Can you imagine coming home to no electricity?

No heat.

No light.

What if you didn’t have electricity at all?

As adults we can “get by.” Kids get very scared. That’s what Ron and Chantele Gustavson saw when they watched a documentary about poverty-stricken inner-city children who lived in the dark, due to their families being unable to afford electricity.

The impact of the film, combined with the need to child-proof their home and their love for wind and solar energy led Ron and Chantele to create SolPals! Their goal: create a hybrid of solar power and children’s nightlights. SolPals now offers two products:

• FlexLight, a solar-powered utility light, and
• MoonBeams, a solar-powered nightlight (Mom’s Choice Award® winner)

And with Earth Day being on April 22 (solar power being an excellent way to save energy), We’re very pleased to have interviewed the SolPals creator duo for this Spotlight!

MCA: Welcome to the Spotlight, Chantele and Ron! In addition to wanting to help impoverished children, can you please tell us more about what motivated you to create SolPals?
SolPals: We have four children, and child-proofing our home is important. One of the first things we all do as parents is insert those plastic covers in the all the power outlets. That makes things safe, but it also creates a problem. Where do you plug in the nightlight? If you take the cover out, the outlet is not protected!

Our youngest child was almost burned by a nightlight and we knew there had to be a better way. That’s when we had that “aha” moment. Why not put the light on the window and use the power of the sun? This will allow us to finally child proof the room and educate our children of the importance of alternative energy.

MCA: Excellent! Now that your MoonBeams nightlights have won an award, what are your goals for the next year?
SolPals: SolPals is releasing a NEW version of the MoonBeam called the [amazon_link id=”B005LVVTLC” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]MoonBeam Projector[/amazon_link] which will fill any room with images of stars, flowers, dinosaurs, sports, as well as Halloween, and Christmas imagery.

We JUST introduced these new lights in January at the New York International Gift Fair show.

MCA: Congratulations on the relaunch! That must be so exciting. Do you forsee your Mom’s Choice Award® helping you with product awareness and reaching your marketing goals?
SolPals: Any product introduced to the Mom market takes time and validation. The Mom’s Choice Award® helps lend credibility to our product place in the market.

MCA: Can you share with us what you learned about yourselves as an entrepreneurs in creating SolPals?
SolPals: We have learned nothing happens fast and everything takes time.

MCA: Since launching your first SolPals product, what has been your most rewarding experience? Do you have a favorite memory of sharing or showing off your nightlights?
SolPals: The feedback from our customers have been GREAT!

We had one case with a customer who purchased a product from Amazon.com. We got a bad review because the light was not lasting as long as it should have. We reached out to this client and discovered that the solar panel still had its protective cover on. Once this was resolved they quickly changed their review to very positive one.

The most important thing we can accomplish with our product is to help save children. Every day seven kids every day go to the emergency room because of  outlet burns. This isn’t a minor burn, either; 200 of those kids die each year.

Equally tragic is the fact that every year ten homes are set ablaze due to traditional nightlights.

If we can get every household to use solar nightlights instead of traditional lights we can save a lot of energy and make a difference in the environment.

We would also like to say that SolPals also contributes a portion of its proceeds to the charitable foundation, Project Share The Light, which focuses on solar lighting solutions for children living in impoverished areas around the world.

MCA: As a new honoree, do you have any questions you’d like some of the “old hands” to answer for you?
SolPals: We would love any suggestions to get the media to cover this unique product especially during the next Earth Day.

Mom’s Choice Awards® Honors

[amazon_link id=”B005LVVILS” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]MoonBeams Solar Nightlights[/amazon_link] by SolPals
Distinguished Honoree
Gold – Gear & Accessories: Safety

Contact, Connect, and Network with SolPals

The Alumni Spotlight is a periodic feature on the official Mom’s Choice Awards® blog. It is part of our ongoing effort to “shine the spotlight” on you and your award-winning, family-friendly products, services, and media.