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Steedman needed a way to entertain her daughter
and friends on the ride to school when it was her
turn for carpool.
Her
daughter Alison (now a college student) was seven
at the time and desperately wanted a dog. Divorced
and not living with a schedule that would have made
pet ownership humane, she created an imaginary dog
for her daughter as carpool entertainment. Those
stories began in 1990, when the character known
today as RAGGs was born.
Steedman
used the stories to incorporate a lesson of some
sort, but always made sure that they weren't dry
and moralistic, but adventuresome and full of fun.
By the time the children were 10, RAGGs rode into
the sunset.
Several
years later, when Steedman was operating a successful
Charlotte, NC advertising agency, a local mall asked
her to create a kids' club. After mall management
rejected her first few ideas, she went back to the
drawing board and RAGGs made its triumphant return.
Steedman
began marketing the kids' club concept to other
malls and grew the business to 30 markets. In 2000,
she designed four additional characters to create
an "N'Sync with Fur." Each has an individual personality
to project self-esteem to young fans. A wheelchair
jock named B. Max plays keyboards while singing,
dancing, and just being a kid. "Hundreds of thousands
of kids under 12 use wheelchairs and B. Max is a
mascot these kids can identify with," Steedman says.
The
RAGGs Kids Club Band has produced four musical CDs,
"Pawsuuup! Tour,""Wag & Wiggle,""RAGGS Rock," and
"Holiday Jam." Awards include the 2001 Children's
Music Web Award for "Best New Children's Group,"
and "Song of the Year," for their first CD, "Pawsuuup!
Tour." The band has also received the National Parenting
Center's Seal of Approval for 2002 for all musical
and video products.
A
full-length video, "Pawsuuup! Tour" is in national
distribution, and a TV pilot has been produced and
is ready for network exposure. Mark Valenti, a former
Emmy Award-winning writer for the "Rugrats" at Nickelodeon,
is the lead scriptwriter and has prepared the foundation
for 26 animated episodes. "We fill the gap between
Barney and Britney," Steedman says.
"We've
taken calculated steps," she adds. "We walked before
we ran. Now it's all or nothing."
(This
article is reprinted from the Fall 2003 edition
of Enterprising Women magazine. Copyright
2003, Enterprising Women Inc. Reproduction in whole
or part is prohibited, except by permission of the
publisher.)
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