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| About Operation Give-A-Bear | |
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"Operation Give A Bear" began in October of 2005, when Robyn Stevens and I were discussing the kids from "Phoenix Family Housing" (PFH). PFH, a low income housing community, provides social services to at risk individuals and families. Check out PFH @ www.phoenixfamily.org. While PFH provides a safe haven, most are single parent families and have very little. Many of these children don't even have beds to sleep in, let alone able to celebrate the holidays. We explored different ways we could make the holidays brighter for these kids. My wife, Patti works for "Build A Bear Workshop" and was able to offer discounts on Bears. But, what were we going to do with that? My daughter, Taylor came up with a brilliant plan and named it to boot: "Operation Give A Bear". Robyn and I decided to go to our network of business associates, friends and family to raise money to give the PFH children their own Holiday Bear! With Taylor leading the way (she even missed school on a few occasions!), we went to numerous networking functions. It didn't take much; people loved the idea of helping these kids! Critical to the success of the project was Dave Rizer and "The Marty Connection" and "Prospectors Club the Business Building Network". That first year, we raised $3,217 ~ allowing us to purchase 536 Bears for the 2005 Holidays! In addition to the discount "Build A Bear Workshop" generously donated Cub Condos and many stocking stuffer items to add to each of the Bears, making 536 wonderful gifts! Raising the money was only half the challenge; there was still Bear Assembly and Bear Delivery. Paul Byers donated his shop for Bear Assembly where Girl Scout Troop #3160, Boy Scout Troop #182, the Bears Volleyball Team, along with many other volunteers, assembled the Bears and condos. After assembly was completed Designers Delivery, Village Floral, and Coach's Bar & Grill delivered the Bears. The hand-made thank you cards and drawings from these kids melted our hearts ~ "Operation Build A Bear" was a success! All of us were committed to do even more in 2006. We raised $8,313 and donated 1,385 Bears. Assembly was moved to a larger facility, York Contractors warehouse. The same people (and many more!) showed up for Bear Assembly. Phoenix Family Housing picked up and delivered the majority of the Bears this year. But we didn't think that was enough and out came Santa and his elves! We delivered 245 of the Bears. The Video says it all; you can see the joy on these kids faces. It was quite an experience, probably as much for the volunteers as the children. In 2007 Operation Give-A-Bear doubled our fund raising efforts which allowed us to give more than ever before. We raised $ 16,650 and donated 3,000 Bears, in addition 87 other stuffed animals and dolls, which were donated by a wonderful woman who heard about us and wanted to help. We had over 100 volunteers help at Assembly day, and two of our volunteers braved an ice storm and drove to Fort Riley to get Bears to kids of The Army’s Black Lion Division in time for their holiday party. In addition to all of our sponsors financial donations, Bitterman’s Candy donated candies for the kids, Behind the Ear donated soap for the kids, Bledsoes Olathe donated tables for the work stations and Black Dog Coffee donated Coffee and Hot Chocolate for the Volunteers. |
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We had Eight Santa’s helpers and their Elves deliver Bears to 23 sights,
including; Ft. Leonard Wood, Breakpoint Charities, Christmas with Kimble Anders,
St. Louis, Topeka, Columbia and The Salvation Army Housing in Olathe. In 2007 we also chose to take bears to area Senior facilities. The Seniors were every bit as excited to receive the Bears as the children. There is more video from the 2007 fun, and you will notice we have hooked more volunteers into helping annually. Not only are we performing a great task for some wonderful people, we are all having a fantastic time doing it. |
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So what's next? Our 2008 Goal is 3,500 Bears, which translates to $24,000. So how do we get there? First we hold a Benefit for Operation Give-A-Bear Thursday November 6th at 6 PM @ Sterling Hall 2420 Merriam lane (just off I-35 & Lamar).
Bear Assembly is Saturday December 6th @ 9 am Bear Delivery is Wednesday December 17th @ 2 pm We need your help, please contact us, so you can help us make every Holiday a great one for as many children and seniors as possible. Sincerely, Kevin York kevin@yorkcontractors.com Cell - 913-927-0536 Robyn Stevens robyn.stevens@hotmail.com |
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