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From Style Magazine - Nov 2005
Creatively Speaking by Linda Marie
"E-mail is great - Bed-mail is better!" That's Dream Sak's motto and anyone who has received a Dream Sak pillowcase would agree it's worth sleeping on.
"The pillowcase has been done before," said Becky Dawson of Burtrum, one of the originators of Dream Sak, "but never filled with your thoughts, your dreams, your best wishes and your scent from sleeping with one."
"The idea for this whole thing was my husband's, " Becky said. "He was in the National Guard during Vietnam. I would write him a letter and spray perfume on it,, like everyone else did, and he would take that letter and put it under his pillow."
The memory of his own "bed-mail" came back to Brad Dawson, a social worker for Todd County, a couple of years ago during ongoing U.S. military conflicts. He told Becky that the days were easy when he was away but that if he didn't get mail, the nights were horrible.
In the meantime, the couple's beloved pet, Bud, died. Becky explained that from the time Bud was a pup, he would sneak into their bedroom and sleep with his head on Brad's pillow. They have fond memories of Brad playfully scolding Bud with, "Hey, you're stealing all my dreams out of my dream sak."
Putting two and two together, Brad got the idea of turning a pillowcase into a letter filled with dream. "We talked about it for awhile," Becky said. "You know how ideas come and go." But this idea didn't go away. Finally, Becky told her husband, "Maybe this is one of your ideas we could afford to try."
They enlisted the help of their neighbors and friends, Al and Sandy Johns, and went to work. After Becky designed the first Dream Sak, complete with an American Flag and a place for the sender to write a personal message, they faced their biggest challenge. "As Al and Brad had both been in the armed forces, they felt that if this was going to be something to market to the military, it had to be entirely American-made." Becky said. "That's not easy to do."
It took some doing, but they finally found American-made cotton cases, American-made laundry markers for writing messages and American-made plastic storage bags.
A stroke of luck, they thought, was connect with Wilderness Impressions in St. Augusta, which could properly imbed the ink in a four-colored design. By spring of 2004, the first American Flag Dream Saks were ready to go.
"If you are sending it to someone you love, you sleep on it, dream on it and hug it," Becky said. "Some people add a little of their own perfume or cologne to the case before quickly putting it into the resealable plastic bag."
Becky, who teaches music in Little Falls, gave the first Dream Sak to a third-grader to send to an older brother stationed in Kosovo. Since then, the American Flag Dream Sak has been sent to countless soldiers in Kosovo, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq and several stateside locations. "It's a way for families and loved ones to connect in just a little different way." Becky said. "One soldier in Iraq got 10 American Flag Dream Saks for his buddies and some soldiers have sent Dream Saks back home for refills."
I'd rather the American Flag Dream Saks weren't needed right now," Becky said. "It's unfortunate, but they really do serve kind of a neat purpose."
The phenomenon of Dream Saks doesn't end there. People were saying they wished there was one for their college-bound daughter or a child going into the hospital," Becky said. "We started to come up with more design ideas, but there were so many, we decided we would just do a Dream Sak Postcard." This open-ended design has been popular as a gift for many occasions, some have even made it to Ronald McDonald Houses. "Just when we think we've thought of it all, someone comes up with another idea," Becky said.
When someone wished we had something for little kids, we came up with the Pete & Pals Dream Sak. Based on the Dawsons' new puppy, Pete, this Dream Sak is designed to comfort children when they need to be away from home.
To learn more about Dream Saks and where to get them locally, see www.dreamsak.com. "It's been really fun, the four of us doing this together, Becky said. "We wanted to create a product that we could be proud of.