Tag: Build-A-Bear Workshop

Build-A-Bear and St. Jude Kick Off Cause for Celebration

by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

Mondays are usually unbearable for me, but not today. Today, in fact, will involve…well, a few bears.  We’ll be at the Build-A-Bear flagship store in NYC helping Build-A-Bear Workshop and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital kick off their new partnership, Cause for Celebration.

In an effort to make even more children happy, Cause for Celebration is a national  fundraising partnership between Build-A-Bear Workshop and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Starting today, party hosts will have a Cause for Celebration: those who schedule a party at any Build-A-Bear Workshop store have the option of adding an additional $10 dollar donation to their party. Their entire ten dollar donation will be directed to St. Jude to support research and treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The charitable aspect of the party goes both ways: In honor of each Guest donation to the hospital to help with research and treatment, Build-A-Bear Workshop will give a St. Jude patient a gift card to any Build-A-Bear Workshop.

To celebrate the launch of Cause for Celebration in NYC, Marlo Thomas, the national spokesperson for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Maxine Clark, Founder and Chief Executive Bear of Build-A-Bear Workshop will be onhand to meet fellow partygoers.

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Even if you’re not hosting a party, during the month of March, you can still make a donation to St. Jude’s during the check-out process at any store or at buildabear.com

In line with the launch of the Cause for Celebration program, Build-A-Bear Workshop is giving their Facebook fans with the opportunity to win a “Cause for Celebration” party valued at $300 for themselves and friends. Build-A-Bear Workshop will award one party each month from March through August. All participants in this contest will be entered to win the grand prize, a Build-A-Party celebration valued at $500 and plus a $500 contribution to St. Jude made in their name. Check out their Facebook page for more details.

Photo credit: Marlothomas.com

Peace, Love and (Build-A-Bear) Hugs

by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

This past weekend, the kid and I found ourselves on Fifth Avenue getting cozy with a bunch of bears. That’s right, bears!

The kid and I attended the “Let’s Talk About Love” Meet and Greet with Jamia Nash at the biggest Build-a-Bear Workshop in the world, which is right on Fifth Avenue in NYC. Like I knew it would, the mere sight of the Build-A-Bear storefront elicited so much excitement from my almost-2 year old. Before we even entered the store, he was signing, more, more, more!

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At the event, we briefly met with other NYC/NJ mom bloggers, and said hello to the guest of honor, Jamia Nash. If you’re a huge Young and the Restless fan like me, you might know Jamia as Ana, Tyra’s daughter. If your family is a Jack’s Big Music Show fan, you might know Jamia as the spunky songstress who sang the “Bongo Bird song” when she was about eight years old. It was a pleasure to meet the super sweet Jamia, who was so nice to the kid, even though he really doesn’t “get it” yet. Extremely articulate and well-spoken, Jamia told me a little bit about her experience in singing the Bongo Bird song. If you’d like to hear Jamia’s “Let’s Talk About Love” song, it’s available to download on the site.

Jack with Jamia Nash

Jamia a seasoned performer at only 12 years old, fittingly, was tapped to be a part of Build-A-Bear Workshop’s Love. Hugs. Peace Movement, which encourages kids to give back and be kind. At times like this, we can use all the love, hugs and peace we can get!

In line with the Love. Hugs. Peace, Build-A-Bear Workshop has introduced the Peace & Hugs Bear, which is intended to represent all three elements of the Movement. Like other Build-A-Bear animals, the fuzzy blue bear with peace signs can be stuffed and personalized. There’s even Love. Hugs. Peace bear-sized tees and rhinestone tanks available, which Build-A-Bear Workshop is donating $.25 to Save the Children from the sales.

Peace & Hugs Bear

Build-A-Bear kindly gave us some giftcards to create our own bear. The kid absolutely went nuts in the lower level of this gigantic Build-A-Bear Workshop. The lower level, which has several areas for exclusive parties, in addition to a few bear-stuffing stations, was like heaven for my adventurous toddler. And because the kid is obsessed with stuffed animals and baseball (specifically the NY Mets), naturally, we created a classic bear with a Mets uniform! Coincidentally, Saturday was Build-A-Bear Day at Citifield, the Mets’ new stadium, where Jamia also performed the Star Spangled Banner to kick the game off.

Jack with Buddy

In the end, though frazzled by chasing a very curious toddler around, I enjoyed the bear-making process just as much! From choosing the bear, chasing the kid, to picking his outfit, chasing the kid again, to having him stuffed, to watching the kid pick his heart and finally creating his birth certificate, our experience at the NYC Build-A-Bear Workshop though hectic, was so much fun. I can certainly see why tourists flock to the Fifth Avenue location.

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Our bear, lovingly named Buddy, is the kid’s brand new BFF, many thanks to our awesome friends at Build-A-Bear Workshop. And this is just how awesome they are: just in time for theirAugust promotion, Build-A-Bear Workshop generously gave us a $25 giftcard for one lucky NKT reader!

Win it Describe Build-A-Bear’s newest bear and please comment below.

For extra entries, share this post and/or tell me one (or all) of the songs (mentioned above) that Jamia is singing, or has sung.

So the winner can take advantage of Build-A-Bear’s $29.99 August promotion, this giveaway will end August 13!  Good luck!