“SWIMMING CHAMPIONS” SCRAMBLE SQUARES® 9-PIECE PUZZLE HONORED AMONG “DR. TOY’S 10 BEST SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE PRODUCTS” FOR 2006 BY THE INSTITUTE FOR CHILDHOOD RESOURCES
REDONDO BEACH, CA…October 17, 2006… b. dazzle, inc. of Redondo Beach, California, has announced that its “Swimming Champions” Scramble Squares® 9-piece brain teaser puzzle has been honored by The Institute for Childhood Resources in San Francisco as among “Dr. Toy’s 10 BEST SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE PRODUCTS” FOR 2006 and as one of “Dr. Toy’s 100 BEST CHILDREN’S PRODUCTS” FOR 2006. The 15th Annual report of “Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Children’s Products 2006” awards, announced on October 16, is now available to parents, teachers and others in the online magazine, Dr. Toy’s Guide, at http://www.drtoy.com. The free report is available by sending an SASE #10 envelope to Dr. Toy. “Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Children’s Products Awards Program 2006” was developed by noted child development authority Stevanne Auerbach, Ph.D. (a.k.a. Dr. Toy) as a service to consumers who desire to purchase safe, affordable, educationally oriented and stimulating toys and products for children.
“As a childhood specialist for over 35 years,” says Dr. Toy, Director of the Institute for Childhood Resources, founded in San Francisco in 1975, “I have seen the continuous, essential need for more year-round resources for consumers to identify and choose the most appropriate, safe and engaging learning and developmental products for all children.” Dr. Toy reports that in the years the innovative on-line magazine, Dr. Toy’s Guide, has been available, “thousands of visitors daily from around the world have accessed its information.” The site was the first on-line to evaluate toys and children’s products. The report, “Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Children’s Products for 2006,” is being released, according to Dr. Toy, to “encourage parents and teachers to focus on the value of play as essential to the learning process.” She adds, “The smart play products selected from 100 companies across the U.S., Canada and from other countries will provide children with exciting new learning tools that help them to do better in school, and also provide constructive activities to do after school.”
Dr. Auerbach believes “parents and grandparents need help to get a head start locating new, diversified products that children will enjoy using while they increase learning skills, enhance instruction and expand creativity.” The products are balanced from among large and small companies and range from low to high tech for “hours of constructive, educational and stimulating fun.”
“Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Products” were carefully chosen from among thousands that she has reviewd at toy fairs, catalogs, through many other sources and by using extensive criteria that she has developed over many years. Among the criteria used are: safety, age-appropriateness, design, durability, lasting play value, cultural and ethnic diversity, good transition from home to school, educational value, learning skills, creativity, improvement in understanding of the community and the world, good value for the price, and, naturally, fun.
Exquisite, award-winning Scramble Squares® brain teaser puzzles for ages 4 to 104 are at least as popular with adults, seniors, teenagers and college students as they are with children. Although each Scramble Squares® puzzle has only nine 4” x 4” pieces, Scramble Squares® puzzles are Perhaps the World’s Most Challenging Puzzle®! At under $10.00 retail, Scramble Squares® puzzles make inexpensive, but highly entertaining and valued gifts for both men and women alike… for Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter, Halloween, birthdays, get well, graduation, travel and holidays. Scramble Squares® puzzles are Easy To Play, But Hard To Solve!® Over 120 exquisite styles of colorful original art are available on nature, sports, history, culture, geography, science, technology, occupations, gourmet, fantasy, hobbies and activities, and more new styles are added every six months.
Each Scramble Squares® puzzle package includes a panel of fascinating factual information on the subject of the puzzle, as well as a trivia question and hidden answer, all packaged in a unique and handy heavy duty 101/2″ long x 53/4″ wide x 3/8″ deep resealable vinyl travel pouch, which may be collected and stored easily in a standard 3-ring binder. The vinyl pouch is crystal clear, enabling the consumer to see the extraordinary beauty of the puzzles’ realistic original art, while achieving a very high amount of retail value per square foot of store space for the merchant.
