Foster A Teddy Bear - A Furry World Tour

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Some of you have been here long enough to remember EVIL BITCH. The teddy bear left after a bad break up between plt and his girlfriend. His great idea was to send this teddy bear around the world. Unfortunately, it never got off the ground. I believe it was partly because of his living situation (having to move) and partly because he did not expect the huge interest.

Well I don’t like to let a good idea go to waste.

I propose we try this again. And I promise I will not let this one fade away to the same fait as the last.

For those who do not know what I’m talking about, I am going to ask for volunteers anywhere and everywhere in the world to foster a teddy bear. This bear will travel from person to person, place to place, until it has made it to everyone on the list and back to me. There will be a journal traveling with the bear, and I encourage everyone to add an entry and take lots and lots of pictures - preferable by landmarks and points of interest in your area. You are encouraged to throw a party and/or huge Dopefest when the bear comes to visit.

What I would like before begining:

A Name for the Bear. I am open for suggestions. There might be a crude democratic style vote on the final name, but I’ll have final say.

A purpose. I would much rather have a purpose for this tour. Maybe freedom, or peace, or something other than “Lets all get together and party with this teddy bear and getting freakin drunk” (though that’s not a bad idea either). Maybe everyone could do a good dead with the bear and give him credit. Like even something as simple as helping an old lady across the street… just as long as it was something that you normally would not have done…

Suggestions for his “look”. I will be making this Bear from scratch at one of those Bear Factory places. I am thinking he should be of average size… maybe 12-18 inches or so. Suggestions for his outfit, or volunteers to make him something to wear…

I would also like someone to volunteer to handle a website to host pictures and entries for the bear. I was thinking a blog or something where whomever happened to have the bear could write about the experience. Though I would also like entries hand written in the journal that travels with the Bear.

The Rules:

You must be a Registered Paying Member. Not to be elitist or anything, but hell, if you can’t afford 5 dollars for SDMB, how can you afford to possibly mail a teddy bear to another country… Also, if this generates some more members for the SDMB, then that’s a good thing.

To Participate, send an email to WorldTourTeddy@hotmail.com
The subject line should have your country in it. If in the US, put your City, and State in the Subject line.

The first person to email me from every area (ill decide how it needs to be divided - most likely by large cities in the US and popular locations overseas) will be asked to be a regional coordinator. Possible hosting or throwing a dopefest for all those in the area who want to host the Bear. Those who can’t make that party are more than welcome to take the bear on their own outting. This will be up to the Regional Coordinator (RC). Those alone in their area will have the Bear all to themselves.

Keep in mind that you might be required to mail this Bear package overseas. If you are the unfortunate person to have to send him across an ocean, Im sure dopers will help you out… but it will be your responsibility. So be prepared for that.

When to Register for the Tour? Now. I will accept emails for participation until May 31, 2004 (Memorial Day). After that time I will begin organizing the tour.

Launch Date:
June 22, 2004
I believe this is an equinox or something. Doesn’t matter, if it’s not significant I dont care. It should give enough time to coordinate…

At this time I will mail the Bear and the Journal along with the Tour list to the first person on the list. After that person receives him, and has a fun filled week or couple days or whatever, he/she then mails him to the next person on the list. Dont forget to make an entry in the journal, take lots of pictures and do a good deed. If people would like to add little things for the Bear, I think it would be nice, but the package might get a little bulky. I will have an address to mail these things to. And when it is all finished, I will put all the things together and take lots of pictures of the Bear with mementos from all the places he has been…

Ok… that’s it for now. Please post if you have suggestions, would like to help out, or if you are sending an email.

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Oh BTW:

The Body of your email should have

Doper Name
Real Name
Address to include city, county, state, country, postal code…
Contact Phone Number

I swear I wont spam you… People know where I live.

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I like this! How about the name Miles as in “Miles to go before I sleep.” Alternately, if you’re into kilometers, you could go with Klick but that doesn’t sound as good to me.

I think that if he had a vest, participants could get him one of those little lapel pins to commemorate each of his stops. Or something like that.

It’ll be fun to see how this goes.

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I like that vest idea. And everyone could mention in the journal the significance of the pin. I already know the pin Id put on him to start…

Im also thinking he will have a SDMB tab on a hat, like the one I made for Hugh Jass

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I’m in. I’ll send an email with all the pertinent info later this evening.

After the Evil Bitch didn’t work out I tried a teddy bear tour. I sent the bear on it’s first leg of the journey, to a poster in Canada who had responded. That’s the last I ever heard of it. She was called Tina Bear.

I like the suggestion of “Miles” as a name for the teddy.

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I will be going overseas next year - if this is still going at that time, I could take the bear over to one of our G’Dope members if any of them are interested. :slight_smile:

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Sounds fun - I just shipped the lovely Ms FairyChatMoose home from her little expedition to my home :slight_smile:

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Good luck in this, but to be fair, the last time this was tried, it fell somewhat short of a sterling success.

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Holy Christ! I didn’t know about the CtB attempt. Just the original EB. Why has it been so impossible to pull one of these things off? The logistics are not all that complicated. I can understand if people are a little less interested because of the poor results in the past.

But I’m all for it if you guys are.

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I’d do it, I think. I’ll get with you at FloriDope on the 24th.

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So I guess the whole community has pretty much given up on even trying?

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Two tries doesn’t make something impossible. Hell, I never got my Secret Santa gift last Christmas, but that doesn’t mean I wont try again next year…

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I didn’t know about CtB, so that’s three tries.

But I’m willing to make a fourth try. Did you get my email Bear_Nenno?

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I sent my email - did that arrive? Or am I chopped liver :wink:

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I got tanookie’s and Baker’s emails, yes. Though one of them did not send it to WorldTourTeddy@hotmail.com :wink:

You are definitely not chopped liver tanookie. But two people does not a world tour make. I would love to pull this off. But, sigh, if others do not share the interest, what can ya do.

Hell… there is still a lot of time until May 31. Maybe people are going to take their time signing up?

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Email sent.

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Please don’t tell me Jodi did not receive CtB. I sent him back before I went totally offline. :mad:

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So far I have two countries represented. That’s a good start. There’s still pleanty of time to sign up people.

Also, if you gave a “Dawsonville, GA” address, I am not sure who you are. Resend an email with your Doper name. Thanks.

To all those who have registered. Thank you!! We will make it work this time. I swear. (Provided we have enough willing participants)

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Im totally in- I just sent Bear Nenno my info.! This is a great idea. I live in sunny California- I could take the bear to the beach!! :cool:

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I am so in with this.

We are heading to Germany in Mid August. I would be more than happy to take the bear on a family vacation.
I use to work for a travel agency and we would have school kids (whose parents booked through us) to hook up a traveling stuffed bear to go somewhere in the world and cards and pictures would be sent back to the class in the bears backpack.

Those bears would be given to presidents of companies ( Fortune 500-100 companies ) and go to the neatest, most coolest places. The pictures they took
( in airplane cockpits,first class seating, surfing in hawaii, laying in a hammock on a beach) were just so cool.

The Ujest family is more than up for this.