Build a Bear Winner

A couple of weeks ago, Hunter got a letter from Fed Ex. It was a little odd because we didn’t recognize the return address. We opened the envelope and saw at the top of the page, “You have won the Run For the Stuffing Sweepstakes!” Hunter was so excited and knew exactly what it was, but I had no clue. A couple of months ago Hunter and Emma went to the mall with their friend Paige and her grandmother. While at Build a Bear Hunter entered this Sweepstakes and now he found out he was the winner. The prize was that he would get 45 seconds to run through the store and grab anything there. The letter explained that he could bring a best friend with him for the shopping spree. Hunter took a few minutes to think about who he would take with him and decided to bring his sister Emma. She was so excited and they spent the next week counting down the days until the big event.

We arrived at the mall 45 minutes early because the kids wanted to check things out and make a strategy, and if we were late because of traffic or something it would be the worst thing ever. So we got there when the gates were still down and the kids watched as the employees got ready for the big moment at 10:00. They ran in circles around the mall practicing how long 45 seconds was, and the employees could see how excited they were. At about 9:50 they brought Hunter and Emma their name tags and t-shirts, did some warm up stretches, and handed the kids their boxes to fill. Emma went first and one of the employees carried the box for her and followed her around the store in case she wanted something up higher. She ran right to the back of the store and went for the outfits first. She was a little hesitant about just grabbing everything and stopped a couple of times to get a good look at things. It was fun to watch her running around the store looking for the best things to grab. Hunter was next, and he started at the animals and went for the sports outfits. He got going pretty fast too, but was also careful about being too grabby. I was teasing the kids afterwards that it was hard for them to be grabby because mom and dad have spent so much time telling them not to be greedy. Although they did make quite a haul, it rang up to over $260.00.

Rob and I had such fun watching the kids. This will be something they remember, and it wasn’t about how much they got, but about the idea of running free through Build A Bear and never being told no. What could be better?