A bit of history

One day in her first schoolyear our little daughter brought the cuddly animal of her class and it's diary with her at home. In that diary all the kids of the class were invited to describe their adventures with their little friend. We liked this idea so much that we decided to send a teddy bear of our own on the road. But as they say at the butcher's in Belgium: 'it may be a bit more': our little bear would go on a journey for a year. Of course a year is a long time to let go a friend like that. To keep an eye on our teddy, we created a website which allowed us to follow his trip. And there you go: 'Bear on the Road' was born. And it was allowed to be still a bit more. To start such a website is a lot of work for one little bear. Some of our friends were quite enthousiast at once: they took their old bear down from the attic and sent him on the road too. And soon we had about ten teddy bears on a (world)trip: some of them even already crossed the European borders! The next step was quite obvious. Kids grow up to be adolescents and their bears end their life on the attic. We collected a lot of little teddy bears and now we're looking for some kind people willing to give these bears a second life by sending them on the road.

'Bear on the Road': how does it work?

Every little bear starting a journey, gets a unique code. The trip actually begins by the owner of the bear entrusting him to friends, relatives, colleagues...
With the code attached to the bear, the hosting family can leave messages (with or without picture) on the website of 'Bear on the Road'. Whenever such a message is put on the site, the owner of the bear is automatically contacted by mail telling him there is some news. Like that he can follow the adventures of his teddy and moreover he has the possibility to reply to these messages.
Of course all these teddy bears want to travel around as much as possible and hence it is the purpose that a hosting family finds a new hosting family after some time. This way your little friend travels from host to host and on the website you can see a part of the world through his eyes. By the way: pushing one button opens a map showing where he is at the time.

Frequently asked questions

What do you need to send a bear on the road?

Two things: a bear and a code. If you have a bear of your own somewhere, all you require is a code: you can buy it in the bear shop. With this 'Bear on the Road'-code the hosting families can leave a message for you. Attach this code firmly to the bear and all of his possessions! You will also get a login for yourself. With this login you can reply to messages, send a 'thank you'-note to all the hosts of your bear, and print out his adventures. And of course you need a little teddy bear to travel around the world. You can give him a suitcase or a backpack, a diary, a toothbrush, a photo album, whatever you want... You can also buy a bear at Bear on the Road. All these bears already have a code on their back. Furthermore they are supplied with a little backpack (also with the code on it) in which you might put a diary or whatsoever. When you buy a code or bear, we always give you a detailed explanation of what you have to do step by step.

How long may the journey take?

The code which allows to leave messages is valid for 12 months. After that the bear is expected home again. This period of 12 months starts at the moment you fill in your personal data on the site. If you can miss your bear for a longer period, you have the possibility to prolong the code.

How should your bear get home?

As soon as a bear is on the road during 10 months, each time a host wants to leave a message he will be warned that the journey comes to an end. He will have the opportunity then to get in touch with the owner in order to arrange how the bear should get back home the easiest way.

Can you also read the stories of the other bears?

Of course you can! On top of the homepage of 'Bear on the Road' you can see the most recently left message. Underneath you will find a random selection of 6 bears on the road (this selection will be different every time you refresh the page). By clicking their picture you can read their adventures. And if this is still not enough, right below you can select any bear you want!

What can you do with the owner's code you got?

Apart from the code which goes along with the bear, you will also get a code (login) for bear owners. Keep it with you. On top of the website you see a button 'Login for bear owners'. When clicking it, you can login with the combination of your email address and this owner's code. You get to a screen where you can do a number of things:

• By clicking the name or picture of your bear, you can change his name and/or picture. Beware: don't change the name once your bear has started his journey! And when your bear gets home again, you can mark 'is this bear back home'. This allows you to download the full story of the journey in pdf-format.
• By clicking the figure under 'Amount of messages' you will get an overview of all the messages for your bear. If you want to, you can remove a message here (take care: this is irreversible). You can also reply to messages. Furthermore you have the choice whether you want your reply to be shown on the site or not. If you mark 'show message on this website', your reply will be shown on the site. The person to whom this reply is intended, will get a mail telling him there is some news on the site. If you don't mark it, your reply will be sent completely by mail.
• By clicking your name below, you can modify your personal data. It is very important to put your real email address there because it will be used to keep you informed.

What should you do if you don't get any messages from your bear for a long time?

The ideal scenario would be if a hosting family leaves a message (or more) within a week and then hands over the bear to a new host. If it takes much longer though, you can always send a reply to the last message (see previous question). By doing so you can contact the last known host and he of course should know where your bear is.

Somebody asked you to be the host of a bear: how do you put a message on the site?

On the back of the bear you will find a code of 8 characters (case sensitive!). On the homepage you can fill in this password under 'Hosting a traveling bear?' After clicking 'OK', you get to a screen where you can leave a message.

What's happening with the email address you have to fill in when you leave a message on the site as host of a bear?

This email address allows the site to send you a message when the owner of the bear wants to tell you something. The owner doesn't see your address. We don't pass your email address to anybody, nor do we use it to send you publicity. As soon as the bear gets home again after a year and his owner has printed all messages, your address will be removed from our database.

How many messages and pictures can a host leave?

Theoretically a host can leave as many messages as he wants. Each message can be accompanied by 1 picture. Beware: once you click 'save', the message is sent and you are not able to modify it. So if you want to add a picture to a message, it has to be done at the same moment.
It would be nice if the host shows some sign of life as soon as possible in order to let the owner know where the bear is. Afterwards you can of course put more messages.

What kind of pictures can you attach?

The only absolute condition is that it should be a jpg-file. This is the case for most digital cameras. And it is obvious that large files require more time to be uploaded. That's why we indicate the ideal format for the pictures. But don't worry if you are not a specialist in adapting pictures: the site will automatically take care of the correct format if needed. Keep it mind though that uploading can take some more time then. Anyhow you will get automatically to the next screen (the time it takes depends on the size of the picture).

Who is Carlson?

Carlson is the bear of the house. He left quietly on his own to see a little bit of the world. During his journey he finds himself on the craziest places, observing everything on his own naïve way.

How can you see on a map where a bear was at the moment of a message?

If the message is on the homepagina, first click on '...Read more'. If you click there on 'Have a look at Google Maps and see where ... was when this message was written!', then you get a new window with a map. To see the location of an other message, you first have to click on the little picture of the message.