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The story below was originally written in the summer of 1997. It has been revised a few times since then and a portion was printed in the January 1999 issue of "Mary Beth's Bean Bag World" magazine. A special thanks to Jackie, Claudia and MaryBeth , some of my beaniepals at MBBBW! I think everyone who collects Beanie Babies has a story, each special in their own way. How did I get hooked on Beanies? My story begins with the Beanie Brigade! I have a good friend, Shirley, who has been on chemotherapy for cancer since Christmas 1995. Shirley and I have known each other since 1987 while working at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In late September 1996, Shirley's cancer counts went up and she was about to start some stronger medicine. In an effort to cheer her up (and myself), I walked into a local Hallmark store to buy a card. After some basic browsing, my eye was drawn to a wall of stuffed animals not far from the register. Shirley's favorite color is green and this bright green frog just seemed to jump out at me. These toys were soft and funny looking! What a PERFECT get-well gift! After scooping up Legs the frog, I couldn't stop at just one. I also got Ally the alligator, Mystic the unicorn and Cubbie the bear, each for different reasons. It was October 1st, 1996 and I had no idea how Beanies were going to change my life! The four Beanies were boxed and shipped the next day and I soon received a very nice phone call from Shirley thanking me for the package I had sent. She was especially fond of the Beanie Babies I had included. Well that's all it took. Of course, I HAD to get her more Beanies! I went back to my local Hallmark store and picked up eight more Beanies. I could now send Shirley four more Beanies for two more weeks. But I didn't stop there. The very next day I was back for 16 more Beanies. I was buying Beanies exponentially! It was NOT a good sign. Within one week, I had bought one each of every Beanie animal that my local store had to offer. With all of these Beanies in hand, I decided I would send Shirley four different Beanies a week and ask for donations to help recover the cost of my Beanie madness. Thus started the Beanie Brigade. With the power of email, I solicited friends and co-workers to "buy a Beanie for Shirley". Donations were $5 per Beanie and I would cover taxes and shipping. Each donator was allowed to pick the Beanie they would like to sponsor and they could also include a card or note when their Beanie was mailed. Well the Beanie Brigade took off like a rocket! (pun intended!) Within two weeks, I had over 60 people sponsor 80 Beanies, including all of the 1996 retirees. Shirley had made a lot of friends at the space center and now her friends had an opportunity to express their support through the power of Beanies. It was a win-win situation for everyone! How did sponsors select their Shirley Beanie? This turned out to be a great deal of fun! Many choose family pets. One woman sponsored Speedy the turtle because she collects turtles for her son. Another chose Tank the armadillo because her husband had had a run in with such an animal at work. A manager selected Sting the stingray because he had a teacher in college who had called him Sting. A friend picked Bongo the monkey because Curious George was her favorite book that her grandmother had read to her as a child. The stories go on and on. Beanie magic was in full force and everyone seemed to be enjoying the ride. Sometime during that October 1996, I discovered the Ty web site, www.ty.com. This site had pictures of all the Beanies and I soon realized that there were far more Beanies than I had originally anticipated. This is also where I first learned that there was such a thing as a "retired" Beanie. During the next month, I bought all of the 1996 retired Beanies using the Ty Guestbook. At the time, I thought they were pretty expensive! But this was for a friend and as most of my friends have learned, I have a low capacity for moderation. While I was collecting Beanies, Shirley was also having Beanie adventures. After a few weeks of receiving boxes every Monday, the folks at the friendly neighborhood post office started getting curious. What was in those boxes she was getting? So one week Shirley opened the box at the counter and showed off her four new Beanie Babies. Well the postal workers were just amazed! They had never seen a Beanie Baby before! Opening her Beanie box at the post office quickly became a mandatory weekly ritual! It took me six weeks to acquire Shirley's first 80 Beanies and 20 weeks to deliver them. After completing her initial collection, I was totally bitten by the Beanie bug. I had a very serious case of Beanieitis. I HAD to have my own collection! And I wanted those retired Beanies! I started calling every gift store, florist and toy store in my area. Yes I called them all! I then had a list of local stores I could visit in hopes of finding an elusive retired Beanie. I lucked out on the first store I went to. A small florist shop just down the street from me had Kiwi the toucan, Bubbles the fish and Coral the fish. These were not rare or retired Beanies at the time, but they were old! Their tags were different than the ones I had bought for Shirley. I had found some "old tag Beanies" and I was on my way! I continued to scour my county for retired Beanies, but I found only more old tags. However, I soon found out that old tag Beanies were very tradable on the Internet. Everyone wanted those old tag Kiwis, Bubbles and Corals I had found! So I began trading Beanies. By the end of December 1996, I had acquired almost three complete Beanie collections. I traded old tag Beanies for other old tag Beanies and I ended up with a complete set of old tags. I also traded some old tag Tabasco the bulls for Rex the dinosaur. This was before Beanie mania had really hit the secondary markets and Beanie prices were fairly reasonable. Sometime after Christmas 96, I counted up what I had spent on Beanies and I was shocked! I had spent a small fortune on these toys! What had come over me? In early 1997, I was able to buy Shirley those hard-to-find 1995 retired Beanies. I also found some more Beanie Brigade sponsors for Shirley's collection. Over a six-month period, Shirley received an astonishing total of 104 Beanies. Each Brigade Beanie has the name of the sponsor on the back of the heart tag. I cannot begin to describe the joy that these toys have brought both Shirley and myself! And with each new Beanie release, her collection continues to grow! Here is a picture of the original 104 Beanie Brigade collection from April 1997.
At the end of April 1997, the Beanie Brigade took part in our local American Cancer Society's "Relay for Life" fundraising event. The Brigade was part of a team called "Friends of Shirley". During the 18-hour event, the Brigade sold over 150 Beanies and raffled off a set of the January 1997 retirees raising over $1700 for our local ACS chapter. In addition, the "Friends of Shirley" won the 1997 "Team Spirit" award for our "Beanie Booth". Shirley, herself, picked up the award! The Beanie Brigade continues to support the American Cancer Society. In March 1998, the Brigade raised over $1500 selling and raffling Beanies at our ACS Relay for Life fundraising event. In 1999, the Beanie Booth raised $2000 and in 2000 the booth raised over $1200. In 2000, the "Friends of Shirley" team raised over $6000 to support the American Cancer Society. Please visit THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY's homepage for more information on your local RELAY FOR LIFE!" Author's Note:
10/17/2000 |
