New animals will be donated to Toys for Tots, a program run by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve that distributes toys to needy children during the holiday season. Your stuffed animal will help us set a record and make kids happy!

Submissions become the property of the National Geographic Society, and all rights thereto are transferred to the National Geographic Society. Submissions cannot be acknowledged or returned.

Follow these rules to help us create the largest gathering of stuffed animals!

1. Select a new stuffed animal. (Only new animals can be sent to Toys for Tots.)

2. Leave the tags on the animal. (We have to prove that the animals are new!)

3. The animal must be at least three inches (7.6 centimeters) tall and three inches (7.6 centimeters) wide. The bigger, the better!

4. The outside of the stuffed animal must be plush (not a hard surface such as wood or plastic). No real-fur stuffed animals.

5. We can't have any animals that are exactly the same in our gathering, so be creative when picking out your stuffed animal. Pick one that you think no one else would choose! Just make sure it's based on a real animal—not, for example, a unicorn.

6. If you like, fill out the animal's personality profile below. (This is not a requirement.)

7. Send as many stuffed animals as you wish to:

NG Kids/Set a Guinness World Record P.O. Box 98001 (RB)
Washington, DC 20090-8001

If you wish, give your stuffed animal some personality by printing and filling out this "profile"! (If you're sending more than one animal, make copies of this page.)

Postmark deadline is October 2, 2006.

For more information, visit Toys for Tots.

Photograph of train art courtesy Marine Toys for Tots Foundation; photograph of animals by Mark Thiessen