Who We Are

Time is the most valuable resource we have.

It seems that we never have enough and always need more. The Family Fun Finder was created to combat the shortage of this non renewable commodity.

Our goal at The Family Fun Finder is to increase the amount of quality time available to both families and businesses by...

• Offering an easy-to-use resource for families that's chock full of ways to spend time together and suggestions on where to find valuable services and goods
• Providing a new, fresh outlet through which businesses and organizations can let the public know about what they have to offer

A lot of times people will ask us how this all got started. I think instead of creating some elaborate tale of dreams and determination that’s all sweet and warm and fuzzy, I will stick to what really happened.

The true tale of The Family Fun Finder

Melanie and Chiara have been sisters for over 30 years, the oldest of 5 children. Although we’d love to tell you our lives were lots of sunshine and roses, the truth is we’ve seen a lot of ups and downs through that time together. As teens in high school our father lost his job and decided to go back to school to get a doctoral degree in education. It turned out to be a difficult time for our family mentally and financially. It was a true test of our cohesiveness and ingenuity as a family, not mention a lesson in hard work and frugality. Later, when we were grown, married and out of the house…we faced other tests and trials. Melanie faced fertility issues and her and her husband actively pursued adoption, finally blessing their family with 2 wonderful children before a miracle occurred. She was expecting! This happened not only once, but twice.  I guess improbable doesn’t really mean impossible! With the birth of a third and fourth child, Melanie knew she wanted to be able to choose to stay home with her children to enjoy and nurture them. In the meantime, Chiara faced a failed first marriage, partaking of single motherhood with her young son until meeting her second husband David. They had three children before he passed away suddenly in February of 2006. She has since been raising her four children on her own with the help and support of her much loved extended family, working 3 part time jobs and attending school online in order to make their lives more comfortable.

What, you may ask, does this have to do with the story of the Family Fun Finder? Well, it may not be the actual beginning of the actual idea, but it most certainly the foundation.  Stuart E. Rosenberg wrote in his book The Road to Confidence, ‘Despite all new inventions and modern designs, fads and fetishes, no one has yet invented, or will ever invent, a satisfying substitute for one’s own family”. We have learned through these experiences, and others, the essential nature of family in our lives and in the lives of each individual on this planet. Building secure relationships with those we love the most should be a priority. But as young mothers, we noticed a disturbing lack of concise resources available to families. I mean there are things out there, but nothing like what we were really looking for. So instead of looking any further, we made our own. We started working in January of 2008 and were able to debut our first publication in May of the same year. The second publication received a makeover after lesson learned from the first publication took effect and out second publication hit the homes of our friends and neighbors in October. It has been a lot of hard work, a lot of learning and a lot of worry. But it was also worth it.

Making sure that resource gets into the right hands is so important to us that we offer our highlighter publication to 30,000 families free of charge every 4 months.  In addition we have created the Finder Club to save families even more money and spare them more time by being able to shop and play locally. Don’t worry, we’re far from done! Every day we have new ideas we put on a shelf, smile and say…maybe someday. We know that with the support of our friends and neighbors, our new extended family, someday will come sooner than later.

We want to especially thank our patient families. Oh, and our super-fantastic staff. They are strangers who became beloved friends and without them this would not only be what it is now, but it would actually be impossible.

Best Wishes everyone!