As we’ve said before, stuffed animals and teddy bears always love to help out. Now they are helping two women save real cats with a teddy bear museum.
Two women from Waynesville have opened a teddy bear museum as a way to fund their initiative to save ill and injured cats. They showcase their plush collections gathered over 70 years, The Mountaineer reports.
Sandi Sonagere and Beth Brown joined their collections with hundreds bears and stuffed animals. The Little Cache: W. Bear’s Adventures Museum is located at 74l S. Haywood St., Waynesville.
“We are hoping that every person will see one of the stuffed bears they especially like and sponsor that specific bear,” said Sonagere. “In turn, that sponsorship will help to provide medical expenses for one of the very needy cats in our care.”
The teddy bear museum features four themed sections. Both Sonagere and Brown are US Army veterans. This is also reflected in the teddy bear museum. One of the sections is dedicated to the military and veterans.
The museum collection already has over 500 teddy bears. There are also 250 Beanie Babies and lots of other stuffed animals. And the museum is only going to get bigger. The two curators have about 4000 more stuffed animals and teddy bears between them. They plan to add a lot more of them to the museum exhibition and also keep the sections fresh with new themes as time goes on.
The proceeds from the museum will go for a special project. Sonagere and Brown take care of about 20 needy and abandoned cats. “Our hope is that we can make our museum so interesting to the community that folks will want to sponsor a stuffed animal, which, in turn, will help its needy counterparts live out their lives in a comfortable and loving environment,” said Brown.
