Google "Snugli" and you'll come up with over 88,000 matches. The inventor of this useful product lives right here in Evergreen.
In 1962 two, single young people named Mike and Ann applied to serve in a new organization that had just been formed called the Peace Corps. Ann, in fact, holds the registration number 33 of people who signed up to serve. The couple fell in love, were married eight weeks later and today they continue to serve their world and remain very much in love. It is indeed, a true love story.
Ann had been teaching pediatric nursing at Columbia University and Mike had just graduated from Yale and had an offer to go on to the Yale Drama School. Instead, they both chose to dedicate their lives to serving others, “working side by side with others from across our world, all wanting nothing less than world peace.”
Mike served as the French instructor for the volunteers, including Ann. “We spent sixteen hours per day for six weeks together. I figure,” he said with a smile, “that amount of time is equivalent to three years of dating in college.” The day after their wedding Mike went to Africa and Ann to Denver “to get to know his family.” Eight weeks later they reunited and from there “we began a two-year honeymoon.”
The Moores traveled on French ships along the coast, visiting Dahomey, Cameroun and other stops until the Congo. Along the way they met three Belgians who had been raised in the Congo “who were zoo captors.” In the three years since they had been in the area “everything had changed.” Mike and Ann became runners for a medical group that served doctors during the civil war in Angola. “They might need bandages or light bulbs,” said Mike, “so we would deliver what we could.” The young couple hitchhiked into upper Congo to Bangui, Central African Republic, Chad, and Nigeria. At one point they were to travel on a camel caravan, but were warned that if they suffered sea sickness, they shouldn’t climb on a camel’s back. “There was so much excitement!” said Ann.
Three years ago, the Evergreen, CO couple traveled on a Rotary polio vaccination trip to Ghana. After that, they went to Togo, where they had lived 50 years ago as Peace Corps volunteers. “Now, there are five times the people and yet the same poverty exists.” Ann recounts that “A drunk soldier killed the president and ended up taking control of the country. Now, his son is president.” She shakes her head, demonstrating the frustration of becoming involved and truly understanding what people around the world are experiencing.
When they returned to the states, they lived with Mike’s family and had their first child, Mande, “who is named after Nelson Mandela,” Ann states with her gentle smile. From there they moved toWashington, D.C. where Mike worked in Community Action programs in the Office of Economic Opportunity under the Johnson War on Poverty. Two years later, he returned to Denver to serve as Executive Director of Denver's Community Action Agency.
Meanwhile, Ann dedicated her life to raising their family. “I was looking for a way to carry Mande, but back then everyone put their children in little plastic trays of sorts. We didn’t have a car, so we went everywhere on bikes. I thought of how women carried their children in Togo, and I fashioned a similar system for Mande.” It was 1964 and Ann sent her design idea to her mother, Lucy, a Dunkard seamstress, who sewed it and 20 others, as people saw Ann’s design and requested one for themselves. The next year, she invited a neighbor to help her sew, and after it was featured in the Whole Earth catalogue it became a cottage industry for the community in which Ann was raised. By 1976 Consumer Reports rated the Snugli the best baby carrier and soon orders were up to 8,000 per month. A year after Lucy passed away, in 1985, Ann and Mike sold Snugli. “Lucy had been the heart of it,” smiled Mike. After the sale of Snugli, they founded Air Lift Unlimited with Leslie Beauparlant, and have spent the past 20 years in home health care: Ann inventing products and Mike figuring out how to market them.
Their daughter, tucked into the first Snugli, witnessed history when in 1965, after two failed attempts, Ann and Mike traveled to Montgomery with 25,000 other concerned citizens to be a part of the March from Selma to Montgomery. Today Mike and Ann are part of Denver Public Schools speaker program in which they visit classrooms and tell students about their experience. “We walked through poor White neighborhoods,” said Ann, and had bricks and stones thrown at us. We walked through poor Black neighborhoods and heard praise. Through it all, we sang; it was the music that got us through it.”
In 1970 Mike threw in his hat and ran to serve in the Colorado House. A campaign, led by an Evergreen man that objected to Mike’s assistance to a Black friend to move to Evergreen, was just barely strong enough to lose the campaign. “I won the other precincts, just not my own.” Mike additionally was one of the founders of the Jefferson County Open Living School, chaired Plan Jeffco in the successful referendum to create the Open Space Program, and in the 1980’s served as the Scientific Cultural Funding District Campaign Chairman. Through his efforts to raise funds for Evergreen’s performing art facility, Center/Stage, Mike and Ann became acquainted with and are now involved in the Evergreen Rotary. They are also actively involved in the Institue of International Education which among other matters brings international visitors to our communities. And then, the love of music Mike found at Yale and Ann found in her Dunkard upbringing continues with their work through the Evergreen Chorale, the Yale Alumni Chorus and Baroque Folke in which they are both involved.
