Charities

Fluffies and Furries GO GREEN for Charity

Bare all or some of your fluff for charity, with Marmy Bear’s charity calendars. The 2010 calendar was a wonderful event, raising over $200 for the Royal Children’s Hospital (Melbourne, Australia), that helps children in need around the world. The calendar is made up of 12 pictures of fluffies around the world, plus Marmy Bear on the last page. Each picture comes with a blurb about the fluffy, their interests, how they felt in the photo shoot, or what they want to achieve in life.

The 2011 calendar is now open for participants. To get your photo in the calendar, you just need to meet some basic criteria. The first and most important is that your image must be reflecting the theme of the calendar. The overall idea is that you are baring your fluff, so try to be creative. The theme for 2011 is “Go Green”. We are looking for ways that you look after the environment. It can be big or small; looking after your garden, or planting a tree, or recycling, or just loving nature – you can even take the theme literally, and dye your fur green!

There are no criteria around what kind of fluffies are allowed, so it’s not just for bears! Tigers, sheep, frogs, bats, kangaroos, sock fluffies- all of you are welcome to submit a photo. You can be male, female or undecided. We don’t discriminate!

The specific criteria about photos:
Image is reflecting the theme
- You are in focus and clear
- Should be landscape orientation if possible
- Must be 300 dpi or higher
- Must be at least 1665 pixels x 1325 pixels
- Colour scheme: CMYK where possible
- JPG, PSD, AI or GIF format

Not essential, but handy to note:
Outdoor photos tend to have more personality and can often work better in these calendars
- Try to make sure you are the subject matter, not obscured or off to one side
- Add some “fun” to your image, by posing in a different way, or try using props
- Consider colours and backgrounds and what makes you look great
- If you would like (or have been assigned) to pose for a month in the year, try to reflect it somehow in your photo. This is more specifically so for February (Valentine’s Day), October (Halloween) and December (Christmas).
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- When you have your photo shoot, ask your hooman to take lots and lots of photos, at different angles and with different lighting. We choose the best photo’s to put on the calendar (so send us a couple), because we want the fluffies to really look good and because it is for a charity, the images reflect on the charity, so we want to show professionalism, clarity, and beauty.

Getting into the calendar is a bit competitive, and it is quite an honour to be immortalised in print. The 2011 calendar will also include birthday dates of the fluffies that are chosen, so remember to include that with your blurb. Also in 2011 we will be introducing fluffy holidays, such as Ted’s Stalking Fest and Mardi Paws. If you think there is an important event or holiday that needs to be included, please let us know.

We welcome your photos, ideas, thoughts and comments. Please contact Marmy Bear at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . To check out 2010’s calendar, please see the Facebook group, Fluffy Racy Candy Calendar 2010 (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=182239843891&ref=ts). You may also like to visit our website, www.marmybear.com, but please note this is under construction, so we may not have everything up yet.

NB: We sell the calendars for AU$10, plus postage and packaging. The profit is what we give to charity. This currently means about $3 from each calendar goes to charity. We do not take any profit to build our business; we believe the charity deserves the most love and support. Of course, if you do want to contribute more, you can donate directly to the charity or add some extra to the purchase cost when ordering your calendar.

xx Marmy Bear

THE DISORDERLY BEAR DEN

THE DISORDERLY BEAR DEN of Good Bears of the World

We are a non-profit organization. Our Constitution and By Laws state: "We believe that the teddy bear is a universally accepted symbol of love and comfort, and we declare the objectives of GBW shall be to foster and promote good will, alleviate trauma and suffering, and spread love and compassion through the sharing and giving of teddy bears."

History: Good Bears of the World was conceived and founded by the late James T. Ownby in 1969 after having read Peter Bull’s book, Bear With Me. The book tells of a man who dedicated himself to giving bears to hospitalized children. GBW was founded with this same ideal - to ease loneliness and inspire love and compassion through an ageless symbol of love, the teddy bear. GBW celebrates October 27th as GOOD BEAR DAY to honor the birthday of President Theodore Roosevelt, the man who gave his name to the teddy bear. GBW is a truly international outreach of love with members in countries around the world. Since its founding, Good Bears of the World has through its dens, individual members and international headquarters, given hundreds of thousands of teddy bears to those in need of love and a hug.

The Disorderly Bear Den, Fort Wayne, Indiana, was chartered by the International Organization on September 1, 2006. We are tax exempt under the IRS tax code 501(c)(3). Donations we receive may be tax deductible on the donor's personal income tax form. In 2009 we gifted 1,430 teddy bears and other stuffed animals (stuffies) to organizations who help children in trauma situations and lonely adults. Donations can be sent to the den to Donna Gordon-Hearn, Chairbear. If you want to make a cash donation or have new or gently used stuffies (teddy bears, doggies, bunnies, rabbits, etc.) to donate, please contact Donna, email address, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for further information.