Mark Shenefield, also known as ‘Tattoo Mark,’ is a huge Dallas Cowboys fan with a heart for giving to others. That generous spirit led him to the idea of organizing a teddy bear giveaway for the patients at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth. The drive took place the morning of Saturday, December 18.
Tattoo Mark’s devotion to his favorite team is evidenced by the team-themed tattoos that cover his body, the most impressive of which is his back, almost entirely covered with a piece in honor of the Cowboys. In the center is a huge star with the years of the team’s Super Bowl wins in each of the five points. The middle of the star is a football player wearing jersey number twenty-two (Emmitt Smith’s number when he played for the Cowboys).
According to the website Official America’s Team, Emmitt Smith posted a picture on Instagram of Shenefield’s back tattoo. “Met the ultimate Cowboys fan in Vegas this week,” Smith shared.
Perhaps partly due to his popularity and reputation as a dedicated Cowboys fan, Shenefield has received an overwhelming response to his request for teddy bears.
Shenefield created a Facebook post about his idea of donating teddy bears to the children, and he was blown away by the result. Within a week and a half, some three hundred teddy bears had been donated, with the potential for many more on the way.
According to NBC DFW, Shenefield stated, “I’ve never seen so many teddy bears in my life, man, I’m telling you… I posted it on Facebook and I’m telling you it just went viral and look at what I got!”
On the Facebook page for One Star One Family, a video shows Shenefield expressing gratitude for a box full of stuffed animals he picked up from the post office. He announced that he plans on organizing the “Cook Children’s Hospital Teddy Bear Drive” as an annual event.
“I’m dressing up as a Dallas Cowboys Santa, and I have some helpers, and we’re going to make this happen for the kids,” Shenefield expressed.
Shenefield, dressed in a blue Cowboys-themed Santa suit (with a hole cut in the back to reveal his tattoo), delivered hundreds of teddy bears to the children’s hospital Saturday. Though they were not able to get close to the patients due to health protocols, SantaTat (as he called himself in one of his Facebook posts) and his elves made the occasion memorable for the children, nonetheless.
“My dream is here finally,” he said in a Facebook post the morning of the event. After all was said and done, the drive collected and delivered a total of 573 bears that had been donated over the course of four weeks.