting hours each year – or a mind-blowing 7.5 million volunteer hours over the past 30 years.
Read the Trauma Teddy story navigate_next
Every Trauma Teddy is lovingly put together. They must also pass a quality control test to guarantee comfort and safety.
For more information or to locate your local Trauma Teddy coordinator contact us.
Trauma Teddy patterns
Have a question about Trauma Teddies?
Contact us
Answers to many common questions about Trauma Teddies can be found on this page navigate_next
Contact us to find out how you can start knitting, join a group or receive Trauma Teddies.
Qantas is a proud partner of Australian Red Cross Trauma Teddies, supporting the creation of 150,000 over the next three years. These Trauma Teddies will provide comfort to children and community members in times of need.
Trauma Teddy® (including Trauma Teddies®) is a trademark owned by the Australian Red Cross Society ABN 50 169 561 39.
Charity donations of $2 or more to Australian Red Cross may be tax deductible in Australia. Site protected by Google Invisible reCAPTCHA. © Australian Red Cross 2025. ABN 50 169 561 394