Meredith Oppenheim balances the roles of entrepreneur and mother to a young child, while remaining a caring daughter to her own parents. Last year, she and her daughter wrote a children’s book, Really Ready to Read, raised more than $10,000 on Kickstarter, and made it their mission to help other children read and succeed.
A recent Pew Charitable Trusts study revealed that 46% of Americans in their 30s and 40s are dealing with a new set of pressures particular to the Sandwich Generation―a population wedged between the evolving needs and responsibilities of both their parents and their children. Whereas in the past, we spent more time at home doing things like cooking dinner, more time disconnected from work and other obligations, and likely less time traveling far distances to see family and friends, today we are simply out of time. Add the demands of a career, children, and parents, and Sandwichers are often left with little time and energy for more soulful pursuits.
Meet Meredith Oppenheim, a busy Sandwicher and mother of a young daughter. Meredith has spent her entire career working intergenerationally―most recently overseeing a multi-billion-dollar senior housing portfolio for a REIT. She won a United States Congressional Award for her service to and advocacy for senior citizens, got her MBA at Harvard, and served on Mayor Bloomberg’s Age-Friendly Commission. But it was with the birth of her daughter, Brielle, that she became fascinated by the younger generation.
Meredith, like so many of her peers, is dedicated to making time count. Today, she shares her insights about the obstacles her generation faces as well as her own story of creating something meaningful out of those simple moments.
Steve Mariotti: What is the story behind Really Ready to Read?
Meredith Oppenheim: My daughter was memorizing books during preschool and seemed ready to read, but I did not know how to teach her. What I did know was what interested Brielle: playing games, creating crafts, and learning how things work―all of which inspired our book project.
I wanted to help her unlock her full potential and to have fun together while doing so. We began by creating a word game while walking to and from school. As we walked along Broadway, we listed words that started with BR- and then together created a silly sentence of these words. “BRave BRielle broke bread on bright Broadway to celebrate” is one of the more than 20 sentences filled with alliteration my daughter handwrote in her emerging handwriting. We supplemented the narrative with whimsical illustrations she made with her high school aged babysitter.
Once we had a number of pages done, we decided to print a few copies to share them with friends and family. The price to print one book was over $30 so we launched the Kickstarter campaign to secure the demand and raise money upfront. We exceeded our $10,000 campaign goal thanks to our very generous community, friends and family―which allowed us to print and distribute the books.
SM: How did you use this experience to teach your daughter about business?
MO: Brielle was part of the entire creation, promotion, production, and distribution of the book. She saw firsthand the amount of time and effort that goes into such an undertaking and really enjoyed working with my husband and me to scan pages, adhere labels and stamp her signature in the 500 books we had printed.
I brought her to our printer to see how a book went from a desktop file to a finished product and all the steps in between. She was allowed to press buttons and was mesmerized watching all the machines operate.
I also learned from her as she challenged my non-targeted approach to distributing cards promoting our Kickstarter campaign to all who entered our community center: she suggested giving them out to “only the people who have kids” with them. She already seems to have good business instincts.
“Young children need opportunities to explore their interests and permission to do their best so that they become confident learners.”
SM: As a busy working parent, what kinds of challenges do you face?
MO: Making my time with my daughter most meaningful with the fewest distractions possible. This is particularly challenging with entrepreneurial work that never ends and making dinner while my daughter is at school or asleep. Three years ago, I made a decision to adjust my work hours to a 9 am to 2 pm and 8 to 11 pm schedule. I did not want to miss the opportunity to spend time with my daughter during her most formidable years, my parents who enjoy good health but whose needs have evolved, and my grandma who just passed away two years ago. My husband and I are like a tag-team, working together to get through the family to-do list and make sure we both have downtime to just enjoy our daughter and each other as much as possible.
SM: Tell us about your work with senior citizens and what you are up to now.
MO: When I was in high school, I wrote a cookbook for seniors. I was inspired to help my grandparents cook and eat better as we were very close and I wanted them to live forever. I thought I could help other people’s grandparents by creating a cookbook and touring senior centers to demonstrate how easy the healthy recipes were to make. I donated all book proceeds to my local senior center and started my lifelong commitment to serving seniors.
Brielle and I carried on that charitable mission tradition. We have donated over $3,000 of the money we raised on Kickstarter to Reach out and Read, the Association for Library Service to Children and Literacy INC, and visited public libraries, after-school programs and physician offices to do readings and distribute our books.
Now that I am in my early 40s, I am more deeply invested in my own parents’ health and well-being along with those of their generation. I am currently working on what I hope will be a range of “game changing” ventures including a healthcare technology my husband and I built together in order to improve the patient experience and provider performance. My expertise and passion is at the intersection of healthcare, hospitality and real estate where there are many opportunities that address the growing needs of the aging population. In the end, I remain true to my calling: to be a catalyst for change that helps people―of all ages.
If you would like to learn more about Really Ready to Read or how to start writing with your own child, get in touch with Meredith or visit the site.