Eileen and Bart
“Far Away” Grandparents face a myriad of obstacles creating and maintaining meaningful relationships with their grandchildren. (at least before the kids are 13 and old enough for Facebook!) A major portion of those obstacles have become obsolete with the creation GRANDOODLEZ.COM. Savvy entrepreneur Boomer Grandparents Eileen and Bart Meier chose to create a solution to their distance grandparenting dilemma, instead of whining about it (as I’m often known to do).
I’m already a member, and so thoroughly impressed I asked Eileen Meier co-creator to introduce the Grandoodlez.com concept to the BoomerGrandparents.com readers:
A few years ago, my husband Bart and I moved from Boston to Orlando when I took a position with a firm designing interactive software for science education.
At that time we had two young granddaughters in New England whom we were crazy about. It was a very hard decision to move, but we thought we could manage to see them frequently – flights were only two and a half hours direct, no problem. We knew the kids would just love visiting us in Florida with all the fun attractions, beaches and swimming pools. So we were all set for the girls – our pad was as good as it gets. And the plan worked great for a time… and then it didn’t work so well.
Jobs, busyness, schedules and the high cost of travel all impacted the plan. And as a result we couldn’t see the kids as much as before. After a short while, two more precious grandchildren were added to our family and by then we were plotting our move back to New England, but in the end it wasn’t possible.
So we channeled our energies into creating a really fun website that would help not only us, but grandparents and grandkids everywhere stay connected and nurture deeper relationships. Grandoodlez.com offers a safe and familiar meeting place that kids love (complete with furry neighbors) and plenty of ways to play and have fun… anytime and from any place. Members can create talking cards and books, draw magical doodlez, record video messages, leave notes on the “ Fridge” and even share photos and video directly from mobile devices.
The website was four years in the making and our grandchildren have been our quality assurance testers throughout. Grandoodlez has made a way for us to experience our grandkids in a wonderful new way and we really hope it will benefit other grandparents as well.
Eileen Meier, CEO (Chief Executive Oma)
