Ragan O’Reilly, the daughter of Larry and Nancy O’Reilly and granddaughter of Springfield-based O’Reilly Automotive founder Charles “Chub” O’Reilly, is making her mark in Redondo Beach, Calif., and around the world. As CEO and co-founder of California-based In the Loving Inc., she helped send a team to Port Au Prince, Haiti, in February to scout locations for construction of an orphanage in the earthquake-stricken country. Although O’Reilly wasn’t personally able to make the trip – she was busy delivering identical twins – she continues to solicit donations for In the Loving’s humanitarian efforts in Haiti.
Q: What is In the Loving Inc., which recently produced a CD and DVD called Baby Bliss? A: In the Loving is the umbrella (and) Baby Bliss is our first CD and DVD project. It’s making a nice big mark over here in California. We’re hoping it’s going to reach the whole country; we’re working toward distribution right now. In the Loving, we’re going to be producing baby-conscious media of all types. This is our first product and what we’ll be doing is various products based on more positive, loving and affirmation work within the products.
Q: How are your products different from other baby products on the market? A: We did a lot of market research and most everything out there for babies and families is all about lullaby music or it’s about making your baby smarter, like Baby Einstein. Ours isn’t about that. Ours is about laying the foundation of bringing more emotional love and support to the baby and the family. Research says … the more love and peace a baby feels, the more apt they are to want to learn. Q: How did the idea of building an orphanage in Haiti come about? A: It’s all about bringing more love into the world. ... When I started In the Loving, it wasn’t only going to be a company about bringing love and joy to people and their families with our baby products. We wanted to be a company that is also very philanthropic, so we want to have a whole department that is philanthropic and about bringing our company and our message to various causes throughout the country. This is just our very first endeavor in the philanthropic area of our company. The orphanage just came on. Q: You put together a team of five volunteers to survey the area and develop a plan for the Haitian orphanage. What did the team discover and accomplish? A: We didn’t go there with the intention of being sad and trying to feel worse about the situation. My project coordinator brought art supplies; they painted murals. Our musical director is a master drummer over here at a major spiritual center called Agape. And he brought a couple of drums (and) brought music to the children. My documentarian, Josef Gager, he brought all of his equipment for filming and actually filmed a lot of what was going on and what we were doing as a company there and as a volunteer group. Q: Are your plans for the orphanage now taking shape? A: The goal now, it is to build that orphanage, but the future is becoming even bigger. It was something like, “Let’s just build this orphanage and kind of be the model for other buildings to come, you know, getting something naturally built.” Now … it looks like the consultant that I hired, he’s trying to team up with other people in Haiti and not only build the orphanage but build various buildings and really make them strong and last. So if there’s another earthquake, they should stand. They’re also trying to figure out sustainable gardening and getting fruit trees grown. … We’ll figure out the next best place to spend our money – starting with the orphanage would be my goal. We’ll start developing budgets. … We’re also focused on getting the documentary done and doing fundraising with that.[[In-content Ad]]
A new and improved Reed Academy is being constructed on the middle school’s original site to preserve a neighborhood connection that goes back a century.