Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephen Mack.
Hi Stephen, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
It all started with my daughter Savannah. In February 2022, Savannah fell while playing and injured her head. She was three years old at the time. We rushed her to the emergency room, where she was terrified and nervous. The only thing she wanted was her teddy bear, which we didn’t think to bring with us. The hospital staff was so clever and quickly turned a medical glove into a comforting balloon toy.
Fast forward two years, when our family came across a couple bulk orders of stuffed toys on a local auction, we decided to buy them and donate them to that same hospital emergency room to give other children who needed a toy to comfort them. With that, Savvy’s Stuffies was founded and we have been delivering stuffed toys and teddy bears to hospitals, emergency rooms, and first responders ever since!
I decided to make it a mission to keep it going for as long as I could manage it. So I started the process of making it an official nonprofit organization and we are now a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit recognized by the IRS.
Our mission at Savvy’s Stuffies is to deliver stuffed toys and teddy bears to hospitals, children’s centers, first responders, and everywhere else children may be facing potentially traumatic situations. Our goal is to help children feel comforted with a stuffed toy in times when they need it the most.
Since we started we have delivered almost 1,000 stuffed toys to many local hospitals, first responders and other childrens centers throughout Northern Utah.
I started Savvy’s Stuffies after personally seeing the difference a stuffed toy can make for children going through hard and unexpected times. I love being able to take my daughter with me and pass on the knowledge that giving back to the community can make the world a better place and it feels great doing it. This has been one of my most rewarding endeavors!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a big learning experience for sure. It was all a pretty new process to me. The hardest parts, I would say, have been funding. For the first few hundred deliveries, it was all self-funded. I have a full-time job, so everything with Savvy’s Stuffies is in my spare time. Being a nonprofit, we rely heavily on donations and grants to make this all possible. In the beginning, with no additional surplus funds to hire anybody, I had to build the website, advertise, and do social media all by myself. This has also made it so 100% of donations can go straight to our teddy bears, and not to administrative expenses. I was able to form a great Board of Directors that are a great help with making operational decisions.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Savvy’s Stuffies?
Our mission is to deliver stuffed toys to hospitals, emergency rooms, children’s centers, first responders, and everywhere else children may be facing potentially traumatic situations.
Our goal is to help children feel comforted with a stuffed toy in times when they need it the most.
We operate full-time, year round, because everywhere we deliver goes through them so fast.
We focus on stuffed toys because they can be stored much easier and in smaller places. We can vacuum seal them so they are not taking up important storage space for life saving equipment in vehicles and in hospitals.
We have to deliver brand new items to the hospitals due to sanitary and hygienic practices. We also have programs in place for “like new” and “gently used” items. We try to make sure nothing gets overlooked or wasted with our organization.
Everyone involved is a volunteer, including myself, so that 100% of donations can go directly towards our teddy bear program of getting brand new teddy bears to hospitals. We work with different distributors to get bulk pricing, not generally available to the public, so that we stretch and make the most of every single dollar.
We want this to go on for as long as possible and would love to spread as far and wide as possible. That’s only possible with support and donations from people who care about children and the difference we can make.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Was it good luck or bad luck that Savannah fell and injured her head? While nobody wants to see their child injured, if it didn’t happen I can’t say that Savvy’s Stuffies would have ever been founded.
Was it good luck or bad luck that I was “fired” from an emotionally draining, hostile and toxic work environment? If that hadn’t happened I never would have looked into starting my own financial consulting business, which in turn gave me some freedom with my time to be able to start Savvy’s Stuffies.
I have always tried to look at every situation as having good and bad within. We can’t control everything around us but we can control how we handle and react to these situations. I believe if we look hard enough there can always be positive alongside the negative. We just have to keep calm and see all the options.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.savvysstuffies.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savvys_stuffies/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/61587224776118/
