Kamryn's Safety Box

Kamryn’s journey as an entrepreneur began with his creations. At one time, he told us, “I started selling my own books. I had over 200 books, and I would sell them to people for $3.00. So basically I was entrepreneur at nine years old.” With hand-drawn books—including a favorite anime story of a boy from another planet who had a fox tail and the ability to protect others.

The Safety Box, made by Kamryn - helps the homeless own masks and gloves and essentials to live a quality life; a secure location for our most vulnerable to store their most prized possessions. “COVID-19 has changed the world,” Kamryn explained over Zoom, “and the Safety Box is a box that helps the homeless because the homeless can’t buy masks and gloves and all that. It has masks, gloves, a custom Safety Box T-shirt, hand sanitizer, and the biggest thing about it is a solar sanitizing machine. With the solar sanitizing machine, you could wash your mask and gloves, and it’s solar powered, so all you need is sunlight.”

Drawing on his experience with the Safety Box and other projects, Kamryn shared his advice for future entrepreneurs. Work Hard (and Don’t Quit) Then, after he had the idea of a portable sanitizer box for the homeless, he had to research how sanitizer machines worked. From his research, he designed his own sanitizer box, adapting the principles to serve homeless individuals. He drew diagrams, designed a logo, and laid out a plan.

His mother told him, “Whatever you need that I can go out and purchase for you to display it, I will. You have my support.” There were T-shirts he glued his logo on and poster board he used for the video pitch. Tylesha insisted he spent an hour each day on the project, and “The hour that I knew he had to put aside for it, I sat at the table with him. I pushed him. That was what I needed to do as a parent.”

Since his pitch was selected by the Summer of Innovation judges, Kamryn also receives the support of a professional mentor. They meet weekly, and in between their meetings Kamryn gets personalized assignments, such as gathering COVID-19 health metrics, researching packaging, and defining words. When we talked, Kamryn was preparing to make sample Safety Boxes for a consumer trial with the local homeless population. The work will only be increasing, but Kamryn has the support and grit to meet the challenge.