Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 2, No. 21 - May 21, 2020
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................7
Classifieds............................2
Entertainment......................2
Hawthorne............................3
Huber’s Hiccups..................3
Lawndale..............................4
Inglewood.............................5
Legals.................................6,7
Pets........................................8
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Mostly
Sunny
74˚/61˚
Saturday
Sunny
71˚/59˚
Sunday
Sunny
73˚/61˚
Lawndale Tribune
AND lAwNDAle News
Hawthorne Press Tribune
Featuring the Weekly Newspapers of Hawthorne, Inglewood and Lawndale
Three-Hundred Households Get
Much Needed Care Packages
This past Friday, the City of Lawndale partnered with Restoration Life Church to distribute care packages to over 300 households (562 packages). The project was spearheaded by Pastor Eddie Vargas and
Mayor Robert Pullen-Miles. Mayor Pullen-Miles pictured above. For more photos see page 4. Photo courtesy City of Lawndale.
South Bay Entrepreneurs
Simplify Baby-Feeding
El Segundo residents Brandon and Lauren
Stuart are co-founders of the innovative bokee
bottle-feeding accessory product, which allows
a parent to hold a young child or multi-task
while quickly filling a bottle or sippy cup. Not
quite hands- free bottle prep, but a definite,
innovative step in the right direction.
The Stuart’s are proud parents of 3 1/2-yearold
twins, Owen and Elodie, who were born
prematurely, at 32 months. After the birth of
the children, the family decided that what was
best for the Stuart family was for Lauren to not
return to her job at Google, where she presided
over sales strategies and did research on the
“entertainment side of things,” and become a
stay-at-home Mom.
Brandon, who has a background working
as a creative director and marketer, said he is
always brainstorming ideas to make an existing
product or idea better. Said Lauren: “Ever
since I have known him (they started dating
in 2007), he almost has… too many ideas.”
Brandon said that, while participating in the
bottle-prep and feeding process for his young
twins, he thought that “there has to be a better
way to facilitate a process that young parents
might be doing ten times a day.”
So, he and friend Andrew Doan, who were,
said Lauren, attending a bachelor party at the
time, powwowed. Sure, why not, what else
would you do at a bachelor party other than
to brainstorm ideas about seamlessly securing
baby bottles?
Doan, works in the tech industry, in Northern
California with wife Nicole and children,
said teaming with the Stuarts to develop the
bokee has been a process he relishes, citing a
“fantastic collaboration. My relationship with
the Stuart’s has been an incredible journey of
playing-up our strengths,” he said. “My family’s
technical depth married with the Stuart’s
brand and storytelling.”
Doan’s second child was born on the same
August day that the Stuart twins arrived,
and he was going through many of the same
child-rearing tribulations as Stuart was. Doan’s
background is in engineering and was a
childhood friend of Stuart’s youngest brother
Brady, who lives in El Segundo and works as
an assistant equipment manager for the Los
Angeles Lakers.
The two fathers pooled their collective
entrepreneurial thoughts, and the bokee prototype
prototype tester.
Here is how the product works: First, push
the bokee down on a smooth and dry countertop.
It then suctions to the tabletop surface.
Then, you place the bottle or sippy cup into
the bokee, and apply gentle pressure as you
loosen or tighten the bottle as needed. A substantial
upgrade tool in the way youngsters
have been fed since the first baby bottle was
invented in 1841. And if you do not happen
to have children who necessitate bottle-feeding
or sippy cups, Lauren said the bokee makes
a perfect beer can or beer bottle holder. So,
there is that option.
The bokee hit the market in late September of
2019 and was recently recognized by the Junior
Products Membership Association (JPMA),
which touts innovative baby and children’s
products, as the 2020 “best product under
$25.” Brandon said he was overwhelmed by
the JPMA selection, saying that it was “one of
the top-three moments for us, because we are
such a small team.” He said the co-founders
“raised a celebratory glass,” though it has not
been discerned if they secured the glass in
a bokee prior to the start of the celebration.
was developed, with Lauren being chief See Stuarts, page 7