Carrie May-Borich and Phillip Salamone landed the holiday touchdown a bears love story cast opportunity after winning two special featured walk-on roles tied to Bears Care and Hallmark. The pair spent July 17 at Halas Hall, where they filmed a beginning portion of the gala scene built into Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story.
Halas Hall on July 17
May-Borich and Salamone arrived around noon, were taken to trailers for hair and makeup, and then moved into the scene that mimics the Bears Care Gala. They also had plus-ones with them: May-Borich brought Sheri Pickens, while Salamone brought his father, Phil.
Samantha DiPippo said the film was designed to show the impact Bears Care has made all over Chicagoland, and that the end result includes a scene at the Bears Care Gala with walk-on roles for the auction winners. That makes the auction more than a publicity add-on; it folded the charity directly into the movie’s structure, with the real event and the fictional scene running side by side.
Bears Care and Hallmark
Hallmark partnered with Bears Care during the making of Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story, and the two organizations auctioned off two special featured walk-on roles. Marge Hamm said the partnership raised significant dollars for the charity, which will make a huge impact serving the community this holiday season, and she said, “It has been a wonderful experience to work with everyone from Hallmark these past few months.”
Phillip Salamone said, “Spending the day with my dad at Halas Hall filming the Hallmark movie was truly a blessing,” and added that meeting Coach Johnson made the day “a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I’ll never forget.” May-Borich said, “I had no idea what to expect,” then called the day “a really good surprise.”
The larger payoff for Bears Care is still the unanswered one: how much the two-role auction brought in. The film gives the charity a visible storyline, but the cash total will determine how big that holiday-season win really was.
