Good Housekeeping Magazine Buckles up with Child Aviation Restraint Naming "CARES" a 2008 Good Buy Award

Business Wire, Dec 7, 2007

Necessity Truly Is The (Grand)Mother Of Invention As Pocket-Sized Aviation Child Safety Device, Certified By FAA, Honored

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Children's car seats are a wonderful safety invention for cars- not airplanes. This holiday traveling season, like every other, will see harried parents lugging their car seats through the airports, long security lines and narrow aisles of a plane. The reality is car seats were never designed for air travel. You'd think someone, somewhere, would invent an aviation restraint for toddlers and young children that was easy to carry and would fit on every airplane seat!

Louise Stoll, a transportation savvy, safety-conscious grandmother from Vermont did just that - inventing a harness type safety device that weighs less than a pound and fits into a 6" sack. Yesterday she was honored in NYC along with her invention, CARES by Kids Fly Safe LLC, as one of this year's Good Housekeeping 2008 Good Buy Award winners. In its 13th year, the Good Buy Awards are the culmination of the Good Housekeeping Research Institute's testing and evaluation of more than 2,000 products for quality and performance. CARES has been selected as one of the best in class and most innovative products of the year.

In the past, Good Housekeeping has honored household brands like Clorox, SC Johnson, Samsung, Black & Decker and Whirlpool. But the Good Housekeeping Research Institute's chemists, engineers, nutritionists and home-care professionals were so impressed with CARES that they named it one of eight Good Buy Award winners for 2008.

CARES, which stands for "Child Aviation Restraint System," is designed for children who are able to sit upright in their own airplane seat and weighs between 22 and 44 pounds - usually 1-4 years old. The product and the story of Stoll's creation will be showcased in the January 2008 issue of Good Housekeeping (on sale mid-December).

Already this year CARES has won the National Parenting Center 2007 Seal of Approval, Mr. Dad Seal of Approval, iParenting Media Award and The Toy Man eChoice award. Best of all, more than 15,000 CARES have been sold (all via the Internet) since its debut last fall and are "flying" across the country to the delight of parents, airline professionals and comfortable kids. That just proves what a demand there was for this "why didn't I think of that?" product.

SEVEN YEARS IN THE MAKING: HOW CARES WAS BORN

Stoll, 68, was inspired to find a hassle-free and portable solution to carting car seats on airplanes that would enable youngsters to be as safe flying as they are riding in cars. Although she had no technical engineering or design experience, Stoll knew that the weight and bulk of car seats were exactly the opposite of what was needed.

She also knew, from years of working in the U.S. Department of Transportation, that the airplane lap belt alone did not protect young children, and that everyone - the Federal Aviation Administration, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Transportation Safety Board, and even the airlines - urged parents to carry certified child restraints on board for their kids to keep them safe. But the only certified child restraints at the time were car seats. So Stoll drew a series of sketches for her new concept on a blank legal pad. Her husband looked at them and suggested she see a patent attorney. She filed the CARES patent application in 1999.

Moving CARES through the FAA's certification process was "no easy task," said Stoll. "There was a lot of sympathy, understanding and support" from FAA officials, but they were stymied by existing rules and regulations that called for a car-seat type device with a rigid frame." So when the patent was pending, Stoll began seeking a partner to help navigate the FAA. Stoll began meeting with manufacturers of children's equipment - high chairs, strollers and car seats. They were interested in the concept, but had no experience working with the FAA and shied away.

So Stoll began talking to companies that manufactured products for the aviation world. They understood how the FAA functioned. When she met AmSafe, the foremost manufacturer of aircraft seat belts in the world, headquartered in Phoenix, AZ, she finally encountered a company that not only understood the issue and the FAA, but was also able to apply their safety testing and restraint engineering procedures toward CARES.

In June 2002, U.S. patent # 6,402,251 was awarded to Stoll. Later that year she signed a licensing agreement with AmSafe for the exclusive manufacturing of the CARES product. AmSafe initiated what turned out to be more than a 3-year long FAA certification process.

The airlines were enthusiastic about the product, but thought parents ought to provide it. On September 6, 2006, the FAA announced the certification of CARES for parents to bring on board commercial and private aircraft. The CARES website, www.kidsflysafe.com, went live the same day. Public response was immediate and enthusiastic and continues unabated. Over 15,000 CARES have been sold to date.