Team Teddy Rescue Bear becomes Bulldog Building

There are some days that I walk into our production department, listen to the things that they have done to support our facilitators and our clients and walk out in awe of their talent, dedication and resourcefulness. This blog is about one of those times.

Our Team Teddy Rescue Bear program is one of my favorites. The first time we did it, the beneficiaries were children with Down’s Syndrome, and when they arrived to receive the bears, everyone in the room cried tears of joy. I remember telling the facilitator that he had the only job in the world that if everyone cried, he succeeded. As in most TeamBonding programs, this program was adapted to donate the bears to firefighters, emergency service personnel and hospitals as a way to give comfort to a child in need. A great program for a great cause.

So we had a version of the Teddy Bear program all set and ready to go for a large college who was a repeat client. This program, as many of our programs are, was customized to the client and instead of the bears, we agreed to use Bulldogs so that the charitable donation could better reflect the college. Not just any bulldog, these stuffed animals had to look like their team mascot. Great idea until our supplier ran out of bulldogs and let us know the day they were to be shipped because of a larger Southern college, you know the one I’m talking about, had ordered all of them and more for their graduation.

Enter production manager Kristin Gately, who called our suppliers’ supplier, searched the internet – virtually pounding the pavement, called found a new supplier and had 125 new, ready to be built bulldogs delivered on time for the event. They were even better than the original one approved by the client! Turns out, miracles happen in production every day, I just don’t’ always see it ;)