Sunday 21^st October 2007

Before becoming involved with The Bear Club, what did you do?

That’s a very good question and one that’s answered in part of our story, ‘Tales From a Forgotten Room: The Bear Club Story’, but since you ask I’ll try and expand a little further for your readers.

Like many teddies, I was abandoned on a shelf in a dusty room for what felt like forever. Then as luck (or fate) would have it, I fell from the shelf on to the duvet, which was the start of a magical journey, leading me to meet some amazing and inspirational characters along the way.

Prior to this happening I’d done very little really. My early years as a young cub had been spent in hope and anticipation of a full and happy life with a pawtner, and when that failed to materialise I kind of took things in to my own hands to kick-start my life. Then The Bear Club was born.

We really love The Bear Club! What inspired you to start the site?

A few things really. Even before my adventures with the Clan Leaders I’d felt a frustration that us teddy bears - supposedly the most popular and loved toy in the world - had never been given a voice of our own or the chance to ‘come alive’.

I’d heard tales of so many teddies that had gone on to lead the most wonderful and exciting lives, travelling all over the world and having the most amazing adventures, not to mention becoming lifelong companions and confidantes to their pawtners. And where did anyone ever get to hear our side of these exploits? Nowhere!

Once I had been on my amazing adventure and found out about the existence of the eight teddy bear clans, well I just had to try and let all teddy bears know that we really do have a sense of belonging ….. and I wanted to give us all a platform from which we could communicate with the rest of the world.

Did you have to work a long time on the site before it was launched?

Yes! In fact it was two years in total from having the initial idea to its actual launch.

I could have started the web site much sooner than that of course, but I wanted to make sure that when The Bear Club was finally ready it was of the highest possible standard. This applies to everything, from the overall look - colours, designs, illustrations, etc - to its features and functionality. To get this exactly how I wanted it took an awfully long time.

We have a whole series of promotional events coming up, the next wave of which include more radio and television coverage, the joint sponsorship of a teddy bear show in Taiwan, an evening event at a bookshop in Derbyshire, a wild bear conservation campaign with the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and some adverts in teddy bear magazines, including a full colour advertisement in the Hugglets 2008 Teddy Bear Guide.

And that’s not to mention a whole host of other events - some of which are top secret at this stage - which we have planned over the next few months!

The Clan Leaders are most intriguing. How did you come upon their names and descriptions?

Obviously they were already named when I met them, but I did ask them about this. It seems that their names were drawn from a number of different sources, from traditional native terms to a variation on their Latin names.

Once I got to know each of the Clan Leaders, it was clear that they had such different personalities, so I just had to write these up in their profiles on The Bear Club so that teddy bears from around the world would know which clan suited them best. The further in to ‘Tales From a Forgotten Room’ you read, the more you will discover about the Clan Leaders.

Are you pleased with the way the site is going?

Extremely pleased! Although I’m usually quite a modest teddy bear, I do feel we have produced by far and away the most wonderful teddy bear site on the internet. I’m so proud of it!

It’s still very early days yet in terms of getting us recognised and discovered by the rest of the world, but as long as we concentrate on keeping the site active, fun, exciting and full of fascinating content, then the rest of the world will soon catch on to what we are doing!

We already have a hardcore of fantastic members who are playing their part in doing this and helping to bring the site to life - and as more and more join us, the bigger and better we’ll become.

There are some very exciting new features; the video from Goldie was fantastic, as was the flying bear, and of course, the "Dance-Off". Are you planning more use of video, or maybe Bear Television?

Yes we are. Goldie is the first of our reporters to start uploading his videos, but we also have a few others ready to start making video reports too, and you’ll see these appearing on the site very soon. These reports will include interviews, travel guides and news events.

We’ll also be encouraging members to start making their own videos to send in, further details of which will be appearing in our News & Events section over the coming weeks.

Clearly you adore both teddy bears and real life bears. Are you hoping to expand on the conservation issue?

Very much so. This is a vital part of The Bear Club and something we feel extremely passionate about.

As you know, each of the Clan Leaders is based on one of the eight species of wild bear, so each of them aims to raise awareness of their wild cousins to the members that joined their clan.

We have also just agreed a contract with the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) which is due to take effect very soon, meaning that £1 of every Gold level subscription will be donated to help fund the vital work that they do protecting animals - including bears - around the world.

What hobbies do you have?

Well, apart from spending most of my time reading the wonderful blogs that get put on The Bear Club, I also still enjoy collecting dust - a habit from my earlier days that I haven’t been able to shake!

What is your favourite colour?

Blue

And … do you like to keep up to date with fashion?

I have to admit I don’t really follow fashion, as you can probably tell! I have two favourite tops, one blue and one green - and occasionally switching between the two is about as fashion conscious as I get!

Thank you so much, Fred Bear, for agreeing to this interview. I am sure our readers will find all of this most interesting.