Thousands of stuffed animals collected, hundreds of smiles spread, miles of wasteland saved, and a whole lot of hope shared, but that's just the beginning.
The Stuffed Animal Rescue, fondly nicknamed “StAR”, collects used stuffed animals, cleans them, repairs them, gives them a new name tag, then ships them off to places where they can live out their goal of spreading smiles, love, and hope throughout the world. In the past, this has included women's shelters, nursing homes, and hospitals, but 2016 marks the opener of our international program. But we’ll talk more about that later.
All of this began a few years ago, late 2013, when one family went to a yard sale being held nearby. Our founder, Katharine Trojak, was just browsing when she heard her younger sister, Kristina Trojak, begging her mother to buy one of the stuffed animals lined up on the yard. She knew that her little sister had a bit of a, how should we say it, obsession with stuffed animals, and that her mother was never too keen on letting her buy things that had been used. Especially stuffed animals. Who knew where they had been? What germs they could have inside the stuffing?
Her mother eventually caved and allowed her to buy the stuffed animal, but sent it through a hardy wash when it got home. That night, the same family sat at the dinner table and the topic of the night was about yardsale stuffed animals. About how many must be thrown away each year, how many must be just sitting in people's basements, how many must be strewn in waste fields across the world. That night was the first night of StAR. Katharine went upstairs and drew up a master plan on how to save all the stuffed animals from landfills and spread smiles while at it. While we haven’t saved all the stuffed animals yet, we like to think that we’re on our way there.
The first collection for StAR was in March of 2014, helped by Starbucks and many local churches. Katharine was expecting about 200 stuffed animals, which she would then clean and give out to local places that could use some hope. But by the end of the month long collection, she was left with over 2,000 stuffed animals. Some drop offs were made that summer and fall, to nursing homes and women's shelters and many other places, but the ceiling high pile of stuffed animals didn’t seem to get much smaller. And already people in the area were wondering whether there would be another collection of stuffed animals.
That’s when the international program was born. There weren’t enough places locally that needed love and smiles and too many stuffed animals for the small county that Katharine lived in. In 2016, the international program of StAR opened and we began contacting many overseas organizations for where we can ship these stuffed animals to spread the love that they represent. So far, the response has been great and we’re on our way to spreading hope across the globe. Shipping expense is a definite problem, so we encourage you to help by donating, getting ready for our fall fundraiser, or sponsoring a shipment of stuffed animals.
Since our foundation, we have been featured in magazines and on blogs. Received people willing to ship donations of stuffed animals from across the USA. Saved thousands of stuffed animals from going into landfills. Done experiments to make our animals cleaner than ever. Shared smiles across our country, and soon our world.
Saving stuffed animals might seem like a silly vocation, but we can tell you from the smiles and love that we’ve received- it’s worth it.