When asked what the seed for each of them was in learning to serve others, Ann gives credit to her church upbringing. “I was taught to go out and be of service to others.” Mike credits the Peace Corps adventure for his launch into community work.
ANN MOORE -
What person has most impacted your life?
My mother.
What was the most frightening situation you have encountered in your life?
Being swept to sea along the Cape Cod coast
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Family members feeling good, secure and happy in their skin
My mother.
What was the most frightening situation you have encountered in your life?
Being swept to sea along the Cape Cod coast
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Family members feeling good, secure and happy in their skin
What is your greatest fear?
Nuclear proliferation.
Nuclear proliferation.
Which living person do you most admire?
Nelson Mandela, President Obama, Dalai Lama
Nelson Mandela, President Obama, Dalai Lama
What is your greatest extravagance?
Plant material and extensive family travel
Plant material and extensive family travel
What is your greatest trait?
Inquisitiveness and acceptance
What is the quality you most admire in a person?
Spiritual essence, sunny disposition, mutual respect, healthy lifestyle, courage, acceptance and embracing diversity
Spiritual essence, sunny disposition, mutual respect, healthy lifestyle, courage, acceptance and embracing diversity
When and where were you happiest?
Family togetherness and singing. It's on going, always the present moment
Who are your favorite public figures?
President Obama, Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjai Gupta, Wayne Dyer
Who are your real-life heroes?
Martin Luther King, President Kennedy (Peace Corps)
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Raising loving and secure daughters. Introducing "baby wearing" to US parents
Family togetherness and singing. It's on going, always the present moment
Who are your favorite public figures?
President Obama, Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjai Gupta, Wayne Dyer
Who are your real-life heroes?
Martin Luther King, President Kennedy (Peace Corps)
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Raising loving and secure daughters. Introducing "baby wearing" to US parents
Other than Evergreen, where would you like to live?
Guatemala
Guatemala
What is your most treasured possession?
Our home
What do you most value in your friends?
Shared interests, positive attitudes, healthy living, independent thinking
What is it that you most dislike?
Rigidity and intolerance
What is your greatest regret?
Not being present at my dad's death
Our home
What do you most value in your friends?
Shared interests, positive attitudes, healthy living, independent thinking
What is it that you most dislike?
Rigidity and intolerance
What is your greatest regret?
Not being present at my dad's death
What is your motto?
Living a life of mutual respect, service, spiritual growth and healthy living
Living a life of mutual respect, service, spiritual growth and healthy living
MIKE MOORE –
What person has most impacted your life?
Mother; wife; Nelson Mandela
What was the most frightening situation you have encountered in your life?
Financial free-fall '88-'92. Lost home to foreclosure, almost bankrupt. (redeemed home from foreclosure)
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A life with purpose; creating, nurturing and sharing a family of beautiful, creative daughters; opportunities to participate and contribute to community
A life with purpose; creating, nurturing and sharing a family of beautiful, creative daughters; opportunities to participate and contribute to community
What is your greatest fear?
Global warming; acrophobia
Global warming; acrophobia
What is the trait you most admire in others?
Tolerance
Tolerance
Which living person do you most admire?
Mandela
Mandela
What is your greatest extravagance?
Travel with family - treating all 15 children, sons-in-law and grandchildren to family vacations
Travel with family - treating all 15 children, sons-in-law and grandchildren to family vacations
What is your greatest trait?
Leadership - ability to organize and delegate
Leadership - ability to organize and delegate
When and where were you happiest?
Family celebrations
Who are your favorite public figures?
Obama. Mandela. Jay Leno. Sargent Shriver. Wayne Dyer
Who are your real-life heroes?
Mandela. Martin Luther King. John Kennedy
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
My family
Family celebrations
Who are your favorite public figures?
Obama. Mandela. Jay Leno. Sargent Shriver. Wayne Dyer
Who are your real-life heroes?
Mandela. Martin Luther King. John Kennedy
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
My family
Other than Evergreen, where would you like to live?
In the country near Santa Fe, Aspen, Laguna Beach
In the country near Santa Fe, Aspen, Laguna Beach
What is your most treasured possession?
My home
What do you most value in your friends?
Trustworthiness, compassion, passion, creativity
What is it that you most dislike?
Arrogance, dishonesty
What is your greatest regret?
Minor things: two garage doors instead of one wide one; porcelain instead of hand crafted tile in our house; various frivolous things.
My home
What do you most value in your friends?
Trustworthiness, compassion, passion, creativity
What is it that you most dislike?
Arrogance, dishonesty
What is your greatest regret?
Minor things: two garage doors instead of one wide one; porcelain instead of hand crafted tile in our house; various frivolous things.
What is your motto?
Be patient; be tolerant; encourage excellence; praise other's achievements.
Be patient; be tolerant; encourage excellence; praise other's achievements.
