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Cheeriodicals
Alex Tronco of Northwestern Mutual gives a Cheeriodicals box to a young girl at a children’s hospital event in New York. Photo courtesy of Cheeriodicals.
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Cheeriodicals
Mary Martha and Gary Parisher started Cheeriodicals as a way for hospital patients to receive magazines, food and other entertainment. This box will be sent to a children’s hospital patient as part of the donation events that Cheeriodicals hosts with several major corporations. Photo by Sydney Cromwell.
Gary and Mary Martha Parisher’s Mt Laurel office is packed with children’s toys, snack foods, magazines and piles of bright green boxes. It’s all part of the Cheeriodicals mission: to deliver smiles and entertainment to hospital rooms around the country.
Cheeriodicals – a portmanteau of “cheer” and “periodicals” – started in 2011 as a way for customers to send magazines and other gifts to hospitalized family members and friends. Since then, their signature green boxes have become a popular way for major corporations to organize team-building and community service projects for their employees.
Gary Parisher said he and his wife have worked with Regions Bank, Wells Fargo, GM and others to build and deliver Cheeriodicals to patients in children’s hospitals from Birmingham to Manhattan to Omaha. When hundreds of boxes are being delivered, no child has to be left out of the fun. Parisher still remembers the first time a child opened a Cheeriodicals box; the look on the young boy’s face paved the way for these corporate partnerships.
“His reaction was so incredible we decided to consider this a real significant part of our business,” Parisher said.
The boxes’ content was designed by staff at Children’s of Alabama to help patients heal. In addition to stuffed animals and age-appropriate books or magazines, the boxes contain light-up toys so children can see at night and bouncy balls that don’t bounce straight, encouraging kids to get out of their beds. Parisher said seeing each delivery event is “magical.”
He said that Cheeriodicals is the only company of its kind in the nation, and they’ve built up a trustworthy reputation with hospitals and businesses. Alabama Launchpad, an entrepreneurship support program, also sees the potential in the Cheeriodicals business model.
At the 2014 start-up competition, the Parishers were awarded a $43,250 grant from the Launchpad to pursue an email marketing campaign for their business. Parisher said he hopes to get Cheeriodicals on the radar of meeting and event planners across the country.
“When they’re planning events for their corporate customers, instead of having them shoot paintballs at each other or climb ropes, they will actually come to us and do a corporate team building event that really changes lives,” Parisher said.
Parisher believes that every business, even the smallest start-up, should make it a point to be socially conscious and have an impact “beyond making money.” He noted that some children’s hospitals are surprised when Cheeriodicals makes a donation at the end of their big events.
“Something that sounds too good to be true always is – except for us,” Parisher said.
To learn more, visit cheeriodicals.com.
