April 6, 2004
TAGGIES™ Random Acts of Kindness
Massachusetts firm provides comfort
through tags to kids at Toronto’s
hospital for sick children
When a young Massachusetts mother, Julie Dix, noted that her baby
was more interested in the tags on toys than the toys themselves,
she never dreamed that her wry observation would lead to the formation
of a highly successful international business. Taggies® are colorful
fleece blankets edged all around with small, satiny tags that little
ones love to rub.
Taggies, Inc. has just made a large donation of
its comforting, interactive security blankets and other tag-adorned
children’s
products to the Department of Child Life at The Hospital for
Sick Children in Toronto.
This marks Taggies’ first donation
outside the U.S. Because the company began Canadian distribution
in 2003, it now seems appropriate to reach across borders with
donations, as well.
The Hospital for Sick Children, affectionately
called Sick Kids, is one of the largest pediatric academic health
science centers in the world, with an international reputation
for excellence in health care, research, and teaching. The Department
of Child Life strives to promote the optimum development of
children and their families, to maintain normal living patterns
and to minimize psychological trauma.
From Taggies’ beginning,
Julie Dix and her partner, Danielle Ayotte, have made a conscious
effort to help children in hospitals and social service programs
through donations of their special security blankets. “Taggies
is more than a business – it’s
a way to touch millions of lives and provide the love, security,
and comfort little ones need,” says Dix. “Taggies was
born because of the incredible reaction of my own children, friends,
and family to a simple satin tag sewn onto a soft, cuddly fleece
blanket. Now we’re sharing that with so many others.”
The
idea of offering Taggies as a source of comfort to sick children
first came to Dix through her own experience. "Julie took
her son to the emergency room, where there were so many sick, crying
children," Danielle Ayotte recalls. "Her little boy was
OK, but she felt so bad for all those other children that she went
out to her car, brought in all the Taggies she had, and gave them
out to the kids. It was so touching – but it was also our
entire stock of Taggies!"
The inventory recovered, and the
incident led to the company’s
Random Acts of Kindness program, which invites customers to contribute
to a fund designated for donating Taggies to ill or impoverished
children. Taggies matches every donation, and in the past two years
the program has reached out to needy children through 18 different
hospitals, charitable organizations, and philanthropic foundations.
Distribution
of Taggies products in England and Ireland begins this month. For
the Taggies partners, a kind of fairy-tale feeling abides. "To
tell the truth, we’re still pinching ourselves over all this," Dix
says. "We call it 'tag-mania' because there's something magical
about the simplicity and lovability of Taggies. Kids can't resist
them, and parents appreciate their comforting, sleep-inducing qualities."
The
Taggies product line has grown over the past five years to include
plush toys, pillows, travel toys, and several sizes of blankets.
The runaway success of Scholastic Publications’ soft-cover "My
First Taggies® Book: Sweet Dreams" led Scholastic to follow
up with a new soft-cover sensation, “My First Taggies® Book:
I Love You,” to be released in September 2004.
All Taggies
products meet or exceed all voluntary standards and mandatory regulations
set by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and American Society
for Testing and Materials for children's blankets and toys, in
addition to meeting Canadian and European standards.
Taggies products
are sold at more than 4,000 independent specialty shops in the
United States and Canada and through a dozen catalogs, including
Red Envelope and Lillian Vernon. “My First Taggies® Book:
Sweet Dreams” is sold at Wal-Mart, Target, Toys R Us, Borders,
Barnes & Noble and other mass marketers. Taggies products may
be ordered online at www.taggies.com and by phone at 1-877-4-TAGGIE.
For more information about TAGGIES, please
contact:
Elizabeth
Waldman Frazier
WALDMANIA! Public Relations
Telephone: (415) 334-2787
waldmania@comcast.net
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