Maria Moldes, a Miami Children’s Hospital fund-raiser, couldn’tunderstand why several parents called her last year wanting to know howto get their hands on a popular Beanie Babies plush toy bear.

“Within a week, I got five phone calls,” said Moldes, whose onlyauthority on the subject of Beanies comes from buying a few for her twochildren. “I kept thinking, why are they calling us?”