Sharon Price John

So that stuffing experience also includes a very special heart ceremony.

Now, with this heart, you bring your teddy bear to life.

And you go through an informal but very fun experience of placing some attributes on your bear, like maybe making him stronger, making him smarter, maybe always have your back or in your heart.

But then there's a very emotional process that's very memorable, and you put a wish on the heart.

That ends with a kiss, and it goes inside your heart, often along with a personalized recorded message.

then you get to dress it, name it, and get your birth certificate.

Now, these experiences are woven into millions of childhood memories, and they're a part of multigenerational family lore for everything from birthday celebrations to graduations to wedding proposals and birth announcements.

So Build-A-Bear is a lot more than a place.

In fact, Build-A-Bear is often used for the Red Cross, to provide teddy bears to people who need comfort in natural disasters, for parents who are grieving the loss of a child, and even for children who are suffering from illness.

So not only are we so much more than a place, we're a feeling.

Build-A-Bear is a feeling based on memorable moments.

And it's for people of all ages.

So when I asked the team, does it matter if Build-A-Bear exists?

Of course they said yes.

But it wasn't because of my textbook turnaround plans.

It was because they already understood deeply what I just shared with you.

And what I was telling them made them fearful that I was going to rip the heart out of the company they had created.

So that let me know that before they were going to go on this journey with me, they needed to know where my heart was.

And I needed to share plans that were based on our true purpose.

And we needed to find something that we could all believe in