Beanie Babies head to Iraq from Alaska; a Juneau resident sends boxloads of popular toys to Iraqi children.

• Author: Schmitz, Richard F.

Sometime in the 1990s, toymaker Ty Warner found he had a particularly successful item in the small, colorful plush toys called "Beanie Babies." Soon these small bears and frogs and lions became hot collectibles as well as simple children's toys.

In Alaska, the "Beanie Baby" boom may have cooled a bit--but in one war-torn corner of the world the toys are finding new admirers in thanks to some creative thinking on the part of John Manly, a communications special assistant with the Alaska Department of Transportation.

"I ran across an article describing an incident where a group of U.S. soldiers were giving out Beanie Babies to Iraqi children while on patrol," Manly explained. "The next day the soldiers were stopped by a little girl holding the toy she'd gotten from the soldiers the day before. They asked her what was wrong, and she pointed to where a roadside bomb had been buried. I guess you could say the beanie may have saved some lives. So I started collecting them and sending them off."

Manly said he's been able to find plenty of beanies at garage sales and rummage sales. "I check them for condition. If they're a little grubby, I just put them in the wash and they usually come out clean and fluffy," he said.

Beanies are ideal, Manly explained, because...