Custom Cargo Nets for Pickup Trucks Lead to Helping Kids Read in S.A.
It’s funny how life works out sometimes. Twenty-one years ago I started designing pickup truck cargo management systems and custom cargo nets for pickup trucks, passenger vans, buses and the like and have been doing it ever since. We’ve literally designed hundreds if not thousands of different custom cargo nets for various applications in different vehicles.
Along with designing custom cargo nets and selling them on the internet comes what we call SEO or ‘Search Engine Optimization’. When you advertise products for sale online like custom cargo nets, you have to get them out there so people can see them. Creating .html pages is an art. We’ve become pretty good at it. So, for example, if you search for ‘custom cargo nets’, you may see our website pop up on the first page of google https://www.cargocatch.com if you’re looking for custom cargo nets. That’s SEO.
In 2008, I lived in Paraguay after the market crash in order to keep my business going as it was relatively new. I moved there because I had always been interested in South American culture and it seemed like a good place to go to get away and breathe some fresh air and do some internet marketing, in addition to a few other little necessities. Best decision I ever made. I subsequently met my wife Dora there.
Dora worked at the Paraguayan-American Cultural Center in Asuncion. I would frequent there to get a good wi-fi signal and to be in a familiar place with lots of books and computers as both are hard to come by in Paraguay. I discovered Dora was in the process of becoming a librarian and was passionate about kids learning to read in both English and Spanish. In Paraguay, kids don’t have a lot of exposure to books.
Long story short, Dora and I hooked up and I immigrated her here to the USA. She started working from here on helping the kids there. While I was selling custom cargo nets, Dora would sew and work on helping kids in Paraguay. She started working in conjunction with another man in Paraguay who started a free book library system for kids there. We donated some money and helped the two of them get their passion off the ground and mini free libraries were built in various parts of Paraguay.
Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago, I had a customer from Detroit named Alyce of Nesting Birds Publishing call me inquiring about a custom cargo net for her mobile book bus for kids. We started chatting and it turns out that she is doing the exact same thing in Detroit for kids that don’t have a lot of access to books.
Now, Dora and Alyce are working together to help kids in both places. Now, Detroit and Paraguay have a connection. The kids from Detroit and Paraguay have an indirect connection. Maybe some day the kids in Paraguay can come visit the kids in Detroit or vice-versa. What a great cultural exchange that would be.
Who would have thought that a guy who sells custom cargo nets for vehicles on the internet would hook up two people trying to do the same very rare thing, helping kids to read using mini free libraries. It has been quite a ride this little internet business of mine. After 21 years, I can honestly say, it was worth every penny.
Bringing Dora and Alyce together was better than any sale I ever got or any job I ever completed and has completed my circle of desire for this business in every way possible. Who cares about money. Kids and books are where it’s at. If you can donate to Alyce’s cause, please visit her website https://www.nestingbirdspublishing.com/donate
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