[Kristine Heflin]

We do this pretty regularly at our late night program. It’s run by a student organization so they organize staffing for the activity–you really only need a couple of people. We purchase the critters, stuffing, and customized t-shirts (optional) from a vendor who ships everything to us. We have used Campus Marketing Specialists in the past and this fall we are using The College Agency. (Our contact at CMS has gotten very hard to get ahold of and wait times were making me nervous. We’ve had great luck so far with The College Agency.) We had been doing the 16″ critters which were a bit more expensive and we always had more students want to do it than we had budget for. This fall we are doing 8″ critters which are $10 each (inclusive of stuffing and shirts–I think they’re less if you don’t do shirts). The cost and quality seem to be pretty similar across agencies–there are others out there that do too it like Neon Entertainment and Record-a-Hit.

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Kristine Heflin
Associate Director, Memorial Union
Iowa State University
Ames IA
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-02-2022 17:10
From: Joe Lattal
Subject: Create a Creature? Fill a Friend? Build a Bear?

Hi there – Any sort of ‘fill a stuffed animal’ activity has been a hit at our free student union events. We’ve hired providers who will bring product and staff the activity, but for an upcoming event we have staff who can manage the offering. The pricing from vendors on this has gotten pretty cost-prohibitive too for the volume we’re looking for and our budget.

I’ve looked around online and haven’t been able to find stuffable animals as well as accessories to go along with them. The stuffing itself is easy to find from a variety of vendors, but the other items not so much.

Have any campuses gone this route and ordered the items? Or do the campus activities providers seem to have a pretty clear monopoly on this offering?

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Joe Lattal
Associate Director, Student Organizations & Activities
Northwestern University
Evanston IL
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[jcontrat]

Our students at the University of South Alabama love a stuff a Jag event! We get ours from Amped Events. They are very reasonable and can ship all the materials to you. They are an amazing company to work with! 

—–

James Contratto

Senior Associate Director of the Student Center

Student Center

contratto@southalabama.edu

P: (251) 460.7144

–

University of South Alabama

130 Student Center

350 Student Center Circle

Mobile, AL 36688-0002

southalabama.edu
Click Here to evaluate my customer service

——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 11/3/2022 10:31:00 AM
From: Kristine Heflin
Subject: RE: Create a Creature? Fill a Friend? Build a Bear?

We do this pretty regularly at our late night program. It’s run by a student organization so they organize staffing for the activity–you really only need a couple of people. We purchase the critters, stuffing, and customized t-shirts (optional) from a vendor who ships everything to us. We have used Campus Marketing Specialists in the past and this fall we are using The College Agency. (Our contact at CMS has gotten very hard to get ahold of and wait times were making me nervous. We’ve had great luck so far with The College Agency.) We had been doing the 16″ critters which were a bit more expensive and we always had more students want to do it than we had budget for. This fall we are doing 8″ critters which are $10 each (inclusive of stuffing and shirts–I think they’re less if you don’t do shirts). The cost and quality seem to be pretty similar across agencies–there are others out there that do too it like Neon Entertainment and Record-a-Hit.

——————————
Kristine Heflin
Associate Director, Memorial Union
Iowa State University
Ames IA
——————————
——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 11-02-2022 17:10
From: Joe Lattal
Subject: Create a Creature? Fill a Friend? Build a Bear?

Hi there – Any sort of ‘fill a stuffed animal’ activity has been a hit at our free student union events. We’ve hired providers who will bring product and staff the activity, but for an upcoming event we have staff who can manage the offering. The pricing from vendors on this has gotten pretty cost-prohibitive too for the volume we’re looking for and our budget.

I’ve looked around online and haven’t been able to find stuffable animals as well as accessories to go along with them. The stuffing itself is easy to find from a variety of vendors, but the other items not so much.

Have any campuses gone this route and ordered the items? Or do the campus activities providers seem to have a pretty clear monopoly on this offering?

——————————
Joe Lattal
Associate Director, Student Organizations & Activities
Northwestern University
Evanston IL
——————————

[Larissa Bonnet]

Joe,

We have done this program many times in the past. I have used Neon Entertainment and the College Agency for this as well. More recently we have started going to The Zoo Factory for the items. They have a great selection and customer service. Because we ordered so many items they provided a bulk discount. I typically email or call them with the order and they get back to me within 24 hours. https://www.thezoofactory.com?

Larissa Bonnet
Sheridan College
Sheridan, WY 82801

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Larissa Bonnet
Director of Campus Life and Housing
Northern Wyoming Community College District
Sheridan WY
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——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 11-02-2022 17:10
From: Joe Lattal
Subject: Create a Creature? Fill a Friend? Build a Bear?

Hi there – Any sort of ‘fill a stuffed animal’ activity has been a hit at our free student union events. We’ve hired providers who will bring product and staff the activity, but for an upcoming event we have staff who can manage the offering. The pricing from vendors on this has gotten pretty cost-prohibitive too for the volume we’re looking for and our budget.

I’ve looked around online and haven’t been able to find stuffable animals as well as accessories to go along with them. The stuffing itself is easy to find from a variety of vendors, but the other items not so much.

Have any campuses gone this route and ordered the items? Or do the campus activities providers seem to have a pretty clear monopoly on this offering?

——————————
Joe Lattal
Associate Director, Student Organizations & Activities
Northwestern University
Evanston IL
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