Crayons might not be the first industry you would associate with a U.S. Army Veteran. As a father and someone who has worked in an elementary school, however, I am not the least bit surprised that the inventor of “the last crayon box you’ll ever need” would have battlefield experience.
Crayons crack, break, wear down. Their boxes shred apart, get soaked and crumble. Oh, and crayons spill. Do they ever spill, and spill and spill, filling households and classrooms with fallen soldiers. And picking them up, again and again? Make no mistake,my friends, it’s war.
Or so it all was before Former US Army Captain and lawyer Shannon Challender took sight of giving the crayon box a long-overdue redesign. After service in Iraq, Bosnia, and Afghanistan, he went to law school to learn how he might affect positive change in the battles zones he’d witnessed beset by poverty and violence. The answer he found was commerce. Create trade and people have reason to put down weapons.
Can you think of anything more poetic than war-torn countries being healed even in small measure by the ReadyXO crayon box?
Me neither.
The ReadyXO is an all-plastic box, durable and built to last. It has a secure lid that locks into place. Go ahead and knock it over! The crayons will stay put. But what if the lid’s off, you ask? Well, the lid also doubles as a stand that helps keep the box upright. Plus, the lid has a slot to hold a favorite crayon, and it can be turned over and used as a container to share crayons with others.
And if your heartstrings haven’t been tugged yet, wait until you hear about ReadyXO’s accessibility features (not to mention, you should probably join rank with surge of adults purchasing coloring books). The bottom rows of the box are staggered so that all 64 crayons are easily visible. Since the crayons extend well above the top of the box, they remain easily accessible even as they wear down.
The crayons also lean forward slightly to prevent contact with the closed lid – Do you remember how frustrating it used to be trying to reach a crayon in the middle of the box!? The the ReadyXO is the “first crayon box designed to be accessible to kids with manual dexterity issues, such as those afflicted by autism, Down syndrome or cerebral palsy.”
Upright in concept and spirit, the ReadyXO has launched a campaign on Kickstarter to fund production. Not only can backers help today’s children and future generations protect precious gear inside a ReadyXO, they have the opportunity to donate a crayon box that will be used to distribute new and gently used crayons to underprivileged kids around the world, in partnership with No Crayons Left Behind and active duty US military deployed overseas. Get yours here.
