Enjoy lunch in St. Louis with Maxine Clark—Founder, Chief Executive Bear and Chairman of Build-A-Bear Workshop®.

You and one guest will meet Maxine at World Bearquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, for a grand tour of Bearquarters and then head to a nearby restaurant for great food and great conversation. This is a rare chance to meet one of the business world's top executives.

Maxine Clark is one of the true innovators in the retail industry. In 1997, she founded Build-A-Bear Workshop, a teddy-bear-themed retail-entertainment experience. Today there are more than 400 stores worldwide. In 2009, Build-A-Bear Workshop was named to the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® list. Maxine's first book, The Bear Necessities of Business: Building a Company with Heart, was published in 2006.

UMPS CARE Charities loves Build-A-Bear Workshops so much that the organization made it the cornerstone of the children's hospital program. The BLUE for Kids children’s hospital program brings Major League Baseball umpiring crews to the bedside of children with life-threatening illnesses. More than 4,000 bears have been given to children since the program started, and that equals more than 4,000 smiles.