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It all started simply with a thought, 7
years ago, in 2003, the week after Valentine's day, to celebrate a young child's birthday.
My oldest son and I were trying to think
of something to bring to his kindergarten class for his birthday party. A light bulb went off and he
wanted his classmates to enjoy something YUMMY and homemade by him. Of course, in this day and age, homemade
brownies, cookies or cupcakes from home are not an acceptable food item in today's schools due to numerous reasons but,
mainly because many children have food allergies. This was a difficult conversation to have with my five
year old who was soon to be six in two weeks. Soon, I changed the subject to something we could possibly BUY
to bring in for his big birthday celebration at school.
My five year old was frustrated with me and was
not interested in buying or bringing in anything less than homemade. (The Christmas previous, I had made and given
fragrant, aromatherapy type soaps to family and friends for the holidays which was very experimental and didn't turn out so
great). My son remembered this and tried to explain this idea to me. So, attentively, I listened
to my persistant son trying to explain what he wanted. It took some time and strength not to interrupt my son, and
to continue on with my day which included caring for his three younger siblings. Finally, I understood his
vision. He picked up a heart-shaped cookie cutter laying on the counter, clearly from Valentine cookies
made last week, and using his frog, visually placed it in the center of the heart-shaped perimeter making a lily pad
for his tiny colorful frog. He said without many words that he loved his frogs and wanted to share those with his classmates,
however, he wanted to add soap to it.
WOW! My five year old son, who's in kindergarten,
wanted to use his little frogs and put them inside soap. From the indirect mouths of babes! How can this
be happening? This is absolutely amazing!
Within an hour, it started as a simple thought,
grew to an idea, and visually communicated across the kitchen counter into this great soap idea for kids. Unbelievable
to me and quite a business adventure for my young Tot Entrepreneur!
This is the same five year old who couldn't even
utter 60 recognizable words at the age of 3 years old, received ear tubes at 3-1/2 years old and spoke the word "Mommy"
a week later, then at age four read "Go Dog! Go!" outloud to me. This small thought...idea...vision came from
my five year old son, a kindergartner! I would find out a year later almost to the day that he is
diagnosed with high functioning Autism, Asperger Syndrome to be exact, with a communication disorder added on to
it.
My world literally turned upside down, backwards and sideways when we
were told of his diagnosis. Don't get me wrong, I was also thoroughly relieved there was a name for the "it" he had.
If it wasn't for the support and guidance of the Autism Committee at the Metropolitan School District
of Washington Township in Indianapolis, Indiana, his teachers who are all trained to recognize and work with these
tendencies, the principals who know how to get the wheels turning for evaluating these children, the persistant
Speech Therapists and the patient Occupational Therapists, I don't know where my son would be today without their help.
I certainly could not have done it all on my own without them. My son has certainly come a LONG way since March
2004.
Once the storm whanned a bit after the first initial shock, I started to
concentrate on my son's positives, going all the way back to infancy up to the present. The signs were there very early
for my son, as early as four months old. I could see them now, now that I knew what I was looking for. My husband
and I were never at any point in denial, we knew it was something and we were looking for answers and help. When
your oldest child is diagnosed with High Functioning Autism, Aspberger Syndrome, you truly don't know what it is you are looking
for that your child does or does not do, because you do not have another child to compare it to.
Luckily, my second oldest was only 12-1/2 months younger than my son and
as she grew older, she was accomplishing tasks, speaking clearly, translating my son's language for me, and doing things he
could not do. That's how we truly knew something was amiss. The SOAP IDEA! It all made sense now.
It was the most positive situation where my son was alive, awake, interacting and communicating. This was OUR platform
to help him.
We all sat down on the floor and/or at the dinner table as a family for many
days to discuss the name we were to give my son's teeny, tiny business. Of course, we came up with some doozey company
names, as any children age 6 and under will do. After many days turned into weeks, we all finally agreed to the company
name of CLEAN FUN SOAP! My four kids broke into a chant and eventually into
random song and melody of my son's new business name. He grinned from ear to ear. The kids started picking
out toys they wanted in the soap, they talked about how they wanted it placed in the soap, what colors they would like
for each soap to be, they also named the soaps and eventually put the labels on too. I was just so proud of the
kid's enthusiasm and how my son was so "in tune and alive" with the development of his small company.
I signed up for a few craft fairs the next Fall of 2004 to see if families
would be interested in using the kid soaps in their bathrooms. We had more than our fair share of soap. Believe
me, when I tell you, we were up to our armpits in soap! No pun intended. Our family was a true test market for
the products we were offering for kids and small children, so we hoped for a good review. We received alot
of positive feedback and other soap ideas customers were wanting to see too! From there, my son's little soap company
was becoming a reality.
Eventually, Aunt Char, in Burbank, California, used her PR skills and
helped to solidify CLEAN FUN SOAP in the webworld along with a subtitle "Kid-Sized
Soap for Big-Time Fun", key fonts and establishing a trademark. Also, Uncle Bob, located in Chicago, Illinois, helped us use the already established web space on our server to start a website, a better
way to take pictures of our soaps and recommended a higher quality camera.
My son was just so thrilled that his vision had come to life. He opted
to give his Mom the title of Soap Designer and Owner of Clean Fun Soap for
now. He's letting me "run the show" until he decides to take it over later due the demands of school,
homework and other after school activities. He still has the upper hand in soap design, picking out the toys for the
soaps, naming most of the soaps, helping with the labeling and pricing of the soaps, assists with the website alterations
and picture taking, and helps at the craft fairs when he can. Attending the craft fairs is his favorite part since he
can "tell his story" and buy snacks from the food vendors.
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| 'Leap Frog' soap design by Tot Entrepreneur |
By the way, the frog soap, named "Leap Frog" by
my son, the very first soap he designed at the age of 5, is hands down, my best-selling, single-item soap every single
year. That's got to tell you something!? Right? This, among other reasons, is why I have started
to donate 10% of the craft fair sales to the Autism Committee of MSD of Washington Township Schools, the Fall of 2007
and 2008. Starting in 2009, we will be donating 2% of craft fair sales and 100% of all Autism based soap sales.
In the summer of 2007, Aunt Char sent to me a mold in the shape of puzzle pieces. Puzzle pieces represent the complexity
of Autism and, therefore, 100% sales from the 'Puzzle Piece' soaps or other Autism based soaps are also given to the
Autism Committee of MSD of Washington Township.
It just goes to show that these special children are amazing thinkers and express
outstanding ideas when we just take the time to listen to them and understand their world.
"Autism Fair offers resources for families" as posted in
the North Indy Star on Friday, March 7, 2008.
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