Description
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The Bear Club - Bring your teddy bear to life with its very own blogging site.
Add photos of your teddy bear and share its stories and adventures with other teddy bear members.
The site is also packed with other features, such as competitions, wild bear conservation, videos and games. www.thebearclub.co.uk
BRING YOUR TEDDY BEAR TO LIFE
In the current climate of economic worry, natural disasters, war and ever increasing reports of unsavoury internet sites, it's heart-warming to hear about the success of a wholesome, family website with the simple aim of putting a smile on your face – by bringing your teddy bear to life.
The Bear Club was launched in July 2007, with modern, eye-catching artwork, bringing teddy bear ownership and collecting right into the 21st Century. The website, the only one of its kind anywhere on the internet, allows owners of teddy bears – young or old – to give their teddies a voice of their own.
Based in Derbyshire, the site has been growing in popularity with teddy bear owners worldwide, having been featured in a number of national and international media, from Radio One and Five Live to US cable TV and a Chinese teddy bear magazine.
This online bear club is set up like a community website, similar to social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace – but with teddy bears being the main users. You can set up a profile for your bear, with photos, blogs, and details such as your teddy's favourite food, hobbies, and earliest adventure. Your bear's photo is reproduced on the site similar to a Polaroid photo, with their name hand-written underneath. The 'Bear Blogs' section allows your teddies to keep an online diary, telling everyone about their latest outings, their thoughts, stories and tales. Photos can be added to the blogs, and invite people to comment. Many bears show off their new outfits, or have their photos taken in different locations – from the Empire State Building to the BBQ in the back garden.
The 'News & Events' section tells you all about changes and activities in the bear world. This includes items from the news – such as the plight of polar bears, and the man dressed in a teddy outfit inside a box, who won the 2007 Turner Prize. You can find out about bear outings and fairs near you, or read the latest bear club stories, which are updated frequently and tell the story of The Bear Club Clan leaders. There are also monthly competitions, which for June gives members the chance of winning the brand new Paddington Bear Book, 'Paddington Here and Now', available to all Gold Members – you are upgraded from the initial Silver membership to Gold simply and for free by uploading a Profile or Blog photo.
Something quite original exists within this website – the 'Clans' area. Each teddy that joins the club can become part of one of eight different clans; each based on one of the eight species of wild bear, the emphasis being to raise awareness for wild bear conservation. The idea is to match the personality of your bear with that of the clan leader. At the time of writing this, the most popular clan was 'Kinamon', the "nervous and shy one". Apparently this type of bear is a good listener, is very creative, and eats anything – but suffers with bad digestion as a result.
The site also has a Forum where teddy bear enthusiasts can come together to share ideas and discuss all things teddy bear related. Recent additions to the site include exclusive videos from The Bear Club Reporters, including Loui, based in the UK and Taiwan-based teddy bear Goldie, whose interviews, travel reports and news items from Taipei and beyond have delighted both Taiwanese and international visitors to The Bear Club.
The business was set up by three friends, David Booker (Managing Director), Richard Hutchings (Educational Director) and Tig Tomkinson (Creative Advisor), two with a background in teaching and one a writer, and is managed and run by David, Richard and Marketing Manager Darren Booker. "Our site offers owners of teddy bears, whatever their age, a truly unique and exciting arena in which to bring their teddies to life", says David Booker. "I think we have come up with a site that is both fresh and appealing to look at, and one that will provide hours of creative fun and entertainment."
The Bear Club has a number of high profile campaigns in the offing, so all those teddy bears relegated to the bottom of the bed (or worse) may soon be getting a new lease of life.
The Bear Club is completely free of charge to join and participate in. Why not join today and bring your teddy bear to life? Visit today at: www.thebearclub.co.uk
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