Goody Goodies, the beginning

Macallan and I looked at the date and realized it was a year to that day that we had moved back to NY from Botswana. A little sad, we talked about the things we loved about living there. Remember when that huge ostrich tried to outrun us and hit the side of our car as we went 70 mph! Or the time we came home to find the eight foot spitting cobra curled up on our bed? How about those kids that would hang around outside the grocery store? You'd never see that in the USA. "What about those kids?" Macallan wanted to know. "Who's feeding them now that we're gone?" "Oh honey, other people fed them." I reassured her. "I know," she said, "but I used to feed them." It's true. That was her "job" when we went grocery shopping. We knew there were kids that begged for money outside the store. We didn't like to give them cash, they often bought glue that they would sniff to make the bleak life ahead of them less realistic. So, Macallan was entrusted with picking out some food for them - a loaf of bread, a bag of oranges...And she was the one that handed it to them when we went to leave. A small act, I know, but even after a year of being away, she remembered it and wanted to keep doing her part to help. As a mother, how do you ignore this opportunity? You don't.
I had opened a shop called Women's Work selling crafts from the women I knew and worked with in Botswana. This was the perfect venue for a mother/daughter effort to stay connected to the experience, country and people we loved.
Macallan's first great passion has always been animals. While in Botswana, she was lucky enough to help raise a baby warthog, a baby ostrich and several chameleons. So, I suggested that she bring the animals and her other great passion for art and put them together.
She drew a few images of these animals and we went from there. She had learned to make beaded animals at an afterschool program in Africa. She remembered a lizard she had made. We took that basic shape and created a beading kit so that other kids could make them. She came up with a clever slogan to go with the Chameleon - "You Can Change the World!" It was great!
Then, she drew the cutest ostrich. We decided to put that on t-shirts with the slogan, "Don't Bury Your Head in the Sand! Get Involved!" Using money she had saved from her allowance (with a little help from her grandparents), she funded these first two products in her product line.
When it came to naming the product line, MacAnimals was perfect. Her name is Macallan and they were her animals - duh. So we went with it. But after a few months, we were told again and again that we might have a problem with the Mc-Giant...And to avoid any conflicts, we reconsidered and came up with Goody Goodies.
http://www.goodygoodies.org