Beeches of Horsham

First International Ltd, trading as Beeches was established in November 1993. In October 1996 we opened our present store at 14 Piries Place, Horsham, West Sussex, within the Piries Place Shopping Centre, selling a variety of gifts, soft furnishings and imported goods. Not a cuddly toy in sight!

We actively support local crafts people and our current product range includes hand painted glass amongst other locally produced pieces. We began to stock Ty Beanie Babies™ in May 1998 and they have proved to be a phenomenal success, leading to the creation of our Collectors Club.

As a result in September 1998 we were appointed the Ty Official Beanie Babies™ Club Headquarters for Horsham.

WHY A COLLECTORS CLUB? - Since we began to stock Beanie Babies™ in May 1998 they have proved to be a phenomenal best seller. To provide an enhanced service to our many regular buyers, allowing them to keep up with new releases from Ty, we established in August 1998 our own BEANIE BABIES™ COLLECTORS CLUB. We now have over 3,000 members, from Scotland to Devon – Ty’s trading Policy in the early days allowed us to sell Beanie Babies™ in the UK mainland and Eire only and we therefore had to turn down requests for membership from as far away as Hawaii. This is now not the case, and although we do not hold waiting lists anymore, we are still happy to stamp that card, so our members can enjoy prize draws, free beanies and at Silver membership a year's supply of Mary Beth's Bean Bag World, with Gold membership offering 5% discount on all goods in the store. Part of the work of the Club is to support local charities, and THE PRINCESS ROYAL HOSPITAL, MATERNITY UNIT, HAYWARDS HEATH, WEST SUSSEX was our nominated charity for part of the 98/99 year. Various raffles have raised funds for the unit. For the 99/00 year we raised funds for a childrens home called Greenacres in Crawley, West Sussex. We continue to support CHUGS.

BEECHES CHARITY WORK

BEECHES SIX PACK IV RAFFLE	To build on the funds raised for Greenacres, BRITANNIA, PEACE, PRINCESS, ERIN, THE END AND OSITO were won in a raffle drawn on 29th April by Charlotte from Horsham. We raised a further Ł156.50, giving us a grand total of Ł637 towards the trip!
BEECHES SIX PACK III RAFFLE	A raffle to raise funds for a six bedded childrens home in Crawley, West Sussex. We hope to raise enough funds to send the children on a trip to Euro Disney. Mrs Harvey from Ipswich, Suffolk is the winner of BIRTHDAY BEAR, BRITANNIA, HOLIDAY TEDDY 98, SPANGLE, MILLENIUM AND FUZZ. We have raised Ł480.50 from this raffle.
BEECHES SIX PACK II RAFFLE	Beeches Collectors Club member 1168, won ERIN, PRINCESS, HOL TED 98, BRITANNIA, HALO AND SANTA .
100 BEANIE™ RAFFLE - Ideal Home Exhibition	Beeches, donated 100 beanies™ including Britannia, Millenium, Erin, Princess, Halo, Hol Ted 98 and many other beanies™. We were delighted that Becky Philips of Beanie Mania Magazine donated Holiday Teddy 97, Peace, Chops and Lizzie to this raffle, which together with the Beeches Six Pack II Raffle above raised Ł1100 for the maternity unit at The Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath. The lucky winner received their prize on 11th June 1999.
KIDS FOR CUBS	Beeches has donated a Britannia and a Jack (Attic) to the Kids for Cubs fund in the United States. Sally Maughan, the force behind Idaho Black Bear Rehab, Inc., has been rescuing orphaned black bear cubs for the past ten years. She feeds them, tends to their medical needs, and prepares the cubs to be returned to their natural habitat. Through her efforts, Sally has rehabilitated and released approximately 41 black bear cubs. The amazing thing about Sally is that she has funded this cub rescue totally on her own. Without her efforts, these cubs would have faced euthanasia. Children at the Cumberland Elementary School in West Lafayette, Illinois, are organising fund raisers to assist Ms Maughan with her efforts. So far we understand that the children have raised over US$1000. We are delighted to have been able to help
BEECHES SIX PACK I	As with the Six Pack II above, Beeches donated six bears to be raffled last year to raise funds for The Princess Royal Hospital, maternity unit. We raised Ł350 by raffling BRITANNIA, ERIN, PEACE, HALO, FORTUNE and CURLY .
CHhugs	We at Beeches are actively supporting the Britbeanz Group's Hospice appeal - You too can help by following the link below
TOTAL FUNDS RAISED TO DATE	Ł2,057.00