7-29-2025 4:49am

Bear Fever: It's Catching Book Launch Announced

Lesley Misko Editor

Cover of booklet created by Grace Gibbins, Boyertown Senior High School graduate, Class of 2025.

by Jane Stahl

Finally, a booklet about Boyertown’s Bear Fever’s bears is coming soon! Studio B Art Gallery is pleased to announce the release of Bear Fever—It’s Catching, a booklet featuring photographs and information about the community’s Bear Fever sculptures on August 7, 2025, from 6:30-7:30 at Chestnut Knoll, 120 W 5th Street, Boyertown PA. The booklet is part of the studio’s “The Three Bears” summer project, funded by The Berks County Community Foundation.

The booklet has been created by Diane O’Sullivan, a relative newcomer to the Boyertown area, with the assistance of Boyertown High School 2025 graduate Grace Gibbins. The 2025 edition, Bear Fever—It’s Catching: Bears of Boyertown Chapter #1, will include the 61 bears that are installed within the borough of Boyertown. Chapter #2, planned for 2026, will include Bear Fever bears that reside outside of town.

Diane is a gift to our community. Diane reached out to me months ago inquiring about whether there was a book about the sculptures that she could share with her mother, a resident of Chestnut Knoll’s memory care unit who "loved the bears" and wanted to know more about them. Diane had recently moved to Boyertown from New Jersey with her husband after her retirement from the telecommunications industry.

Paul and I had planned to publish a book about the bears when we first started the project. But because the project continues, adding new bears all the time, we didn’t want to invest in publishing a book that wouldn’t include all of them.

But, in my email response to Diane’s inquiry, I added that perhaps someday, someone would take on the project of creating a book and I’d be happy to help! I was surprised and delighted when she responded saying that we should talk about it because she might be interested in being that person, taking on that project!

And so, I met with her and her husband; and while her husband declined to be involved and went on to work on his own projects, Diane made a commitment to create a book of the bears…in soft cover, a chapter at a time. This year the booklet includes in-town sculptures; next year she'll create Chapter #2 with out-of-town bears and those installed at private residences. Some day, if the project ever ends, perhaps she'll publish a hard cover --coffee table--copy.

Diane is perfect for the project. I just love her spunk and enthusiasm. She has the drive, the organizational work ethic, communication, administrative, managerial, photographic, and computer skills a project like this requires. I’ve been totally "hands off" while she’s been taking hundreds of photographs, interviewing the bears’ sponsors and artists for months in preparation.

She's watched all the videos the students produced when we began the project; she listened to the audio CDs that Ross (Squiggles) Smith and I created at WPAZ when over 40 artists and sponsors recorded comments about "their" bear; she read everything on www.bearfever.org in preparation and listened to all my favorite stories about the project and the bears. .

Aided by the graphic design skills of 2025 Boyertown High School graduate Grace Gibbins, Bear Fever—It’s Catching: Bears of Boyertown Chapter #1 will be published by Everything Printing in Gilbertsville and debut August 7, 2025, at Chestnut Knoll.

I’m so excited and so relieved to have such an amazing partner in this project…who may continue Bear Fever for the community beyond my involvement, whenever that time comes! And while, sadly, Diane’s mother has recently passed, Diane has dedicated the booklet to her.

Booklets will be available at Chestnut Knoll, Studio B Art Gallery, Building a Better Boyertown office, and the Boyertown Historical Society. Contact me janeEstahl@comcast.net or Diane O’Sullivan, Diane.osullivan111@gmail.com with questions, information, or to preorder copies. Payment can be made by cash, check or credit card or Venmo.

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Studio B Art Gallery s “The Three Bears” project includes efforts to engage community members in the theme-of-the-year. The project, funded by a grant from the Berks County Community Foundation, includes a variety of activities, organized by businesses and other non-profits in the community, in collaboration with Studio B.

This year’s theme—“The Three Bears”—celebrates the 20th anniversary of Bear Fever, Boyertown’s popular community art project. Twenty years ago, Bear Fever debuted over 30 bear sculptures at Boyertown High School’s annual Arts Expo. During the summer of 2005, those 30+ bear sculptures appeared throughout the community.

Today, the original sculptures are joined by dozens more—over 90 at last count—and more are “in the works.” Apparently, this community is still not even looking for a cure for Bear Fever.