St Mary’s Church in Rickmansworth recently hosted an Open Weekend filled with a variety of activities on the church grounds. The event featured a plant stall, treasure hunt, live jazz, quiz supper, and plenty of family fun, including the thrilling spectacle of parachuting teddy bears.

Children were invited to test the bravery of their teddy bears, with about 70 teddies and other soft toys parachuting from the top of the 17th-century tower of St Mary’s Church. Unfortunately, the wind wasn’t in their favour, and some of the teddies ended up stuck in a nearby tree.

The church team called for help as some children were upset about their teddies being trapped. We at Artemis Tree Services were delighted to step in. Two of our team members, Aston and Allan, arrived to rescue the stranded teddies. They used a big shot catapult with a throw line attached to shake the branches and dislodge the teddies. Precision was crucial to target the branches closest to each teddy. After several attempts, they successfully recovered three soft toys, including a raccoon that was happily reunited with its young owner just in time for her raccoon-themed party that afternoon.

Tim from the Church who called in Artemis to the rescue commented:  “To retrieve just the all important Racoon, would have been a brilliant result. To achieve two further rescues of a Unicorn and a Bear was just wonderful. As you  saw the owner of the Racoon was thrilled to receive her ‘Rocky’ back.”