San Diego BusinessBedtime Stories in the Digital Age
Carlsbad mother launches new story-telling Web site The recipe for a bedtime story hasn’t changed much over the years. The names are different, but the ingredients are almost always the same: a book, a parent or grandparent to do the story telling, and a sleepy child. But what if mom’s on the road, or dad is a traveling salesman? What if you find yourself with long distance grandparents? Or, suppose your designated story reader is active military and on deployment halfway around the world? Under circumstances like these, getting your quota of bedtime stories as a child can be challenging. But thanks to a Carlsbad graphic designer’s vision, now there’s a new way to get the job done. Heather Hultgren (a lover of bedtime stories herself) founded CherishedVoices.com, a service that allows people to record bedtime stories from wherever there is a phone.  Heather Hultgren Courtesy photo In the months following the birth of Hultgren’s first child, she wanted to devise a way for her parents, who live in Minnesota, to be able to read bedtime stories for their grandson. Using technology that Hultgren says wasn’t available two years ago, a CherishedVoices.com subscriber is able to dial a toll free number and record a personal message, tell a story, or read from one of the books in the Cherished Voices library. “You have up to an hour to talk,” she asks. “You can share whatever is in your heart.” Hultgren then edits the recording into the finished narrative. “I am immediately notified via email when any recording is completed,” she says. Hultgren edits out any false starts or stutters if need be, and then burns the sound file onto a CD that is packaged for shipment to the child. The child gets the CD and a copy of the book. “We also offer MP3 files," she says. "My son listens on his iTouch.” And once the recording has been made, she says, it can be stored forever and played any time, “at night, or during the day…when the child misses mommy or daddy most." The service goes in both directions – the child, in other words, can record messages for grandma and grandpa. “My mom just thinks it’s the best thing ever,” Hultgren says. CherishedVoices.com is now offering the option of allowing customers to donate a Cherished Voices Book and CD Package to a soldier's family. Hultgren says that the stories in her growing library have all gone through her personal screening process. “Each of them have a great message to let the child know how fantastic he or she is and how loved they are,” she says. “They are all heart-touching stories. I didn’t choose books that were silly.” Does that mean no Dr. Seuss? “No,” she laughs. While agreeing that “The Cat in the Hat” or “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” are indeed classics, she says “they didn’t have the enduring quality I was after.”
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