The new face of Brown Bear Toys
On Jan. 1, Brown Bear Toys opened their doors for the first time under new ownership of longtime Mendocino County residents: the Johnson family.
Pam Leland began Brown Bear Toys in 2006 and has been an unwavering staple for the children (and the “kids at heart!”) in our community for the past 17 years. Being a successful entrepreneur of Little Brown Bear and Brown Bear Toys, Pam has shown her businesses to be local leaders within both industries.
As the Lelands look to a well deserved retirement, the Johnson family intends to continue this legacy of providing important wholesome toys for kids to use their imaginations and have fun. As a homeschooling family, the Johnsons intend to use this opportunity to teach their own kids about business and more importantly, what it means to be a local community partner.
“The best way to successfully run a toy store is to have consistent input from children themselves,” stated new store owner Cassie Johnson; the Johnson kids look forward to becoming the store's inhouse “research development team.”
“As a family, we look forward to this new endeavor… I appreciate Andy Ankowski's quote on toys when he said, `The best toys are like unicorns. They include enough horse to seem real, but enough horn to become magical.' We're ready to continue to provide those magical type toys to our community's kids.”
Join Brown Bear Toys, at 161 Orchard Plaza in Ukiah, as they provide the first 2024 in-store event today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. where they will host a meet and greet, plus photo opportunity for all locals to bring their toy enthusiasts to kick off the winter months with Anna and Elsa from the Disney movie “Frozen”; costumes encouraged.