It began with a high school reunion— three best friends and an idea written on a cocktail napkin at 2 a.m.

The idea? MoJo, an apparel company that would break the cycle of poverty and empower single mothers.  After brainstorming the mission of the company, brothers Darr and Tom Aley asked longtime friend Valerie Schaffner to join their endeavor.

‘They said to me, ‘Sister, you’ve got to come on board,” said Schaffner, a writing instructor at Syracuse University. ‘At that time, there wasn’t a company. It was just a bunch of high school buddies saying how we can make the world better.’

Nearly a year and a half later, with the aid of Schaffner as the director of business development for the company, MoJo was on its first college campus: SU.

The name ‘MoJo’ is an abbreviation for the Aley brothers’ organization, Moms and Jobs. The products, handmade by single mothers from Lowell, Mass., give these women the opportunity to earn a stable income and improve their standards of living. Clothing items, such as mittens, scarves and hats, are available at the University Bookstore and in the Carrier Dome. Prices range from about $20 to $45.

The company has expanded its charity to more than just single mothers with a ‘Two for You’ deal. When a blanket is bought, MoJo donates another to a homeless shelter in San Francisco or Boston.

Gale Youmell, the bookstore’s divisional merchandise manager, worked with Schaffner to decide which items to order. According to Youmell, the products have sold well and will remain a staple in the bookstore.

‘It is a wonderful cause, and I am so excited for it to grow,’ she said.

Originally, the Aley brothers wanted to create a business that dealt with children living below the poverty line. They soon realized that the best way to conquer it and build awareness would be to start out with the parents, especially single mothers.

‘In the United States, there are 11 million single moms, and they take care of one out of every four children,’ Darr said. ‘This is not just an inner-city problem.’

Schaffner said these issues hit home. 

‘When I became a single mom, I wanted to show my own two sons that good things can come out of adversity,’ she said. ‘I am no different from these women in Lowell, Mass., with the exception of the fact that I was blessed with a college and grad degree.’

MoJo is not just an ordinary business. It hires single mothers for 25 percent higher than minimum wage, pays for their entire health care and children’s day care bills, and provides the mothers with free classes in money management, marketing and business planning. MoJo even completely finances the mothers’ personal designs for the company and gives them 10 percent of the profit, Darr said.

The company originally began with 25 stitchers in Lowell, Mass. However, due to recent successes, including a deal with the University of Pittsburgh and Red Light Management — a record company that manages artists Dave Matthews, Alicia Keys and Faith Hill — the company will expand to San Francisco with a total of 160 stitchers. Matthews will start selling MoJo apparel at his concerts, Schaffner said. 

‘MoJo is selling you products, but not doing it for the money, but to change lives,’ she said.

Schaffner has spent time as a guest speaker at colleges around the country and met with purchasers and licensing directors at various colleges. She said she is grateful for SU’s trademark licensing administrator Marc Donabella’s help, who licensed SU’s logo on the products and assisted her with other licensers.

Donabella said he is always on the lookout for new products and that he was drawn to the company’s mission.

‘The cause itself of being able to employ single mothers is something worth getting behind,’ he said.

Schaffner said using SU as a pilot school makes sense with Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s mission of ‘Insights Incite Change.’ Last summer, Schaffner had her business communication class use MoJo as a case study start-up company. The students practiced writing business letters and proposals. One student suggested a concert, which could become a reality because of the deal with Red Light Management.

‘It is one thing to say, ‘Make the world a better place,” Schaffner said, ‘and another to entirely set an example.’

cabidwel@syr.edu

Published on January 19, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Colleen: cbidwill@syr.edu