February 9, 2005
ATTN:
Corporate Contributions Committee
Re: Munchkins
Juvenile Products Recycling – Saving Babies & Helping Our
Community
Dear Gerber Products
Company:
Thank you so much for
spending time reading this regarding a possible funding source for
this worthwhile endeavor.
I intend on expanding
on our already operating sole proprietorship called
"Munchkins". The expansion plan includes phases but here is
an outline.
We will incorporate
with a partial nonprofit status 501c.
Children are killed and
injured by juvenile products every year in the United States.
Lawsuits, the increase in material and oil costs and importing is
causing juvenile products pricing to skyrocket. As a result more
and more parents will be looking for the best prices; which brings
clients to my consignment shop, which we specialize in an organized
process of making sure the items are safe and ready to sell to the
public.
This process of running
juvenile products through recalled products databases, which
include the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the
manufacturers website and phone call, as well as a detailed
inspection of broken or missing parts, lead paint, wrong assembly
etc.
To repair a recalled
product and make it safe is simple, although most retailers sell
the product and do nothing. We, on the other hand, work
actively with the manufacturers to get the replacement parts to
make the product safe or to destroy the product so no other
children are injured. We at Munchkins stock parts that were
manufactured aftermarket by the manufacturer to make the product
safe again. We install the new part, inspect and sanitize the
item and prepare it for resale.
The bad part of the
recalled products is that some products approximately 20% are
recalled beyond repair and must be destroyed. We at Munchkins
work actively with the manufacturers to get these products off of
the trade market. This prevents any more children from
getting hurt or killed.
Thousand of these
juvenile products wind up in landfills each year. Hospice,
Salvation Army, and many other organized nonprofits cannot take on
the liability and will not take in juvenile products such as cribs,
walkers, portable cribs, bassinets, high chairs etc. This
leaves the parent with little options to safely dispose of such
items. Every parent or caregiver needs to dispose of unwanted space
hogging items when a child reaches a certain age.
I propose to expand on
the already existing shop, open a larger space and operate a
Juvenile Depository & Recycle business focused solely on
getting these products through my process and ready for resale
safely. As I stated before these items are in demand and every safe
item I've restored in the last 2 years has sold. The products
that will be needing to be destroyed due to safety are the only
items left needing to be thrown into the waste management
system.
My plan will do the
following for the Community, Parents, Families and the
Environment:
• Prevent these
large juvenile items from going into the (land fill) garbage, by
providing a safe place for parents to dispose of or consign used
unwanted juvenile products. Parents will also benefit from
consigning products and using the credit to purchase newly needed
items for their growing children.
• Prevent future
children from being injured or killed by people unknowingly
trading, pulling from garbage cans, or buying / selling these
recalled (needing parts) or worse- deadly products needing to be
destroyed.
• Provide jobs
for parents, which would include licensed on-site childcare, group
medical & dental and proper training to process used juvenile
products.
• Provide a 3000
to 5000 square foot superstore for the Western Slope, which
includes new & gently used, recycled and refurbished baby,
maternity & kids clothes, furniture, gear & more.
• Provide in
partnership with the Placerville CHP a car seat safety certified
installation checkpoint (as we are now). 4 out of 5 car seats
are installed improperly. This will help save lives as CHP official
Craig Beckley asked us to help after he heard we were already
helping with our certified installation. Beckley stated there are
financial problems with their program.
The reason for the
grant is space. We need to move from our 1200-square-foot
location into an already vacant (same shopping center)
3000–5000-square-foot space to accommodate such a large storage and
business place. We need to safely store, recycle, and prepare these
sometimes very large items for resale. The plans for the store are
already drawn out in hopes of someday this passion becoming a
reality.
Please consider our
endeavor. We truly believe we can make a difference in the
lives of many people, the community and the environment.
Thank you,
~Deidre & Tom Belfiore, Owners
