Help Ridgewood Mom Get On Walmart Shelves

Seven years ago, Jen Marchetti was just trying to keep her son Zach occupied while he was eating. He was six months old at the time and kids at that age are at risk to eat, well, just about anything. How she kept him busy has since morphed into a burgeoning business.

Marchetti is the owner of Goosie Cards, a series of flash cards parents can customize with high resolution photos and a personalized message.

"I just had a moment when I was feeding him, it was like the 'aha' moment that I thought – why don't I make my own personalized flashcards for him?" she reminisced.

Marchetti started that day with lamenated family pictures made on her home computer and a trip to Staples, but it's fair to say much has changed over seven years.

The award-winning line could soon be on the shelves of Wal-Mart as part of a national American Idol-styled contest for entrepreneurs.

The cards themselves are designed to spur interaction between kids and their parents, Marchetti said. According to the Ridgewood inventor, reading/language, communications, social/emotional, memory and fine motor skills are improved.

"Our learning system is designed to inspire parent-child interaction and make teaching easy with creative ideas, teaching tips, developmental milestone guides and speech sound development charts," she said Tuesday.

They've been a hit with parents in Ridgewood and beyond, she remarked. She's spotted them resting on strollers at the and even unexpectedly from her son's friends at her own home.

"In fact my son had a friend over and she saw our Goosie Cards and yelled – I have those! My son Zach, whose nickname is 'Goosie', was so proud," she smiled. "He said 'my mom’s company is named after me!' It was really great…her mother was a big fan and purchased them for her daughter."

The target audience, moms, are unabashed fans of the Goosie Cards, which range from $1.99 to $2.79 per card.

"They think it’s a great way to be proactive in their child’s early learning by creating their own personalized learning tools with their photos to teach a variety of skills," Marchetti said, pointing out everything from learning the names of family names to memorizing emergency numbers, even birth dates. 

She'll be expanding her line soon enough, she said. Up next is a more targeted approach to specific ages and development stages, one that couples new products, applications and a photo sharing platform through personal photos and the internet.

Though Wal-Mart doesn't reveal the results to its online contest, Marchetti hopes some hometown support can bring her product to a wider audience.

Voting ends April 3. Those wishing to cast a vote can do so here. Votes are registered through Facebook and text message.