IKEA turns Romanian boy’ s drawing into a plushy toy

A drawing made by Albert, a 7-year-old boy from Romania, will be turned into a plushy toy by IKEA of Sweden AB. The new toy will be put up for sale in all IKEA stores worldwide starting November.

So, Albert’s drawing representing a merry bat was among the ten winner drawings of the world contest launched by Ikea in 2014- “Plushy Toys Campaign for Education”.

The IKEA designers will turn the ten drawings into a limited collection of plushy toy. The ten winners are children aged between 4 and 10 years old from Norway, Belgium, Canary Islands, Malaysia, Great Britain, Croatia, Cyprus, The Netherlands, Romania and Taiwan. Among the winner creations there were also a tiger-caterpillar, a skunk named Stinky, fierce dinosaurs and a blue spot with one eye.

“We picked up ten winner creations out of thousands of drawings made by children.

The final drawings are unique fabulous characters that prove that anything is possible within children’s imagination. We have come up to like these characters and I sure they will be popular also among our customers,” Maria Thörn, Children IKEA Range Manager said, as quoted by Mediafax.

“I think we know why the little bat drawn by the Romanian boy is looking so surprised: it is the only bat in the world which can fly with reversed-oriented wings!”, Maria Thörn also said.For each plushy toy bought during November 2015-January 2016, IKEA Foundation will donate one euro to UNICEF and Save the Children for children’s education. Donations will also be directed to support schools from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, so that they should become safer and more well equipped, with highly trained teachers for all children, children from ethnic minorities and children with special needs included.