‘The Gift That Keeps On Giving’: Red Bank Dad Launches Kids Letter Service

RED BANK, NJ — A local dad has found a new way to turn childhood memories into interactive keepsakes with his personalized letter subscription service.

Mack Levine, a lifelong New Jersey resident, was born and raised in Marlboro before moving to Red Bank with his wife and two children, a three-year-old son and a one-year-old daughter.

Like any other parent, Levine spends plenty of time working to support his family and their home, but in his spare time, he and his wife found themselves asking, “How do we come up with something to engage the kids that’s not electronic?”

“I remember before I ever had my son and daughter, I was like, ‘I am never going to be that parent who puts a screen in front of my kids – not at a restaurant or anything,’” he told Patch. “And very quickly, I realized that’s much easier said than done.”

In his time off, Levine said he did everything from jumping around at SkyZone with his kids to taking walks and going to the park, but despite all the activities he pursued, he found that “there’s really only so much you can do before it’s back home in front of the screen.”

As he was brainstorming ways to engage his kids outside of technology, Levine came across The Wildflower Chronicles, a company that creates stories that are told through letters delivered to readers each month.

“When I heard about this, I was literally stopped in my tracks,” he said. “I couldn’t believe that people were making money from mailing things to people anymore – it just seemed so backwards and so against the grain, right? I thought, ‘Nobody wants to receive something in the mail.’”

What Levine quickly realized, however, is that in a world where everything has become digital, many people want something physical that they can use to get away from screens.

It was from this realization that Zip’s Mailbox Club was born.

“Every month or certain amount of weeks, there are plenty of other companies out there that will ship personalized packages to kids, but there’s no writing back, there’s no remembering,” he said. “So what I ended up doing was writing letters to my son through the character of ‘Zip.’”

In the character's letters back and forth with his son, Levine said Zip would “remember” what his son wrote to him, and from there, a chain of letters would begin between the two, where specific details from his son’s letters would be included in Zip’s messages.

“As I was writing letters to my son, I was like, ‘How cool would it be if this character that I created remembered what my son said, and included that in his next letter back?’” Levine said. “So, for example, my son might write to Zip about starting camp next week, and Zip might write back ‘Are you excited to meet your new counselors?’ or something along those lines.”

Since his son started the letter exchange with Zip, Levine said the project then expanded to friends and family who were also interested in the letters, and soon, the platform grew from Red Bank to other parts of New Jersey, and even to other states.

“It really just took off very quickly, much quicker than I ever imagined or was ready for,” he told Patch.

Despite the fast progress of his letter-writing service, Levine was happy to meet it, and soon Zip’s Mailbox Club was officially born.

Today, the club offers three different levels of letters for kids based on age group to best meet their reading ability (under four years old, four-six years old, and seven years or older), as well as an option to pay $19.99 per month for the service of $199.99 per year.

By signing up for the club, Levine said kids not only get a letter from Zip twice a month (which is written for them and includes specific details that parents can upload in the site’s parent portal), but also a coloring page, paper game, stamp and more.

As kids exchange letters with Zip, a larger story and mystery unfolds over the course of the year that the kids not only read along to, but also take part in and help solve.

“I remember as a kid going to the mailbox and being like, ‘Does anything ever come for me?’” Levine said. “Now, it’s cool that something does come in the mail for my kids and is fully decorated with their names on it. It’s been really fun.”

As Levine expands Zip’s Mailbox Club, he hopes that other kids and families get as much enjoyment out of Zip’s letters as his own kids do, and that through the club, he can help provide “a gift that keeps on giving.”

“It’s been remarkable to see family and friends’ eyes light up [with Zip], and I think it’s the perfect gift for people to give when they don’t want to give their kids another electronic gift or toy that gets forgotten about in a week or a few days,” he said. “This is something that can live with a kid for an entire year.”

To learn more about Zip’s Mailbox Club, you can visit their website.