Plush and Play: First Filipino Stuffed Toys Now at Toy Kingdom SM Megamall

Wazzup Pilipinas!

We are always proud to share the news about Filipino brands that have made it mainstream, and thus we are extremely happy that Plush and Play - those adorable fruits and vegetables stuffed toys with their own fun names - are now available for sale at Toy Kingdom of SM Megamall.

Fabien Courteille, a French man at Gawad Kalinga, was thrilled to share with us their product line as we interviewed him for WazzupPilipinas.com. He enumerated some of the many characters that make up the many fruits and vegetables stuffed toys partially handcrafted but whole-heartedly made by mothers at the Gawad Kalinga foundation at GK Enchanted Farm.

His partners, namely Howard Lorenzo, Ainee Idanan, and Coco Castro Cruz, were equally glad to tell their participation in the very first Filipino brand of stuffed toys that are indeed colorful and durable for all ages to play with, or even just display at home or even in the office.

We also interviewed Tony Meloto, the founder of Gawad Kalinga, and has his video message for everyone whom he encourages to support the Plush and Play brand. He said that it's ironic that it takes a French man to make this move in changing the mindset of our people in supporting Filipino brand of toys. We should be giving our kids something truly Filipino-made to play with so that it will eventually cascade to the betterment of both our people and economy. We should all be prioritizing in helping every Filipino endeavor so that we would all benefit from it.

Above is just one of the videos I made out from the Plush and Play launch at Toy Kingdom of SM Megamall. There are more videos currently uploading at the YouTube channel of WazzupPilipinas.com

Hosting the event was actress LJ Moreno Alapag along with a guy from Gawad Kalinga, who I found out was Coco's husband, and special guests were actress Danica Sotto Pingris and professional basketball player Jimmy Alapag who engaged with the first buyers of the brand as he played with the kids who tried out basketball with the Buco Martin stuffed toy.

These are just some of the many Plush and Play stuffed toy varieties which reaches up to somewhere more or less to 16 kinds that are available in two sizes

Plush and Play is a social enterprise born in Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm. They create unique Filipino-inspired stuffed toys, hand-crafted and home-made by hardworking resident motehrs from Gawad Kalinga communities.

Plush and Play aims to restore the Filipino seamstresses' livelihood and pride in their craftmanship; and to inspire the next generation of young Filipinos.

Wth a first line of fruits and veggies themed toys, named after local icons, Plush and Play is delighting the young ones in the Philippines and in the world while providing mothers with an opportunity to attend to the needs of their kids at home.

Plush and Play Founder Fabien Courteille

Plush and Play has given the word PLUSH a meaning namely P for Protect our children, L for Love our country, U for Uplift the lives of the poor, S for Share this wonderful gift to others, and H for Honor locally made products.

The noble objectives of the brand is to provide sources of income for 1,000 families by 2024, continuously inspire and raise a new generation of young heroes and local social entrepreneurs, the aim to have no children in the Philippines to be deprived of their right to play growing up with toys, and to continuously set new standards in the Philippine toy industry in the areas of safety, social and environmental impacts.

As of now, the Plush and Play social enterprise has benefited 22 families, released 70,000 toys and reached over Php 2 Million revenue for the community. That's an excellent feat that needs to be sustained and even improved for the benefit not only of the Gawad Kalinga community but to ripple as well to the rest of the country.

LJ Moreno Alapag and Danica Sotto Pingris

Fabien Courteille, Plush and Play founder, with Tony Meloto, Gawad Kalinga founder

With the mother and kids of Gawad Kalinga and Plush and Play

Activities were provided for the enjoyment of the kids of the Plush and Play stuffed toys buyers, and the first 30 buyers got the opportunity to shoot some balls with Jimmy Alapag himself. Partners from Gawad Kalinga, SM and Toy Kingdom also got into the mini court with Jimmy for some photo ops and provided with an autographed photo using an Instax camera.

I have so many photos that I've shared at our Facebook page so it won't bring down this article with too many photos, plus the videos will be uploaded soon at our YouTube channel.

Fabien Courteille with Captain Jimmy Alapag

Photo ops before the ribbon cutting

Plush and Play logo

Fabien Courteille with LJ Moreno Alapag at the ribbon cutting with key individuals from SM, Toy Kingdom, Gawad Kalinga, Plush and Play, 

Manny Pakwan stuffed toy is a watermelon named after professional Filipino boxer Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao

Fabien Courteille, LJ Moreno Alapag and Danica Sotto Pingris with some of the mothers from Gawad Kalinga

Refreshment were the kick-ass lemongrass flavored all-nutritious, all-delicious Filipino-brand iced tea Bayani Brew, and  some crackers topped with the honey-sweetened peanut spread from First Harvest.

We took videos of almost everything so be sure to watch them as soon as we get to upload them on our YouTube channel and embed here at our blog site. The many photos we took from the event is already available at our official Facebook page.

Congratulations to the Plush and Play team and Gawad Kalinga for another successful movement towards a better nation.