{"id":33821,"date":"2026-08-26T21:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T21:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/33821\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T21:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T21:44:09","slug":"20000-teddy-bears-for-ukraine-display-down-but-message-endures-in-newport-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/33821\/","title":{"rendered":"20,000 teddy bears for Ukraine display down, but message endures in Newport Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What was intended to be a powerful public installation Monday in Newport Beach featuring 20,000 teddy bears representing Ukrainian children abducted and deported by Russian forces had to be removed to avoid a municipal code violation. <\/p>\n

The display lining MacArthur Boulevard was nearing completion at around 1 p.m. Monday when Newport Beach police officers showed up after receiving a complaint call. The officers were there to make sure the installation was in compliance with city ordinances, according to Deputy Chief Joshua Vincelet.<\/p>\n

The installation was determined to be out of compliance because it obstructed public right-of-way, according to Vincelet, but no citations were issued as the stuffed animals were removed as requested. <\/p>\n

The kerfuffle did not deter the gathering, which instead became a demonstration of Ukrainian resilience and perseverance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re resourceful and we make things work,\u201d said Marina Shamashevich, a Shield of Freedom representative, after the display created by Razon came down. Her organization, along with the American Coalition for Ukraine and Globe 4 Ukraine, act as custodial groups for the teddy bear project, which began last April in Washington, D.C. <\/p>\n

\"People <\/p>\n

People demonstrate on MacArthur Boulevard in Newport Beach Monday evening in support for abducted Ukrainian children during the war with Russia, following an earlier misstep when organizers had to forgo an intended installation of 20,000 teddy bears.<\/p>\n

(Susan Hoffman)<\/p>\n

\u201cCities have allowed us to use public sidewalks to exercise our 1st Amendment right,\u201d Shamashevich said of the traveling display. \u201cWe call police and let them know and usually they come and make sure everything is OK.\u201d <\/p>\n

Although Monday\u2019s installation to draw public attention of the humanitarian issue may have ended sooner than expected, the message continued to the roughly two dozen people who had gathered, holding signs and flags. Cars passing by along the busy street honked in support.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t know about [the children abducted during the war],\u201d said Iryna Shifman, member of the American Coalition for Ukraine and co-founder of Globe 4 Ukraine. \u201cOfficials have documented with names of the 20,000 but there are six million under 18 in occupied territories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Rev. Canon Cindy Evans Voorhees, left, accepts a token of appreciation from Mira Rubin, Shield of Freedom president. It was a tiny teddy bear similar to the ones used in the traveling display.<\/p>\n

(Susan Hoffman)<\/p>\n

The event\u2019s guest speaker, the Rev. Canon Cindy Evans Voorhees of St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach, said Monday\u2019s gathering was \u201csmall, but mighty.\u201d <\/p>\n

She framed the loss of thousands of Ukrainian children as something that\u2019s hard for many to comprehend: \u201cCan you imagine what would happen if not one child showed up for school this week in the Newport-Mesa school district?\u201d <\/p>\n

Voorhees cited an example from a military veteran who described the act of indoctrinating children into belief systems who said, \u201cGive me a child until they\u2019re 5 years old and I\u2019ll give you a communist for life.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Yale Humanitarian Research Lab report released last September detailed the forcible deportation, re-education and militarization of Ukrainian children referred to as \u201cRussifying,\u201d which includes military training and long-term detention. The report has informed U.S. legislation on the Russia-Ukraine war and has become a national leader providing critical resources in tracking the missing children.<\/p>\n

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R- Iowa) has acknowledged the value of the Yale research. \u201cToday, the lab remains a national leader in providing critical resources to locate and track these children,\u201d Grassley stated last fall, according to a report in the Yale Daily News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Grassley and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) introduced a bipartisan resolution calling for the return of kidnapped Ukrainian children before any peace agreement is finalized. They also introduced a bill<\/a> to support identification, rehabilitation and accountability for the children.<\/p>\n

\"Shield <\/p>\n

Shield of Freedom president Mira Rubin addresses people gathered for the Bring Kids Back event Monday evening in Newport Beach.<\/p>\n

(Susan Hoffman)<\/p>\n

Mira Rubin, president of Shield of Freedom, said on Monday that \u201cGlobal threat to democracy to forcibly replace kids, is a war crime.\u201d She stressed the importance of keeping society informed of war crimes.<\/p>\n

One participant in Monday\u2019s demonstration was Mila Onuferko, a first generation American of Ukrainian descent who drove from Idyllwild to Newport Beach for the occassion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are organizations in different parts of the country and we come out to support each other so people understand the price of war,\u201d Onuferko said. \u201cChildren are separated from families and are used as a bargaining chip.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bearing a sign carrying the words \u201cBring Kids Back,\u201d Mary Kopinski of Mission Viejo, also a first generation Ukrainian American, said it made her proud to be a Ukrainian \u201cand fight for those who can\u2019t fight for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A small group of people turned out to support the Bring the Kids Back campaign for missing Ukrainian children from war Monday night in Newport Beach, following the disrupted installation 20,000 teddy bears that ended earlier in the day. <\/p>\n

(Susan Hoffman)<\/p>\n

U.S. Reps. Mike Levin (D-49th District) and Young Kim (R-40th District) both sent emailed statements to organizers of Monday\u2019s event, who shared them with the Daily Pilot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot allow these children to be forgotten and we will not stop demanding that they be brought home,\u201d wrote Levin, who with Kim is a sponsor of a House resolution calling for the children to be returned before finalization of peace agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201d…In any conflict, the price of war should only be limited to the battlefield \u2014 full stop, wrote Kim. \u201cInstead, the Russian military has done something far more sinister: the capture of tens of thousands of children, ripped from their parents\u2019 arms. No child should ever be exposed to war\u2019s cruel realities, let alone the deliberate target of an operation to destroy a nation\u2019s social fabric. Putin\u2019s war is not just one of conquest: it is a campaign that seeks to eliminate Ukrainian identity, beginning with the most vulnerable among us. It is unconscionable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What was intended to be a powerful public installation Monday in Newport Beach featuring 20,000 teddy bears representing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11830,3449,11827,11829,11828,2532,11821,8979,11825,1337,11824,11822,11823,314,11826],"class_list":["post-33821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-american-coalition","tag-child","tag-dozen-people","tag-globe","tag-installation","tag-monday","tag-newport-beach","tag-shield","tag-teddy-bear","tag-thousand","tag-ukraine-display","tag-ukraine-supporter","tag-ukrainian-child","tag-war","tag-young-kim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}