Union-Bulletin

ALFRED DIAZ

Paige Prudente, 5, takes a bite of a sandwich.

ALFRED DIAZ

Paige continues her meal by sipping a cup of tea she received for the mouse teapot in the foreground.

ALFRED DIAZ

Regina Nelson bites the left ear off a pink teddy bear candy. The Teddy Bear Tea is a fundraiser by the Walla Walla-Columbia County Retired School Employees Association, and supports its college scholarship program for future educators. Last year the event raised more than $2,000 and funded two scholarships.

ALFRED DIAZ

Looking like the first two lines of the poem 'Warning,” which begins 'When I am an old woman I shall wear purple with a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me,” Dorothy Lindgeren (left) and Phyllis Tarver skipped spending their 'pension on brandy” — part of the third line of Jenny's Joseph's infamous poem on growing old — and instead sipped tea.

ALFRED DIAZ

A puggish faced teddy bear lazily reclined on a display table, while in the background participants sipped tea and ate treats at the Fifth Annual Teddy Bear Tea on Saturday. Event coordinators expected record numbers for this year's tea. The event usually draws about 250 people.