CHARITY BEANIES
Over the years there have been a number of Beanies released by Ty Inc. to aid various charities. The way that this works is that a percentage of the sales of that particular Beanie are donated to a given Charity.
The first Charity Beanie was released way back in 1997 - Princess the Bear. This purple bear with a white rose embroidered on her chest was released in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales and all profits were donated to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. By December 1998 Ty Inc. had donated £5.8 million with more expected before the Beanie's eventual retirement in 1999.
The next Charity Beanie was Ariel the Bear. Ariel was released to raise money for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. This Charity was inspired by the family of actor/director Paul Glaser, his wife Elizabeth contracted HIV from a blood transfusion whilst giving birth to their daughter Ariel. Ariel also contracted the virus from her mother's breast milk and Elizabeth and Paul's son Jake also contracted the virus whilst in his mother's womb. You can visit the foundation's web site here. The embroidered logo on Ariel's chest is the logo of the Charity which was designed by Ariel Glaser. Ariel the Bear raised $3.4 million for the charity. This was not the first time that Ty Inc. had donated money to the foundation. In 1999 the money raised by the Global Poll (in excess of $1 million) was also donated to the Charity.
In December 2000 the New York Four Seasons exclusive Issy the Bear was introduced. To read all about Issy click here. Sales from Hotel version of Issy were to aid the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan - the retail version was to aid the Terry Fox Foundation for Cancer Research.
The tragic events of September 11th 2001 and the terrorist attacks on the US brought a new set of charity beanies. The first was a bear called "America" later to be known as "Blue America" as further bears with the same name were released in different colours. 100% of the profits from this Beanie were to be given to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. The two following versions of America (one red, one white) were only available to buy online and the profits from these were to be given tot he local Red Cross fund of the buyer (presumably determined by the delivery address?). Next came the dogs Courage and Rescue (Courage is the German Shepard, Rescue is the Dalmatian). This pair were to raise money for The New York Police & Fire Widows' & Children's Benefit Fund - many lives were lost from the NYPD and FDNY aiding victims of the WTC attacks. Courage and Rescue were initially available online, but then also at retail - and even with Japanese versions of their tags (the same was also true of Blue America)! After initial shippings the flags on Courage and Rescue swapped sides!
The next charity Beanie was Hero (sometimes known as USO Hero to distinguish from the bear of the same name released two years previously). There are five versions of Hero - three in green camouflage with the US flag - one on the chest and two versions on the arm - the flag was reversed after initial release as it was flying the wrong way round! There was also one in brown camouflage with the UK flag and one in light green camouflage with the Australian flag. The Australian version was only available at the Ty Store. 100% of profits from these Beanies were donated to the USO (a non-profit organisation providing morale, welfare and support to uniformed personnel).
Ronnie the bear is named for the 40th President of the United States, Ronal Reagan (the first, but not the last Beanie to be named for a former President). 100% of Ty's profits from the original sale of Ronnie is being donated to the Navy League of the United States Santa Barbara Council - to be used in fitting out the Naval Carrier Ronal Reagan. Ronnie is dressed in a sailors hat and collar.
Cure and Aware are both pink bears. Each wears a pink ribbon where most Beanies wear an emblem. Cure was released in October 2003 and Aware in October 2004. October is national Breast Cancer awareness month in the US. 100% of Ty's profit from the sale of Cure were donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation - the inside of the tag carried the Charity's logo. Aware was less specific merely stating "a portion of the profits from the original sale of this Beanie Baby will aid the fight against breast cancer". Cure was available for a second time shortly before retirement in October 2005. In 2006 another two Beanies were released to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness. One of these was Awareness, another pink bear wearing the pink ribbon and the other was SpongeBob Pinkpants, a SpongeBob Beanie in pink!
ChariTee was introduced to help raise money for the PGA Tour Charities. A portion of the proceeds from the original sale of the bear were to be donated to the PGA Tour Charities to help raise $1 billion for charity! Charity has the PGA tour logo on his chest, and looks every inch the golfer in his little tartan cap!
Little Star was introduced in September 2005 - a portion of the profits going to Little Star Inc. a children's charity. Little Star is a white bear with the Little Star charity logo on his chest.
The last mention of charity Beanies is the nine Beanies
sold at the Ty Store to raise money for the WWF. Starting in July of 2004 a new
initiative of co-branded Beanie Babies was introduced between Ty and the World
Wildlife Fund, with Ty donating 6% of sales to the WWF.
Introduced so far have been Bahati,
Caipora,
Chitraka,
Icepack,
Li Mei,
Nami,
Pungo,
Shiloh,
Stony and
Sundar.