Scramble Squares® teaches:
- Critical Thinking/Problem Solving Skills
- Patience
- Perseverance
- Statistical Probabilities
- Cooperative and Solitary Productivity Scramble Squares® also helps maintain mental agility, sharpness and memory in seniors and adults, while providing hours of quiet and stimulating entertainment.
b. dazzle’s new “Swimming Champions” Scramble Squares® puzzle is the first in the Olympic series of Scramble Squares® puzzles, features John Naber, Janet Evans, Rowdy Gaines, and Mary T. Meagher, each performing their signature swimming strokes (backstroke, breaststroke, crawl and butterfly, respectively) and shows the USOC Olympic rings logo on each of the puzzle’s nine 4″ x 4″ pieces.
The U. S. Olympic Committee’s mission statement is “To support United States Olympic and Paralympic athletes in achieving sustained competitive excellence and preserve the Olympic Ideals, and thereby inspire all Americans.” The Olympic ideals of excellence, teamwork and fair play reflect the values and principles that drives b. dazzle, inc., according to b. dazzle founder, puzzle designer, president & CEO, Kathie Gavin. “What youngster doesn’t dream to someday represent his or her country in the Olympics and strive to achieve the pinacle of his or her sport that only God’s grace, self-discipline, honesty and hard work can achieve,” she adds. “We wish to help inspire America’s youth and are grateful for the opportunity to reach them and their parents through our affiliation with the USOC.”
b. dazzle, inc. retail store Scramble Squares® puzzle displays come complete with the unique Scramble Squares® “5-MINUTE CHALLENGE®” in-store free puzzle giveaway promotion for consumers who solve a Scramble Squares® demonstration puzzle within five minutes! b. dazzle provides a free 24″ x 36″ full color “WIN A FREE PUZZLE” promotional poster to any store offering its customers the Scramble Squares® “5–MINUTE CHALLENGE®. ” Retailers can give a free Scramble Squares® puzzle to any customer who accepts the challenge and successfully solves the 9-piece Scramble Squares® demonstration puzzle within five minutes. b. dazzle promptly replaces the stores’ puzzles awarded to consumers at no cost to the merchants. b. dazzle’s permanent wood counter, floor and slat wall displays each feature a demonstration puzzle on an interactive playing surface with an electronic timer to time consumers in the 5–MINUTE CHALLENGE®. b. dazzle also offers a free, very compact, corrugated counter spinner display, including the timer and poster, with the purchase of any 72 Scramble Squares® puzzles in any quantity per style.
“We are very pleased, honored and extremely gratified that our newest Scramble Squares® puzzles have maintained the very high standards that Dr. Toy upholds as her criteria for the annual “DR. TOY’S 100 BEST PRODUCTS” awards,” says b. dazzle founder, puzzle designer, president & CEO, Kathie Gavin. “ We are
humbled to be honored as among the “Dr. Toy 10 Best Socially Responsible Products,” she adds. “Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Children’s Products” awards program is the standard by which we measure our design and production success. We are proud to have again achieved that success,” Gavin adds.
b. dazzle, inc. is an official member of the CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition of the Josephson Institute of Ethics in Los Angeles: http://www.charactercounts.org (800-711-2670; 310-846-4800). The purpose of the CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition is to fortify the lives of America’s young people with consensus ethical values called the “Six Pillars of Character.” These six key character values, which transcend divisions of race, creed, politics, gender and wealth, are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. Because our society places such a high value on material success, there is the tendency in human nature to pursue success by any means, whether fairly or unfairly, honestly or dishonestly. We strongly believe that with our success comes a duty for us to contribute to our society. We wish to do so by advancing the principles of good character and ethical behavior, not only by operating our business in accordance with ethical standards, but also by advancing and promoting the importance of ethical business practices and ethical behavior throughout our industry and our society at large. The “CHARACTER COUNTS!” Coalition has become the nation’s leading character education system, now reaching five million youngsters through a widespread partnership of schools and youth-serving organizations. Two United States’ Presidents, the Congress, most states and countless municipalities have endorsed the Coalition’s approach and declared the third week in October “National CHARACTER COUNTS! Week.”