Local mom's invention cuts drink waste
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I’m always impressed when I hear about an invention inspired by a mom’s frustration.
My frustration inspires little, aside from perhaps a newspaper column or two. Maybe an early bedtime for the kids.
Maura Kopulos, a Woodstock mom of four, including 18-month-old twins, a 4-year-old and a 5-year-old, was tired of not knowing which drink boxes belonged to her children at parties.
The spread of germs as well as the waste of half-full drinks left behind also bothered her.
The idea for ZYNKS for Drinks, drink identifiers, came to her about three years ago at a barbecue.
“My daughter said, ‘Mommy, is this drink mine?’” Kopulos remembered. “There was this line of juice boxes on the table. All the parents looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders and said, ‘Sure.’”
Soon after, Kopulos invented ZYNKS. They’re bright, colorful charms attached to bands that fit around almost any beverage, including juice boxes, sports drinks, soda cans and water bottles.
The charms are now sold online at www.zynks.com and in more than 100 stores throughout the country, including The Thoughtfulness Shop and Home Elements, both in Woodstock. Both Pier One and The Paper Store are considering picking up the product.
“When I first came out with the whole idea, I really was thinking this would just be for kids,” Kopulos said. “As I started doing shows, everybody loved them.”
They’re now used for weddings, poker nights and parties for adults. They’re taken out on boats and turned into party favors. Teenagers wear them as bracelets and in their hair.
They come in numerous themes, such as princess and pirate for the kids, holiday and seasonal themes and general themes, such a “Rock on!”, “Celebrate!” or “Drink Up!”
Each theme comes in a pack of five and usually sells for $3.99.
Kopulos has customized themes for McHenry County, such as “Groundhog Day” charms and company promotions.
ZYNKS are manufactured in McHenry County, and Kopulos now has a “team of moms” that work for her. She does all this in her “spare time.”
“I work during naptime and before they get up,” she said. “I’m usually up until at least midnight every night working.”
The name of the charms is a play off of Kopulos’ maiden name, Zenk, as well as a tribute to the partial inspiration behind them – her parents.
As she says on her Web site, her parents experienced The Great Depression. As a child of a big family, she remembered often hearing the “Waste Not, Want Not” lecture from her father.
“If you were lucky enough to get a bottle of soda, you were going to drain it to the very last drop – just like Dad,” Kopulos writes on her Web site.
As she grew older, married and had kids, she said, “There was so much waste all over, and it really bothered me.”
With degrees in fitness, dietetics and psychology, she never thought she’d be running her own business or marketing her own product.
“I had the idea and just continue to run with it because the response is so great,” she said.
