Aspies For Freedom

The Build-a-Bear Workshop (stores and online) are supporting Autism Awareness Month (April) and NAAR by giving a percentage of the proceeds from the sales of some items to NAAR. Here is a link for more info:

http://www.buildabear .com/shop/productd...=EM_autism

Boycott? Maybe that'll help lower the donations to NAAR.

Hi all,

I am familiar with this company and they often support charities, such as ones that donate books to schools, tsunami relief, etc. I think that they are honestly a good company that is trying to do a good thing. That said, here's their contact info:

Our Mailing Address
Build-A-Bear Workshop
1954 Innerbelt Business Center Drive
Saint Louis, MO 63114

Suggestions, Questions, Compliments or Complaints
lilcub@buildabear.com

Our Toll Free Number
1-877-789-BEAR (2327)

I'm new here, but I think that the polite correspondence that I have heard about AFF doing in the past can be very effective.

Maybe if we were nice about it they'd be prepared to sponsor AFF instead of NAAR or at worse case alongside. You never know might balance the group's accounts a little.

I have sent this e-mail to them -

Hi Build A Bear Workshop, I am writing to you on behalf of Aspies For Freedom, a group concerned with civil rights for people with autism and asperger's syndrome.
We have seen the advertisements that you will be donating some profits to NAAR. Please consider that NAAR have an aim of finding a cure for autism, this issue is very controversial to many members of the autistic community.
We have attempted to communicate with NAAR to discuss our concerns with their research and the potential outcome, and we have sadly been ignored.
We have had no reassurance that they are not trying to create a prenatal test for autism that would be akin to genocide for autistic babies. We are very wary that a potential cure for autism will be forced upon those with autism, and we feel very strongly that acceptance is needed for autism, not a cure.
Such a charity that starts with the premise that to be autistic is wrong and something that needs a cure is disrespectful to our natural differences.
I hope that you can consider these facts when commiting to donate to NAAR. I would be grateful if you could give me a response on your views on this.

I did check around their website and it's not just NAAR they donate to. Groups such as the World Wide Fund for nature are also included. So they seem like people trying to do the right thing instead of opportunistic *******.

By the way that e-mail was ok. Did make the point but wasn't too abrasive about it.

I received this e-mail in return -

Dear Amy,
Thank you for your email and for sharing your views on autism with us. I appreciate your taking the time to let us know your thoughts and want you to know that we will forward your comments to the appropriate people.

To give you a bit of background, Build-A-Bear Workshop made the decision to support the cause of autism based on many requests from our Guests and from others in our communities who shared their experiences with us. And yes, for the month of April we are working with NAAR by donating to their organization to fund research and support of this disease .
In addition, throughout the year, we support two other main health related causes that impact the lives of children and young adults. These causes, pediatric cancer and juvenile diabetes along with autism are a part of our Children’s Health and Wellness program. To find out more about these and our other community giving programs, please visit the About Us section of our website at http://www.buildabear.com .

Again, thank you for your email.  

Jill Saunders

they seem to have missed the point a little

The problem is if you had said Aspergers they may have been willing to agree as the image of Aspergers isn't exactly as bad as some one with Autism.  Unfortunately because Aspergers is related to Autism the two are linked which makes any distinction from most peoples eyes impossible.

Ahh what a difference a word makes

On another note I've just checked out Build a bear UK site and they don't seem to be selling Nikki's bear there. However Nikki's bear is sold by Build a bear in Japan too and as you probably figured North America. However there are two "unknowns" and those are South Korea and France. Therefore A full scale boycott wouldn't be effective, however maybe targeted sanctions could do.

Disease?  What have NAAR been telling them.
This makes me feel so cross.  :evil:

Unfortunatley Build-A-Bear is also focusing on Autism Awareness month this year by donating a portion of profits from "Nikki's Bear III" to Autism Speaks.

Broken Link: http://www.build abear.com/shop/productdetail.aspx?CallingPage=Shop%2fSearchResults.aspx&ProductSKU=7835


Here's their contact information for polite letter-writing:

Build-A-Bear Workshop
1954 Innerbelt Business Center Drive
Saint Louis, MO 63114

Guest.Services@buildabear.com

Thing is, Build-A-Bear workshop has only one thing in mind when it comes to who they do or do not support, and that's PR.
In that sense, they support NAAR because it's more popular than it isn't. People in general think NAAR is an organization dedicated to helping society, and so supporting it would make it seem like Build-A-Bear workshop cares. It's not about what really is, it's about what the majority believes.
I really think Build-a-Bear workshop could care less about NAAR or its pursuits, but acting like they do gives people who haven't heard our side of the argument (which is most of them) a warm fuzzy feeling.

Thing is, now that Build-A-Bear workshop is endoursing NAAR, they're kind of stuck with it. If they dropped that endoursement now, it would make them look cheap and fickle in the eyes of the public.

I say they would've been quite receptive to your message when they were initially *considering* sponsoring NAAR, but now it's too late. They can't abandon their sponsorship now because it's bad PR.

Something I forgot to mention.

If you really want to have a say in Buil-A-Bear Workshop's actions and attitudes, you should buy stock in the company.

Chick this out...
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=BBW

Must we get 300 of us, to try to stop them by force, flardox?

Now we should build a huge robot army to go and take them over