MU students and Columbia residents crowded into Memorial Union’s Stotler Lounge on Wednesday evening to create their own stuffed animal to benefit Tiger Pantry.
The event brought in $934. Owens said three Tiger Pantry bins were filled with canned goods.
For the price of $5 or five canned goods, attendees could stuff their choice of four unique animal skins: a teddy bear, polar bear, tiger or monkey. The monkey was this year’s limited edition stuffed animal. All materials were purchased through the MUSUPB budget and approximately 400 animals were available to stuff.
This was the Missouri Student Unions Programming Board’s fourth annual Caring, Bearing, Sharing event. All proceeds from the fundraiser went to Tiger Pantry.
The first Caring, Bearing, Sharing event was held in 2008, but MUSUPB Tiger Pantry was not formed until 2012.
Going into the event, MUSUPB hoped to top last year’s donation of $1,328. Though they didn’t reach their intended goal, MUSUPB was glad to help a good cause.
“We’re just working to improve it every year,” senior and event coordinator Tanner Owens said.
After picking their animal and stuffing it, people got the opportunity to personalize their creations with a variety of small hearts and ribbons. Similar to Build-A-Bear, participants placed the hearts inside of the stuffed animal to give them a personal touch.
Attendance reached over 200 people. Some participants made more than one stuffed animal.
Juniors Rachel Walther and Samantha Robinson attended last year and said that Sharing, Bearing, Caring is becoming a tradition for them. They both made tigers while chatting about their past experiences.
“It’s very calming and stress-reducing,” Walther said. The previous year, the event offered a fun distraction for Robinson and Walther before an exam.
Freshmen Livy Melberg and Chelsey Scott decided to attend after hearing about the event on Facebook.
“It’s a really good idea to have something so close on campus to benefit the community,” Melberg said.
Caring, Bearing, Sharing is Owens’ favorite event that MUSUPB puts on.
“We try to come up with programing that’s inclusive and innovative,” Owens said. “Although we host varied events, it is especially nice to give back to the Mizzou community in such a meaningful way and we definitely accomplished that with Caring, Bearing, Sharing this Wednesday.”
