{"id":64954,"date":"2017-08-06T00:09:09","date_gmt":"2017-08-06T07:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=64954"},"modified":"2017-08-06T00:09:09","modified_gmt":"2017-08-06T07:09:09","slug":"hear-ye-291","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/64954","title":{"rendered":"Hear Ye!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster<\/span><\/u><\/a>)<\/p>\n

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards<\/span><\/u><\/a>)<\/p>\n

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is \u2026 Katie Reichenbach<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

Katie Reichenbach (farmgirl68, #7422) has received a certificate of achievement in Make It Easy for earning a Beginner Level Collect It! Merit Badge!<\/p>\n

\u201cI did my beginner level of Collect It! on my first Boyds Bear – Eli Q. Spangler. Here is what I found …<\/p>\n

Boyds Bears<\/strong><\/p>\n

Where was Eli Q. Spangler produced?<\/em>
\nEli Q. is part of the \u201cHigh Fashion Society.\u201d He wears a sweater with an Americana heart stitched on the front and has a star stitched on his right paw. He is also a part of \u201cThe Head Bear Collection. This means he is hand-stitched and fully jointed (arms and legs move). I don\u2019t remember how much I paid for it (I know it was more than I should have been spending at the time on a stuffed animal), but today\u2019s MSRP is $36.99. He was introduced in 2005, which is about the time I got him.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What is unique about the Boyd\u2019s Bear production process?<\/em>
\nBoyds stuffed bears began production in 1979 as part of a small antique store in Boyds, Maryland (for which they are named), by Gary M. Lowenthal and his wife, Justina Unger. Their first bear was fully jointed and named \u201cMatthew\u201d after their newborn son. I learned that from the start, all the bears were imported from China. The company moved to Hanover, near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1987. In 1993, they introduced resin bears and then increased their product line to include many different items. They also branched out to include other \u201cfriends\u201d of the bears. The couple sold the company to Enesco in 2008. Enesco decided, unfortunately, that Boyds Bears should be \u201cput into hibernation\u201d (in other words production was stopped) in 2014.<\/p>\n

Do you know how the notion of \u201cteddy bears\u201d got its start?<\/em>
\nThey are named after Teddy Roosevelt. In 1902, he refused to kill a captured bear. Word spread and Morris Michtom, a Brooklyn, New York, shop owner, along with his wife, created stuffed bears based off of political cartoons that had been spreading. Michtom obtained permission from Roosevelt to call his creation \u201cTeddy Bears.\u201d Of course, people young and old flocked to buy them. The teddy bear was even used when Roosevelt ran for re-election, as his mascot!<\/p>\n

How likely is there to be another item just like Eli Q. Spangler?<\/em>
\nI could not find any information on how many of these bears were produced; however, even though he is a \u201cretired\u201d bear, I had no problem finding listings for him on line on many different sites. This is probably due to the fact that they were mass-produced in China.<\/p>\n

Does Eli Q. Spangler have a personal connection to me?<\/em>
\nI don\u2019t necessarily have a personal connection to Eli. I just know that I fell in love with his face. Boyds Bears\u2019 noses are so endearing, you can identify them right away. It is hard not to fall in love with every bear produced. Because I bought him so long ago, I don\u2019t remember what made me choose him over all the others. Perhaps it was the time of year or a holiday.<\/p>\n

Are there any clubs or online chatrooms for folks that share a passion for Boyds Bears?<\/em>
\nThere had been an official fan club called the “Loyal Order of Friends of Boyds!” that was established in 1996. There was a membership fee, which included membership perks, an online newsletter, and admission to a members-only website. Enesco determined 2014 would be the final year for the club. Aside from this \u201cofficial\u201d club, there are tons of others. Here are just a few. Keep in mind these are not officially affiliated with Boyds Bears:
\nBearsnBuddies.com<\/a>
\nBearMuseum.com<\/a>
\nBoydsWeb.com<\/a><\/p>\n

It was nice to learn about the bears whose faces I fell in love with. I was, however, saddened by two facts: 1) They were mass-produced in China, and 2) They are no longer in business. The company was based in a town only a few hours from my home, so I felt a special connection to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster) Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards) My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is \u2026 Katie Reichenbach! Katie Reichenbach (farmgirl68, #7422) has received a certificate of achievement in Make It Easy … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}