After asking if something is possible, and finding the answer is yes, it’s possible, the next thing to do is follow through, according to Douglas Bratt, resident of Nevada City, children’s book author, and co-founder of the Grateful Bears Project.

For Douglas Bratt following through began with writing down his ideas.

Bratt and his wife Laurie Bethell began the Grateful Bears Project out of their goal to share gratitude and compassion through six inch, plush, wide-eyed bears, while at the same time, generating financial support for heart-felt causes around the world.

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Each collectable bear is made in the likeness of an individual of notoriety, with 100 percent of the profits going to each individual bear’s charity of choice.

Bratt and Bethell were inspired to start a new line of plush bears after the production of Jerry Bears, named after Jerry Garcia, the iconic American musician, principal songwriter, and a vocalist with the rock band The Grateful Dead, were discontinued.

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“Laurie and I went off and started a new line of bears, because they stopped making these bears when Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead passed back in the ’90s,” Bratt said. “The thought was why don’t we create a new line of bears whereby every bear is kind of modeled after these individual philanthropic individuals around the world, famous people who do good things?”

The fundraising labor of love was intertwined with personal events in the lives of Bratt and Bethell that inspired another project, Bratt’s first children’s book.

Bratt had purchased over 100 Jerry Bears for his granddaughter one Christmas, and a duplicate of each bear was later given to each guest at Bratt and Bethell’s wedding in Costa Rica in 2013.

The book titled ‘Ava’s Grateful Bears’ was published in 2014 and tells the story of the Christmas gift that creates a precious connection between a granddaughter and her grandfather.

“The bears end up in Costa Rica and at our wedding. Everyone at our ceremony on the beach in Costa Rica received a Grateful Bear,” Bratt said.

Gratitude and compassion are goals for the couple, according to Bratt.

“Our first bear was modeled after a lady named Deva Premal, a kirtan singer, who travels the world, very, very big in Europe,” Bratt said. “She sings devotional mantras…It is just bringing in the divine in its own Sanskrit 1,000 year old way. Her music is absolutely beautiful.”

All the money raised from this rose-colored bear with soft golden hair, mala beads around her neck, and a symbol of oneness in Hinduism and other world religions, Om, embroidered on its paw, goes to the SEVA Foundation, a global nonprofit eye care organization that works with local communities around the world to develop programs that preserve and restore sight.

Donations to SEVA help to provide 15-minute cataract surgery, eyeglasses, medicine, and other eye care services to 57 million people in over 20 countries.

“The SEVA Foundation was founded by Ram Dass, Wavy Gravy, and Larry Brilliant, about 40 years ago…It was founded in Nepal, and the people there were having cataract problems,” Bratt said. “Wavy Gravy and these guys were over their own spiritual seeking stuff, and they said we should do something about this, and that’s what they created.”

There is an intertwined connection to all pieces of Bratt’s stories, the people he has met along his path of gratitude, and the outcomes that have resulted from his goals.

Ram Dass was an American spiritual teacher, guru of modern yoga, psychologist, and writer, and Dr. Larry Brilliant worked with the World Health Organization to end smallpox in India and along with his wife, Girija Brillant, publishing works benefiting public health and epidemiology.

“Wavy Gravy was the emcee at Woodstock. He’s a wonderful human being. His 88th birthday is going to be celebrated here next month…all the money for Wavy Gravy bear goes to Camp WinnaRainbow,” Bratt said.

The money raised from the Wavy Gravy bear, designed with baby blue plush fabric, wearing a tie-dye T-shirt, and a peace sign embroidered into his paws goes toward scholarships providing youth to attend the overnight camp in Northern California that specializes in the circus and performing art.

A bear designed in the likeness of the American folk-singer Joan Baez has the shape of a diamond on its paws in recognition of her song, “Diamonds and Rust.” The wide-eyed bear is dressed in a silk kimono with mala beads on her wrists.

Baez also wanted her donations from Grateful Bears to go to the SEVA Foundation, according to Bratt.

The Robert Plant bear, with long, rock-star hair, raises money for the non- profit organization called No Kid Hungry, and the Jeff Bridges bear, wearing a yellow bathrobe that says ‘Dude’ on the back of it, raises money for Vital Ground Foundation.

“Jeff Bridges chose vitalground.org which is saving the grizzly bear habitat up in Montana. Jeff Bridges is also the spokesperson for No Kid Hungry. It’s all interrelated,” Bratt said.

The connections keep growing, as Bratt and Bethell continue working through their passions.

“I did a lot of work on the Grateful Bears initially, mostly the bears…Doug [Bratt] is like the visionary, and I’m more the, okay, let’s get the grassroots stuff done; the more tedious not quite as exploratory or visionary. So I helped him with that,” Bethell said.

Bratt and Bethell just signed up Bob Weir, musician and songwriter with the Grateful Dead, and they have Graham Nash from Crosby, Stills and Nash in the works

“We’re negotiating with Bonnie Raitt, and we’re hoping for Cher,” Bratt said.

Bratt sent a “six-pack” of Grateful Bears and a copy of his third children’s book titled “The Amazing Fezziwig” to Oprah Winfrey, in hopes that a new connection will be made.

“The Amazing Fezziwig” is the story narrated by an English Cream Golden Retriever who enjoys his days touring and visiting with locals and visitors in the Nevada City area.

The children’s book comes with a map, leading children and their families to walk the loop around Nevada City that includes the suspension bridge on the Deer Creek Tribute Trail, the Methodist Church on the 400 block of Broad Street, and ending up at the Treats Ice Cream Shop on Main Street.

At each of the eleven locations around town, children can reach inside a miniature, colorful dog house and find a rubber stamp to mark their map, and redeem for a sweet treat at the end of the loop.

“The name Fezziwig comes from the Charles Dickens’ novel ‘A Christmas Carol,” Bratt said. “In the famous Christmas story, young Ebenezer Scrooge had a boss who was not a wealthy man, but a grateful, joyful, and loving man, so we wanted to name our dog after this happy and grateful character.”

Wondering what comes next, Bratt was not able to say for sure. He referred to the “cosmic nuggets” that guide him in his day-to-day life, and often come in the form of mental inklings from a blond furry friend.

When asked if it was possible that Oprah might have a Grateful Bear designed in her image, and even if it was possible that she would walk Fezziwig’s loop here Nevada City, the children’s book author and co-founder of Grateful Bears would only give a smile.