Lost stuffed animals at Hagerstown Regional Airport lead to social media campaign
Two stuffed animals — a teddy bear and a small cat — were found on July 10 in the Hagerstown Regional Airport. Now, airport staff are on a mission to reunite them with their owners, and teach the public about the local airport.
The tie-dye teddy bear is donning an “I love Florida” T-shirt that could hold the clue to finding the owner. The airport has flights to two Florida locations: Orlando and Tampa.
The main theory for airport staff is that the owner might have come from a flight into Hagerstown from the Orlando Sanford International Airport the same night the bears were found, according to Operations and Security Manager Gene Bolanowski.
The lost animals were found underneath a seat in the airport’s central lobby, according to airport officials.
On the airport’s Facebook page, airport staff have made it their mission to spread the word of the missing stuffed animals and features of the airport.
Photos of the pair show they conducted an airfield inspection, learned about snow removal equipment, visited the Rider Jet Center and had a meal at The Grille at Runways.
If the owner is a small child, Bolanowski said, they want to be able to make a scrapbook of the adventures their animals had at the Hagerstown airport.
Bolanowski said he saw a similar social media campaign at other small airports and thought this would be a unique way to reunite the bears with their owner and to stealthily show off the airport.
Airport Director Neil Doran said this situation shows the kindness of the airport staff.
“At a big airport this wouldn’t have been noticed and it would have just been thrown away. Here, we try to go the extra mile to take care of our passengers,” Doran said.
If the owner isn’t found, Bolanowski said the airport will contact local shelters to see if anyone would like to adopt the stuffed animals.
Airport officials are encouraging the owner to call the airport’s main office at 240-313-2777.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Airport officials hope to reunite lost stuffed animals with owner
