How Build-A-Bear Donated 20,000 Teddy Bears to Children’s Hospitals Across America
Summary
In October 2017, Build-A-Bear Workshop celebrated its 20th anniversary by donating 20,000 teddy bears to 24 children's hospitals across the country. I was the project manager behind it. As Cause Marketing Specialist on the Build-A-Bear Foundation team, I coordinated the full activation alongside United Way and UPS — logistics, local store team support, on-site bear-building events, local media outreach, and everything in between. The program wrapped on October 26 with CEO Sharon Price John personally delivering bears to NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital in New York City, the day before Build-A-Bear's 20th birthday.
Business Challenge
Build-A-Bear's 20th anniversary was a natural moment to do something big. The brand had always prioritized giving back, but this was a chance to go beyond a standard donation. The real challenge was making it feel personal and not just like a shipment. Getting 20,000 individually packaged bears, each with a handwritten message from Build-A-Bear, United Way, and UPS, to 24 different hospitals across the country, while coordinating on-site events at each location and keeping 20-plus local store teams aligned, was a serious operational lift for a small team.
Objectives
Primary objective: Deliver 20,000 bears to 24 children's hospitals in a way that felt warm and celebratory, not like a corporate PR moment.
Key goals:
Coordinate logistics across 20+ store teams and two major national partners
Execute on-site bear-building events at each hospital
Support local media coverage in each market
Keep brand and messaging consistent across every location
Strategy
The whole idea was that the donation should feel like an experience. We weren't just dropping off boxes. We were bringing store teams into hospitals to host bear-building moments for kids who couldn't come to us. That meant every location needed its own run of show, its own asset package, its own media contact, and someone keeping an eye on all of it at once. That someone was me.
Nearly 100 volunteers were activated through United Way and HandsOn Network near each hospital. UPS handled shipping from Build-A-Bear's Bearhouse in Groveport, Ohio. My job was to make sure every piece connected so that when a team showed up at a children's hospital in Denver or Atlanta, they knew exactly what to do and felt supported doing it.
Execution
I managed the end-to-end donation logistics for all 20,000 bears across 24 hospitals, working with United Way and UPS on packaging, delivery timing, and on-site setup. I supported more than 20 local Build-A-Bear store teams with run of shows, asset packages, and talking points, and coordinated local media outreach in each market so news teams had what they needed to cover the story. Coverage ran across the country.
On site at each hospital, teams hosted bear-building experiences for patients and families, bringing a version of the Build-A-Bear Workshop directly to kids in treatment. Getting 24 of these running simultaneously across different cities, with different teams, took a lot of advance planning and a lot of staying on top of details.
The program ended with CEO Sharon Price John delivering bears personally to NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital in New York City on October 26, the day before the 20th birthday.
Results
20,000 Bears donated across the United States
24 Children's hospitals reached coast to coast
100 Volunteers coordinated through United Way and HandsOn Network
20+ Local store teams supported
Key Learnings
This was one of my first times managing something at this scale, and it taught me that the real work in a multi-market activation happens way before anyone shows up on site. When local teams are walking into a children's hospital, they shouldn't have to wonder what to do next. That prep work is invisible when it goes right, and very visible when it doesn't. I got pretty good at the prep work.
