Making Waves

Wendy Lokken’s son got home from school one day and shared what he had learned about the ancient tradition of worry dolls. He equated them to his own Cozy Bear, and said that every kid whose parents were going through a divorce—as his had—should have something like a worry doll.

That’s when Lokken, who lives in Naples and co-owns the print/production services company Lasertec Inc., got the idea to write a children’s book, narrated by a teddy bear, targeted to children of divorce. She ran the idea by several friends, and together they created You and Me Make Three, which will be sold with a teddy bear named B.B. and unveiled at the Ritz-Carlton, Naples, on March 12.

It wasn’t their only venture. Lokken, co-authors Gwendy Mangiamele of Minnesota and Edna Cucksey Stephens of Michigan, and illustrator Heather Drescher of Naples formed Caring Creations LLC, which will produce more books intended to help families cope with difficult social issues, such as new family structures.

EDCO Publishing Inc. of Auburn Hills, Mich., will publish the books, and Caring Creations will oversee creative development and identification of strategic charitable relationships. For example, a portion of book and bear sales from the March 12 event will be donated to The Education Foundation of Collier County and other charities.

Working with out-of-state partners "takes extreme organization, time management and consistent communication," says Lokken. But the four principals might have an ideal combination of backgrounds for the venture: Lokken knows about printing; Mangiamele is in sales and marketing, Stephens is a teacher, writer and publisher; and Drescher is an artist.

"We have great synergy in our business," says Drescher. "The friendship aspect and our different areas of expertise merged to form a positive and powerful creative force."