Fox in a box
St. John’s natives launch business aimed bridging the physical and emotional distance between families
Like so many people who live apart from young members of their family, Jason Oakley was finding it hard to connect with his nephews Edward and Oliver Cook from his home in Toronto.
Even through Facetime and phone calls, it was hard to create any kind of emotional bond.
“If you live down the street, you’d be seeing them all the time and you would have things in common. You’d have more of a connection,” says the 31-year-old who’s originally from St. John’s.
“But when you only see them a couple of times a year, it’s tough to have something that just the two of you can share and talk about.”
The distance between he and his sister Lisa’s children also made it challenging to know what to send them as birthday or Christmas presents. “I’d end up calling my sister and asking ‘What do they have? What don’t they have? What are they into?’ It’s tough to find something that’s meaningful or something they’ll remember that they got from their uncle.”
When he first re-located to Toronto for work about five
years ago, he had the idea of writing a personalized story and packaging it with a toy which he would send back to
his nephews. When he floated the idea past his wife Katie and his friend Steve King, another St. John’s native living and working in Toronto who has nieces Vivian and Rose living in the United States, both suggested he was sitting great concept. “I’ve always wanted to do it and my nephews were the inspiration, but the people that got me off my ass and actually doing it were Steve continuing to harp on me and my wife, too, telling me it was a good idea and I should give it a try.”
After a Kickstarter.com campaign raised close to $4,000 last year and with a similar investment of their own, Oakley and King launched Hey Rocco earlier this year.
For $40 USD and taxes, the adult purchaser — be it an aunt or uncle, grandparent, extended family member, or friend of the family — will have a Hey Rocco box set sent to the child that includes a plush toy fox, an accompanying illustrated story book and a personalized letter.
The book is written in such a manner as to appear that Rocco — an adventurous and curious fox with a penchant for mischief — crosses paths with the adult sender in his quest to find a best friend. The premise thereafter being that the adult knows just the right person to serve as his best friend — the special little one in their life. The book ends
with Rocco arriving on the child’s doorstep in a box addressed to them.
The adventure needn’t end with Rocco’s arrival, however, as there’s also subscription-based model available that will send a monthly letter, illustration and trinket to the child, all of which are connected to Rocco’s adventures when he’s not in the child’s company.
“As adults, we probably hate getting mail because we get inundated with so much junk mail, but kids just love it,” says King. “It’s the idea of getting something sent to you and you never know when it’s going to show up.”
The adult who sent it will also receive a monthly update so they can use those stories to connect with the child when they connect via video chats or in person. “Edward is getting a little bit older now, but Oliver is right at that great age and he loves it,” says Oakley. “It does exactly what I wanted it to, which is to give me a reason to reach out and check in and ask him, ‘How’s Rocco? Did you hear about his latest adventure? I just heard about it, it’s amazing.’”
Recently, the pair have added a number of free craft activities that the adult can do with the child when they have a chance to reconnect.
“I think that’s the type of content that would resonate with
people and get them in the right frame of mind,” says Oakley.
Instead of contracting an accomplished author, Oakley took it upon himself to research children’s books — sometimes sitting in the kids’ section at the book store surrounded by young families — and penned both the original book, a follow up tome and all the monthly letters. “I’ve always had an interest in writing children’s books because I think they’re fun. I can pick a book out and right away know I’ll like it just by the cover or the first page, based on the style of writing and the illustrations,” he says.
“There was definitely a style that I wanted to go for and I’m still getting there, but I really do enjoy the writing side.”
As for their own next adventure within Rocco’s world, Oakley and King say they want to write more books, grow the subscriber base by adding activities to the monthly packages, and eventually build out more products so that adults can add a little something special around special occasions.
Eventually, they hope to generate the same notoriety as go-togift ideas like Elf on the Shelf or Wonderbly.
You can find Hey Rocco at getheyrocco.com and on most social media channels by searching @Heyroccoteam