A 'Charm(ing)' Business Idea to Help Stop Bullying

Grace Kell Dascoli and her children, J.T. and Ava, model some of the charms that are sold by their family business, Team Happy Face. Five percent of sales are donated to anti-bullying efforts. (Photos submitted)

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A few years ago, Birmingham native and Seaholm High School graduate Grace Kell Dascoli learned almost by accident that her son had been going to the school nurse’s office every day complaining a stomach ache.

No one had bothered to tell Dascoli and her husband, Jason, for months.

“We have an intact family, he was falling behind, and yet no one’s bringing it to our attention,” said Dascoli, who lives in Boulder, CO. “All anyone said was that they couldn’t put their fingers on what was wrong.”

Then came the diagnosis that J.T., now 9, suffered from dyslexia – and, later, Dascoli’s “huge epiphany.”

“He was made to feel stupid,” she said. “If this can happen to my child, and in this privileged school system, it can happen to anyone. Even up to this year, he had a note taped to his locker that said ‘you’re stupid.’ ”

Around the same time in 2011 when she and Jason,learned their son was being bullied, Dascoli noticed J.T. and their daughter, Ava, now 11, were designing and making their own charms to clip to their backpacks and coat zippers as part of the latest craze among tweens.

Another “aha!” moment followed, and her family-based business, Team Happy Face, was born.

So far, the decorative charms are sold only online, but Michelle Winowich of Bloomfield Hills, the national sales representative, plans to make a pitch the product to national retailers in the coming weeks.

From the onset, Dascoli wanted to do something fun, but with a conscience. Five percent of proceeds from sales of the charms go to anti-bullying efforts.

“A Silly Product with a Serious Intention”

Bullying is a pervasive problem. A 2014 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 19.6 percent of high school students in the U.S. reported having been bullied at school in the past year, and 14.8 percent reported being bullied online.

Further, the CDC said, bullying leaves students at increased risk for depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, and poor school adjustment; and at risk for substance use, academic problems, and violence later in adolescence and adulthood.

The effects of bullying have been painfully punctuated in a spate of school shootings, starting with the Columbine school shootings in Colorado, where two students who felt isolated and bullied killed 12 of their classmates and a teacher before killing themselves.

Not all acts of bullying end so tragically, but her own child’s experiences “opened my eyes to what it was like,” Dascoli said.

“I always knew I wanted the business to represent something positive,” she said.”The charms appeal to kids, and I wanted to make sure we were sending a positive message.

“Kids face so much negativity,” she continued. “It’s a tough world they are growing up in. We wanted to take a cool product and give it some meaning. We call it a silly product with a serious intention.”

Dascoli and her family decide from year to year what groups need the money.

“We’re not a multi-billion-dollar company,” Dascoli said, so small charities are chosen so the impact will be greater

Last year, for example, Team Happy Face gave money to the Anti-Defamation League’s “No Place for Hate” campaign, which works in schools and communities to promote respect for individual and group differences, while challenging prejudice and bigotry. (For information about programs in Michigan, click here.)

“I bring in my own perspective as a parent in a biracial family,” she said. “Thank God I have healthy, empowered kids, but it’s something we constantly have to work on.”

Team Happy Face donations have funded speakers and supported programs that teach kids how to treat one another in schools, teach kids “code words” they can use when they see other children being bullied and generally “spread the love,” Dascoli said.

Through such programs, kids are learning that “it’s cool to say something, and it’s not OK to do nothing. It’s OK to say, ‘That’s not nice.’ ”

Dascoli said bullying is a “buzzword,” but it applies to situations other than taunting of a child, such as unsportsmanship-like conduct.

“You have to teach it, because parents aren’t always doing that,” she said.“We’ve lost a lot of our values as a culture. We’ve lost the idea that the individual needs to succeed for the greater good of the group, and Team Happy Face tries to to be a reminder of that.”

Cyberbullying “Insidious and Gaining Momentum”

As the company grows, Dascoli and Winowich hope to make a bigger impact. One area of increased concern is cyberbullying.

From personal experience, Dascoli knows that children are “obsessed with technology” as a lifeline to her their friends. She tries to give her children freedom and doesn’t want to make computers “a forbidden fruit,” but knows that can leave them vulnerable to bullying.

“We like to think of bullying as it relates to the kid on the playground, but this new platform is very insidious and gaining momentum,” Dascoli said. “It’s very secret, and very underground, and my fear is that some parents don’t have the technical literacy to understand what is going on.”

Kids use Team Happy Face charms as accessories that can be clipped to the gear they use to carry their gadgets. Charms alone aren’t enough to deter bullying, but “they are fun reminder of what we stand for and may get kids to think twice,” Winowich said.

The charms are inexpensive, retailing for $4.99.

“The quality sets them apart,” Winowich said. “Usually, charms like this come on a keychain that you’ll break your fingernails trying to get open. These can be opened one-handed.

“The value of is there, what you’re supporting is invaluable,” she said. “It’s a win-win.”