Submitted by Laura Bryant, New Mexico

Idea posted February 22, 2005

I've had some success with the Beary Thoughtful bears.

http://www.bearythoughtful.com

Dawn, one of the owners, has been just wonderful to work with! The company has a book of (Ty Beanie Baby-sized) bears that students can order. Each of the bears have various stitching on it to show the student's interests or hobbies.

Rather than doing the easy thing and going with the ready-made bears, I had bears custom made with our high school logo and school colors. It cost $5-6 each to have the bears made, and we sold them for $10. I didn't receive them from the company until the 1st week in December, then sold MOST of them before school was out for Christmas.