By Leah Ingram Eagle
What began as a plan to send magazines to her uncle while in the hospital at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston evolved into a much bigger idea and a company now in its fourteenth year.
Cheeriodicals was created by Gary and Mary Martha Parisher, residents of North Shelby County. “I wanted to send a gift, fishing magazines, and couldn’t find a service that did that,” Mary Martha says. At the time, she was an in-house attorney in pharmaceuticals and her husband, Gary, worked for a biotech in Massachusetts but was based in Birmingham.
A few hours later, the couple was doing internet research for magazine gift delivery but came up empty. “I can remember how it felt that day calling MD Anderson and asking if they could deliver these hunting and fishing magazines,” Gary says. “Mary Martha walked into my [home] office and said, “Wouldn’t it be a good idea if we had a magazine-based gift service in the hospital?” ”
Although neither of them had any experience in anything like this, they both left their jobs to pursue the idea. Gary says part of the reason they started Cheeriodicals was because it was a unique idea and something no one had done before. “We worked in the corporate world and thought maybe this was our chance,” he says. “God gave us the idea, and if no one’s done this before, let’s dig in and get some details and see where it goes.”
After speaking with a consultant in the magazine publishing industry, who confirmed such a service didn’t exist, the couple decided to take the idea and run with it: a way for people to visit a website, choose magazines and snacks, and have them delivered to hospital patients. The concept quickly evolved into gifts for a wide variety of occasions.
As the demand for children’s Cheeriodicals grew, the Parishers realized that too many children wouldn’t receive a Cheeriodical due to the financial constraints of their families. So, instead, they built a business model where every child in a children’s hospital could get their own Cheeriodical.
Out of that idea came the next phase of the company: corporate team building. This would allow companies the opportunity to bring their employees together and construct hundreds of Cheeriodicals under the supervision of Cheeriodicals. Companies both large and small began participating in the process, and thousands of boxes began making their way to children in hospitals.
“Within our first year, we switched over almost completely to corporate team building,” Mary Martha says. “We were no longer doing individual gifting at all.”
“Bigger companies are more driven to be socially responsible and are looked at by consumers and investors as to what they are doing to give back,” Gary says. “Marrying the thought of corporate social responsibility and team building was where they met us. Our tagline is “Team Building That Matters.” It’s fun and it makes a difference.”
Companies pull together groups for a one- to two-hour team building event session where they pack the boxes. Once finished, the boxes are delivered by Two Men and a Truck (free of charge) to hospitals. The second aspect is walking a subset of the team into the hospital to deliver boxes and meet the patients.
After children’s hospitals, the next group was veterans, then Ronald McDonald House charity families. The Hospital Hero program really took off during the Covid pandemic. Cheeriodicals tote bags were packed safely in the company’s corporate office warehouse (which was originally in Mt Laurel but has been in Chelsea for the past eight years), full of items chosen to provide comfort and relaxation to frontline healthcare workers.
Cheeriodicals team building options now include boxes for Dialysis and Cancer Patients, Assisted Living Residents, Backpacks for Kids in under-resourced schools, and most recently, Pet Adoption Kits for new pet owners at humane shelters. Gary says Cheeriodicals has established relationships with companies and hospitals all over the country.
Their first client was Northwestern Mutual, and their boxes were delivered to Children’s of Alabama. Gary began calling Northwestern Mutual offices around the country, and soon deliveries were being made to St. Jude Hospital, Children’s of Atlanta, and New Orleans Children’s Hospital.
“I made a lot of phone calls and sent a lot of emails,” Gary says. “In the early years, it was really difficult. But we put in the time and effort, and things began to snowball.” In 2014, Cheeriodicals got involved with Alabama Launchpad and won funding to assist in growing the company.
Helping the Parishers is a staff of five full-time employees, along with three warehouse workers who pack the boxes. “We get so much done with a small group,” Mary Martha says. “We like being a niche company and wouldn’t anticipate having more than 10 employees. Right now, we are having so much fun with it. It’s making a really big difference, and we’re going to keep going.”
“We want to be the right size to be the business we need to execute. We don’t want to make it so big we lose the personal service,” Gary adds.
The company has around 250 clients that include Wells Fargo, Pfizer, Mastercard, Amazon, Coca-Cola, and Sonic Automotive, which owns 160 dealerships.
The Parishers make their home on the 280 corridor. Their daughter, Grace (20), attends Ole Miss, and their son, Jake (16), is a junior at Briarwood Christian. Leaving both of their careers to pursue Cheeriodicals, Mary Martha says it was nice to have each other, especially as they needed encouragement at different times. “What I’ve learned is that you really can run a business that does social good,” she says. “There’s a whole space where you can earn a living doing good things for society, and I don’t think we had a concept [at the beginning] of it all.”
Gary says he is most proud of the companies that trust Cheeriodicals, the customers who choose them, and the hospitals that allow partnerships with them. “It’s hard to put into words what can happen in 13 years,” he says. “What I want people to understand is that anyone who starts anything, if you’re not getting discouraged, you’re not trying hard enough. If it’s easy, then it’s probably not worth it. It's supposed to be hard. You'll fail and make mistakes. Just move on and realize it's part of the process. If I could do it over again, I wouldn't have put pressure in the early days to make it perfect.”
For more information, visit cheeriodicals.com.