SHAFTSBURY, Vt. (WCAX) – Piece by piece, rows of machines in Shaftsbury are turning out lifesaving products in more ways than one.
“We’ve been working for 20 years now trying to protect kids,” said George DeCell Jr. who founded SafetyCaps.
Unfortunately, it was a personal experience with his daughter that led the entrepreneur to make child-safe plug protectors better.
“One day, I was vacuum cleaning and I took out a standard-size outlet plug from the wall and set it on the table,” he recounted. “As I was vacuum cleaning, I don’t know if I knocked it off the table or she reached up and grabbed it, but when I turned around, it was in her mouth and she was choking.”
DeCell was able to save his daughter’s life, but the encounter left a lasting impact on this Fairfax dad.
“After that, I started really researching these caps and realized, why are they selling me a product made to protect my kid that can really kill my kid? And it didn’t make any sense,” he said.
With a newly sparked passion to protect his child and others, DeCell spent time making phone calls to outlet plug companies, asking them to change their design.
“I even got like 2,000 signatures from doctors and lawyers all around the country and sent it to the CPSC asking them to change this law, and they wouldn’t do it,” DeCell said. “They said, ‘We’re not changing anything.’”
So, DeCell got his hands on a small parts test cylinder, designed to show what poses a choking hazard for kids. To no surprise, DeCell said the safety plugs fit right in. He was determined to make one that didn’t, launching SafetyCaps in the early 2000s.
With a design that mimics a pacifier, these caps are wider and have holes allowing for airflow and easier removal should they somehow get into the throat.
“And my hole is quarter inch the same size, allowing it, if it goes into the soft tissue of the throat, not to choke the child,” demonstrated DeCell.
It’s a mission George’s wife, Estelle, was happy to support, despite taking her husband away from stay-at-home-dad duties.
“Regardless of whether it made us any money or not, it was a safety feature that was necessary to go forward and make,” she said. “I’m glad that we have a product that can help other people, other families, and it’s of course our number one baby shower gift.”
While the idea was born in Fairfax, the caps are made at T&M Enterprises in Shaftsbury, which is capable of turning out as many as 40,000 a day.
“Our goal is to get as many of these into the hands of as many of these people as we can and in as many ways as we can,” she said.
The caps are available to buy in bulk, and with your business’ logo on them, on the SafetyCaps website.