A Message from Susan Adam

Dear Journalist,

Ain’t it awful!

Have you ever had one of those “ain’t it awful!” conversations with a friend, quickly followed by a feeling of powerlessness to make a difference. “If only …”

In 2006 ethiKids was born from one of those moments

Laurane Magliari and I were commiserating about the ambiguous, murky ethical world faced by kids and adolescents. How will they learn personal responsibility? Gratitude? What will their future look like? And ours - as they take the reigns? Laurane and I had worked together in large companies since 1991 focusing on creating organizational culture and values to make the workplace “work” for both the company and the employees. Could we make a difference now in how character is developed?

The Perfect Storm

Fast forward to 2007. We had convened a panel of experts in social change, education and various business disciplines and validated what turns out to be a negative spiral related to our kids’ character development. The forces at play are powerful and, unless we do something, the prevailing influences of the media or peer groups could dominate our children’s understanding of what is right and wrong. Parents, teachers and other adult’s guidance could be relegated to the toddler years when all they see and hear can be controlled. The forces at play:

· Media – focusing on ever-younger viewers; providing “perfect” role models then quickly dissecting their fragile lives for all to see; unreachable images; offers for instant solutions.

· Technology & social networking – constant IMing, sniping; kids vulnerable to anonymous ridicule and the marginalization it can bring. All at warp speed with no time to reflect.

· Parental time – working parents, split and blended families, kids scheduled so tightly they feel like pawns being moved from place to place, quality parental time reduced to minutes.

· Risks – the 3 leading causes of death in children under 18 in the U.S. are most often related to psychosocial issues– accidents, homicide and suicide. Kids with no center or anchor are lured into a life patterns devoid of meaning.

Our focus became clear

Help kids navigate in this environment – build awareness, skills, setting them on the path of developing their own moral compass. And this can only happen over time – with practice.

“what’s the deal?” was born

Focus groups, product tests, expert reviews, months of refining wording to make the real-life stories tempting and the conflicts undeniable. Most recently “what’s the deal?” was selected as one of the 3 most promising new toys of 2008 at the International Toy Fair in NYC – “the toy the world needs to know about” – “what’s the deal?” has also received ringing endorsements from psychologists, educators, parents and kids. We invite you to review the attached materials and give us a call.