Mr P's Tees: Timmy the Tiger's Party

I think yesterday's party for Timmy is one of the best things we have ever been a part of as a company. To see that Tiger roll and tumble and play with that ball was pure joy for me. Animals are like little kids. They don't fake their feelings. When they are truly happy about something, they show or tell you. And when they are displeased or uninterested, they show you that too. Let me tell you, Timmy was Happy!

To back track, I was out at the zoo back in July and one of the zoo keepers, Jayme Carriveau, commented quite innocently how she wished Timmy the Tiger had a Boomer Ball. Here is a pic of Jayme with my Mom.

I had no idea what a Boomer ball was, but I knew that we needed to help get him one. Jayme had been caring for Timmy since Jan. You can tell when you talk to her, that she has a sweet sincere spirit and truly loves the animals she cares for. She had moved to the Monroe Zoo from a zoo in Florida and knew about special toys made just for zoo animals. Thankfully, Brent was agreeable to the idea of collecting $5 from every Tiger Shirt we sold to help purchase the ball. The timing was perfect in that we just had a brand new Tiger design coming out that week.

I truly believe God lined up all of that.
The money was raised pretty quickly, and the decision was made to have a party so folks could come watch Timmy get his new toy for the very first time. I was pretty pumped that we were able to order the ball in a Mr P's color Orange!!! When the ball came to the house, our kids had a good time playing with it.

I asked Pearson this morning if he thought it was cool that Timmy was now playing with the same orange ball that he and Phoebe had just played with. He did!
So, the party planning was in full swing. I spoke with Heather Morris and we decided to have cookies and capri suns and waters for the kids and adults attending, The Zoo covered the drinks and we covered the cookies. I posted on Facebook asking the question who made the cutest and best tasting cookies in town. Boy...who knew there were so many choices??!! People are pretty passionate about who they think makes the best ones in the Twin Cities.

We decided to try out Kirsten Mitchell. Her name kept popping up on the list. She was so sweet and made 108 tiger and orange ball cookies for the event. They were all individually wrapped up and she even carried them for me all the way to Timmys exhibit!!

When I got to talking to her on our little walk, she shared with me that she was newly married, worked at Bayou Gymnastics and a student at ULM. She makes the cookies all by herself in her own kitchen. I was so impressed with her!! Thank you again Kirsten!!
Another aspect of the party was the special coloring sheets. Kellye Hoogland is the one who came up with the idea of having a coloring sheet for kids to be able to participate. Neat idea! Kellye is a kindergarten teacher at Clairborne Elementary, a neighbor of ours, a friend and she helps us in her spare times with folding and inventorying the tees. The zoo agreed that kids could bring the coloring sheets in and get discounted admission to the park. Tiffany Olmstead with Macaroni Kids even passed out Timmy coloring sheets at the Race for the Cure that same morning.

Here is Kellye!

Kellye swears we are going to get on ELLEN one day and she is going with us!! hahaha

We had stickers for everyone and koozies too. Nothing like a little Mr P's Swag!!

We also had a few shirts out there to sell and Heather had placed a donation jar that collected $40 to help with getting the other cats balls too. My friend Kelly Jaubert and her family even brought some orange cupcakes!

So now it was time for the big reveal! The zoo keepers had placed his ball in a cardboard box.

Here is a close up

Timmy had watched them place the boxed up ball in his yard from behind the bars of his little home. A bunch of people had come to watch the event.

A bunch of kids had on their tiger tees and everyone had their cameras and videos ready to record.

Lisa Taylor stood up and told everyone how the Zoo had come to acquire Timmy.

He was suppose to be a Circus tiger, but didn't do very well with his training. The Circus couldn't use him and asked if the Zoo wanted him-They gladly accepted!! He had never swam before coming to the zoo, but now is an avid swimmer and loves his big pool area. It was very interesting hearing her talk about him.

Then, I was surprised to receive a nice plaque from Heather recognizing Mr P's for their help with the zoo. So cool!

And now... they raised opened the gate, and Timmy came marching out.

He immediately came up to the ball and started sniffing. Im not going to lie, I was nervous as hell that he was just going to walk right past it and not care at all. BUT, that was not the case!!

He immediately ripped open that box, and started playing with the ball. The crowd of people cheered as we watched this big cat enjoy himself.

After about 10 minutes of this, Timmy pushed the ball over to his pool and it fell in. Then, the zoo keepers added some bubbles to his water so he now had a big soapy bubble bath to swim in with his new toy.

He pawed and played with that ball.... He tried to hang on to it.... He pushed it around the pool..... It was so COOL!!!

I think everyone there was thrilled to see this. We have now raised enough to purchase 2 more balls (for the lion and the black leopard). YAY~~

They are on order and we hope to have them in the next couple of weeks. There is one more cat that needs a ball-it is the Hyena. Hyenas need love too!! :)
Want to help-here is the link to order a shirt at www.mrpstees.com Look under "Shirts That Give Back"

Here were a few more pics of at the party...