During my weekly surf of the Internet, I always run across
sites which I have not viewed before.
Recently I visited a site called "Funky Mommy." I was
amused with the name, intrigued with the content, and asked if
I could interview the webmaster.
My reply was from Anne the webmaster and Funky Mommy herself!
http://www.funkymommy.com
My interview quickly revealed that Anne was a caring, compassionate
person.
Anne is the mother of two toddlers and only works on her site
when the little ones are resting. "I'm often online in the
middle of the night catching up when everyone else is sleeping."
Anne dedicates approximately two to four hours a day updating
her site to keep it fresh and exciting. Anne said she wanted to
create a safe place for children and adults to buy, sell and trade
Beanies safely.
Anne was surprised at how quickly her site grew and even purchased
her own domain. "Within six months I had over 100,000 visitors
and I was amazed. The boards grew substantially and included several
areas of interest to both Disney and Ty beanie collectors. With
the help of many volunteers, we added news, rumors, links, site
reviews, chat boards, kids pages, celebrations, beanie care, and
more! I thought it would be a great idea to include some form
of fundraising, or bean bag-raising event, that could take advantage
of our high status, while helping out children in need! Thus evolved
"Project Beanie."
Anne is a generous person and has helped sponsor many charities.
I asked Anne to disclose information on her charities.
"Our first project was for Children's Hospital, Oakland,
CA. It was a great start to a very successful Project Beanie.
We had a grand total of 62 beanies that were donated to the children.
These children suffer from cystic fibrosis, cancer, asthma, as
well as many other ailments. We are amazed at all the support
we have gotten since the beginning of Project Beanie. Amber writes,
"I cannot explain the joy when I opened each box to see what
a caring and giving person sent, and I know that will make one
more child happy." Project Beanie is coordinated by volunteer
Amber Jewison of Suison , Ca.
For our second project, we chose Hospice! Many people have had
experiences with Hospice, and we thought this would be an excellent
cause to choose. The response to this project was astounding with
over 160 beanies donated to Hospice Camp for bereaved children!
Debra Daube of htttp://www.beanibags.com wrapped and ribboned
the 160+ beanies for presentation to the children of the camp
program. For our third project, we chose the Humane Society of
Loudoun County. They have been serving Loudoun Co., VA since 1964.
Project Beanie, with all the donations they received will raise
over $1,000.00 when the beanies are sold!! The grand total for
this project came to 107 including Disney, Ty & Planet Plush.
Again, beanibags.com donated a case of beanibags to store and
sell the beanies in!
Our current project is Shriners Hospital. This is a national organization with 22 hospitals over the US and one in Mexico and one in Canada. They care for anyone under18 free of charge! If you would like to donate to our current project, donations may be sent to:
Project Beanie
Attn.: Amber
1076 Horizon Dr. #7
Fairfield, CA 94533
Please remember to include the following with your donation: your email address if you have one, name, and full address. This way we can confirm your donation has arrived and a letter will be sent out to you following the project for tax purposes! Yes, all donations are tax-deductible, and Project Beanie happily accepts bean bags in ANY condition, tags or no tags! Your beanie can make a child happy even without the tag!
I asked Anne to disclose the amount of email she receives in a
24-hour period. " I currently get 50-100 emails a day. I
try to answer them all, but when it gets near 100, it gets tough!"
Anne was also asked the following question, which she answered
in detail: If you could think of a way to make Beanies last forever,
what would it be?
"I believe that the joy of beanies is children and collectors
enjoying them. Beanies can live forever in your heart, and with
the right care, in your home too! I would wipe out the greed factor,
scalping, and hoarding done by so many, and give the beanies to
the people who really want to enjoy them!
One of my board members, "Grandma Joyce", sent my 22-month
old daughter a Pinky Beanie Buddy this week, and Hailley has been
dragging it around two days! Another board member, Sheryl Wilson,
sent me a Signature bear because she knew I had such a hard time
finding the new releases, with two toddlers in a double stroller!
These ladies sent these Beanies purely from the heart, because
they knew the joy we would feel having them! This is what beanie
collecting should be all about! Enjoying your collection, and
sharing the joy of a great find! It is a thrill to track beanies
down, but the people who are generous to others, just for the
enjoyment of bringing joy to others are truly the people who will
keep beanies around forever!"
Anne and I briefly discussed Ty's other product lines and it was
revealed that she did not collect any line except for Beanie Babies.
Anne claimed she had her entire collection stolen from her home
and since then has decided to only collect the bears.
I asked Anne which item on her site was visited most often.
"The most-visited spot is our regulated trading boards. On
our trading boards, members can trade all brands of bean bag plush
including Ty, Disney, Puffkins, and others. Kelly Brown of Beaniefun
generously donated our boards http://www.beaniefun.com. All members
are screened prior to being admitted, and ads are carefully monitored
by our "Funky Spies" to ensure fair pricing, fair postage
pricing, and satisfactorily-completed transactions. Each member
can place 10 ads a month, and we do not charge a per-ad, monthly,
or annual fee like many boards do. We have developed a large community
of traders, and many swear they would never do transactions anyplace
else! I wanted to have a safe, fair place for people to buy, sell,
and trade, so when I hear comments like that, I really feel confident
that I have successfully mastered what I originally had hoped
to accomplish!"
I would like to thank Anne for this interview and wish her continued success with "Funky Mommy." I think her site is exciting and offers a lot for collectors.
Websites are difficult to maintain and require an enormous amount
of time and resources. I think we tend to forget that most webmasters
are not paid and offer news out of the kindness of their hearts.
We should acknowledge this kindness and appreciate their work.