Buena Park Couple Is Bullish on Bears

About five years ago, the Volpps started collecting teddy bears. Today, they have 3,000 of them, one of the world’s largest private collections.

The bathrooms, kitchen, den, bedrooms, stairs, living room, floors and hallways in their two-story, 4,000-square-foot Buena Park home are lined with teddy bears. A bear by the front door is six feet tall.

For Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving the decor in the house and the clothes on some of the teddy bears are changed to fit the occasion.

“I’m not really sure how this collection grew,” said Rosemary Volpp, 58. “It sort of sneaked up on us.” Husband Paul E. Volpp, 59, estimated that they have about 3,000 bears and he said that someday he will file them in his computer to get an exact count. He also has pictures of most of them.

The Volpps have names for most bears and can remember who is who, especially “Bo,” a 1904 Steiff bear made in Germany and one of the world’s most sought-after teddy bears. Bo lives in the Volpps’ bedroom.

“This is a very expensive hobby,” said Paul Volpp, who also collects toy trains and owns nine full-size antique trucks, one stored in the house. “Most people have to buy and sell (bears) to support their habit.”

The Volpps only buy bears, never trading or selling them. They said rare bears cost about $150 an inch. “What we buy we keep,” Paul Volpp said.

Although only collectors for five years, the Volpps are considered teddy bear experts and are requested as speakers. Last year they traveled 40,000 miles to give speeches.

They are also contributing editors for Teddy Bear and Friend, a national teddy bear magazine.

They recently returned from Australia where they spoke at the Australian Invitational Teddy Bear Affair. Upcoming events for the Volpps include a program in Baltimore on rare bears and a May 1 presentation at the Glendale Civic Auditorium.

They are members of five teddy bear clubs and attend weekly meetings. “We like to associate with teddy bear people,” Rosemary Volpp said. “They’re happy, jolly and pleasant.”

And it’s the history of the bears, she said, “that gives me a great deal of pleasure.”

“Do you know,” she asked, “that President Teddy Roosevelt (namesake of teddy bears) used to toss small bears into the crowd after giving political speeches from trains?”

The bears, especially the old and rare ones, are works of art, she added. “Besides that, they’re quiet, peaceful and tranquil.”

While some who collect bears think of them as “children,” Rosemary Volpp, who has two grown children, has a different view.

“I’m not their mother,” she said. “They’re just teddy bears.”

There’s a good reason why Fullerton College instructor Doris Fuqua sends her fashion design students to shop at a hardware store and then asks them to make clothes with what they bought.

“The trip makes them think in creative ways instead of trying to take a safe course,” Fuqua said, noting that creativity is the key to fashion design success. “I’m trying to tell them not to be conservative but to be bold and innovative.”

The unorthodox shopping spree has been going on for the 25 years Fuqua has been teaching at the school. She hopes the trip will convince students they have to be different to survive in the fashion design business.

One design, made by student Val Adrani, was a dress made of fiberglass window screen. Adrani used a chain rope necklace and a key earring to accent her creation.

Cindi Becker Lemkau’s design was a dress made of a paper drop cloth held together by pencils and rubber bands. Teddy bears and apples decorated the front.

Student Myong Tag said she had fun making a dress from a shower curtain, nails and rope.

Fuqua, of La Habra, said the students had to bind the clothes without sewing them together. Nuts and bolts were acceptable, she said.

Lordy, lordy.

Did you know, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are 50 years old this year?.

For those who thought they did a great job decorating Easter eggs, consider Jo Schell’s egg entry, which won first prize at the recent California Egg Artistry Show in Anaheim. She re-created the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, featuring eight carved archways that were decorated with rhinestones, gold braid and dried flowers.

Acknowledgments--Paula Margeson, 40, of Anaheim, who manages her family, works as director of programs for Dayle McIntosh Center for the Disabled and donates time as a volunteer, was named California Handicapped Professional Woman of the Year by Pilot Club International. She is blind.