We’re excited today to introduce you to the folks behind the special-edition Lil Olive sock monkey, available as a perk through our Indiegogo campaign.
Sock monkey makers Dale and Sherrie Kearney run their “mom and pop” business, MonkeysAndMore.com, from Digby, Nova Scotia, Canada. They started the company two years ago after Sherrie had two heart attacks and a stroke and the couple needed to figure out a way to work from their home.
Why sock monkeys? Dale says:
“Everyone loves sock monkeys … lol … why not? Sherrie’s dad suggested she make them. We made 12 and went to a craft show and did not sell any. We came home and decided to put them online for sale and sold two right away.”
The online-only business was born.
Nearly 3,000 of the Kearneys’ sock monkeys (and sock cats, dogs, horses and even sock mermaids) have ended up across Canada and the United States, and in Mexico and Guatemala. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has three of them, and they’ve made special ones for such celebs as musicians Rick Springfield and Jann Arden, and actors Rebecca Staab and Will DeVry. (While the monkeys aren’t currently available in any stores, they do ship across the U.S. and Canada and will take wholesale orders.)
How did we at A Voice for Lil Olive learn about the Kearneys? Our writer/producer Kirsten Akens freelances for a variety of print and online media organizations and visited Digby on behalf of AdventureGirl.com last year. While there, she connected over Twitter with Dale, fell in love with their work, and knew somehow these monkeys would show up in her life again. When we began thinking about perks for our Indiegogo campaign, she knew just who to go to for a special-edition incentive.
The Kearneys jumped on the assignment. They live with their own rescue pup, a boxer named Ivy, so there was a connection to our cause. But there was one other reason Dale shared with Kirsten once the first Lil Olive sock monkey had been born:
I knew this was meant to be. My grandmother who passed away a few years ago — her name was Olive. She was my best friend. I always said she had good things planned for me. I will take this as a sign.
The Lil Olive sock monkey is available through our Indiegogo campaign — live now through March 17. At the $250 perk package level, contributors will receive a pretty awesome collection of items:
- A Lil Olive sock monkey
- A Lil Olive T-shirt
- A Lil Olive “supatongue thertified” bandana for your own favorite pup
- A Lil Olive dog-shaped poop bag container
- A DVD signed by the filmmakers and “Dat Mommy” Pam Horton
- Your name (and your dog’s, if you’d like) listed in the film credits
- And, a big slobbery thank you from the whole film team.
Join us today in speaking for those who have no voice. Please contribute and together we’ll bring an end to puppy mills.