“Care Bear” Jeep bringing smiles to South Mississippi

Hundreds of thousands of vehicles move through South Mississippi each day, an endless flow of tan sedans, white pick-up trucks and black SUV’s.

But when this car goes anywhere, it catches everyone’s attention.

“The second I pull up anywhere, I get smiles… I mean on everybody’s faces. Anybody from a child, all the way to a grandpa.”

Meet Dawn Flaherty – she’s the owner of the “Care Bear” Jeep. It combines two important things in her life – a love of Jeeps, and her nickname of “Care Bear,” which she was given by her husband because of her happy and bubbly personality. Flaherty’s vision of her dream car came to reality after a friend sent her a picture of a similarly-themed Jeep.

“I was like, ‘This is cute, don’t know if I can make this reality happen, but maybe,’” Flaherty said. “And somehow, the universe worked in my favor.”

While the Jeep is fun to stop and take a look at, it does more than you might think. Flaherty’s goal is to make South Mississippians smile, one mile at a time.

“I think it’s just so much fun because I have heard so many stories about what ‘Care Bears’ means to people, so that’s really what it is,” Flaherty explained. “It’s about spreading joy and kindness… I mean, the world’s dark right now, so it’s just fun to be a little bright on the Coast.”

No matter where she goes or who she meets, she looks to spread a smile and a bit of joy… in true Jeep enthusiast fashion, of course.

“So I’ve got these little fun “Care Bear” ducks and this is just my imprint in the world,” Flaherty said, showing off one of her signature rubber ducks.

As for the next step in her mission?

“Well right now, I am being relentless and I am emailing the Cloud company, which is the “Care Bear” company, and I’m trying to get a collab because what I really want is a mission of spreading this joy all over the country,” Flaherty said. “I want to, you know, just leave a ripple effect of kindness everywhere I go.”