Today we’d like to introduce you to Jerold Hill Jr.
Hi Jerold, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Austin, TX. I remember growing up in Rio Lado apartments on the east side of Austin. I was the only child and my mother was a single parent working two sometimes three jobs to support and make sure I had everything I needed. I didn’t see her much because she was always working so most of my days were spent with close family members. I grew up in a low income community, seeing a lot of drugs, violence and abuse.
This started my journey at an early age of wanting to make a change in my community. Around eight years old, I found my passion of playing basketball and working on group projects inside & outside of school. I developed a teamwork mentality at an early on. By the time I was in 5th grade, I had a hard time reading and I was not a good test taker. My mother wanted a better education for me so she took me out of public school and put me in a charter school called “Texas Empowerment Academy”. There I started my education with getting one on one attention and group activities that enhance my reading and learning skills. By the time I reached 9th grade, I was ahead of my peers and was then blessed with the opportunity to tutor other students. I was then transferred back to public school where I fished high school. I graduated and went to Navarro College where I received my Associate’s Degree in Petroleum Technology. At this point, I started to realize I was losing focus on what I was becoming and I was chasing money instead of the dream. I worked in the oil & gas industry for three years and I finally realized that I needed to get back to my passion which was making a change in my community. I was blessed with another opportunity to come back and teach at “Texas Empowerment Academy”.
From that moment on, I did whatever I could do to make a difference by helping the youth. After teaching about five years, I finally wanted to create my own business to motivate the youth & parents. In the summer of 2018, I created “City Bear Toys LLC.” I started out giving toys out to children in the community, then I started doing small events so people would come out and support my business and see all the new toys I had in stock. I made “City Bear Toys LLC” my full-time job and worked every day with no days off. By the end of 2019, I got a call from the City of Austin “Trail of Lights” and they brought over 10,000 toys from me to provide for the greater Austin area. From that moment, I felt like I was on top of the world because I was really making a difference. But I also knew that was just the beginning of my success. I started working even harder for the upcoming year 2020 and made some really big plans then COVID-19 & the surge in police brutality put everything on pause. The feeling of being knocked down is the worst but I kept the faith and prayed about it. After seeing the changes in my community and witnessing the youth struggle with adjusting to the home learning environment, the idea came to mind! I created City Bear Toys “Game Bus” which I could help tutor children and take them out of the home environment and put them on my bus with an arcade environment and reward children with video games for successfully completing their class & homework.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely not a smooth road, but that is part of life, I believe God put us through obstacles that teaches us how to overcome all challenges. When I started City Bear Toys, it was hard and took a lot of time and effort, selling toys is not easy to get a lot of support with big companies like Walmart, Target, and 5 Below. But I put my own twist and remember why I started from the beginning, to make a difference and give back to my community.
As you know, we’re big fans of City Bear Toys LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Welcome to City Bear Toys! An Austin, TX based company. My mission is to provide every child with an experience with my Game Bus, Inflatables, Toys & more that they will always remember. Giving back to the community is very important to me. That is why I participate and create events that are centered around mentoring and bringing joy to children. I view every customer as a family member for life. It is my company philosophy to assure complete satisfaction of every shopper. Share joy with City Bear Toys!
I am the first African American in Austin, TX to provide a Game Bus tutorial service and that is what sets me apart from any other game bus in surrounding areas.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I see maybe starting my own franchise across the United States with more game buses and creating my own entertainment attraction centers where family can come out and enjoy there self’s. But I know for sure I will be blessed with more grateful opportunities by keeping the faith. All praise to God.
Pricing:
- Game Bus $160 an hour
- Inflatable Bouncy Houses $100 for 4 hours
- Inflatable Games $100 for 4 hours
Contact Info:
- Email: citybeartoys@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/citybeartoys/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/citybeartoys/
Image Credits
Nicholas Hunt
