For the people behind HOLIDAY TOUCHDOWN: A BEARS LOVE STORY, the Chicago Bears connection meant finding a place for the team’s charity, not just its football.
“Bears Care is a natural extension of really who they are and what the Bears [do]. They’re so community focused,” director Dustin Rikert told Movieguide®.
That connection reached beyond the script. Hallmark and Bears Care auctioned off two featured walk-on roles, turning a day on a movie set into a fundraiser for the team’s charitable arm.
According to the Bears’ account of the collaboration, lifelong Bears fans Carrie May-Borich and Phillip Salamone won those roles and joined the July 17 production at Halas Hall. Their auction proceeds went directly to Bears Care.
Each winner could bring someone along, making the experience a shared memory rather than a solo trip behind the scenes. May-Borich brought her best friend, Hallmark fan Sheri Pickens, while Salamone brought his father, Phil, who had passed his love of the Bears down to his son.
Their day included hair and makeup, rehearsals and multiple camera angles for the gala scene. The team’s report describes the pair joining attendees as they entered, mingled and interacted with mascot Staley Da Bear.
Related: HOLIDAY TOUCHDOWN: A BEARS LOVE STORY
The scene echoes the real Bears Care Gala, which the team typically hosts at Soldier Field. The production staged its version at Halas Hall, the Bears’ headquarters and practice facility in Lake Forest, where The Hollywood Reporter visited the set and watched Rikert direct attendees entering the charity auction.
There’s an important distinction here: the auction in the story puts Bears Care on screen, while the real auction of walk-on roles raised money for the organization. The winners got to participate in the very scene highlighting the cause they had supported.
Bears Care’s stated mission focuses on improving life in the Chicagoland community, particularly for disadvantaged children and their families. Its work includes education, youth athletics, medical research and health awareness programs focused on breast and ovarian cancer; the organization reports issuing $35 million in grants to more than 200 qualifying agencies since 2006.
Actress Lyndsy Fonseca also found a familiar point of connection between Christmas and football: people gathering for the holidays and cheering on a favorite team. Her explanation for combining those elements focused on the people coming together.
“It’s like the perfect combination. Everyone’s together for the holidays. Everyone comes together to watch their favorite team,” Fonseca told Movieguide®.
The Chicago setting gave the production another connection to the team’s hometown. The Hollywood Reporter’s separate set report describes location work at Soldier Field, Halas Hall, a firehouse and city neighborhoods.
Bringing Christmas to Chicago in July also meant working through summer heat. The Hollywood Reporter described handheld fans, water stations and air-conditioned areas to help the cast and background actors working in winter clothes.
“It would be hard to make Chicago look unattractive. Like it is such a visually stunning city,” actor Robert Buckley told Movieguide®.
HOLIDAY TOUCHDOWN: A BEARS LOVE STORY premiered Oct. 17 on Hallmark Channel, with Hallmark+ streaming beginning Oct. 18. For two Bears fans, the holiday memory started months earlier: a day at Halas Hall with someone special, and a donation to help neighbors beyond the set.
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