By Brenden Curry

The pillows created by local high school freshmen Olivia Odike of Great Valley High School and Shayna Kaye of Kohelet Yeshiva High School in Bala Cynwyd do more than comfort a dreaming mind every night.

Having recently completed the Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!), the co-founders of Apollow Pillow are using their passion for pillows and creativity to benefit others. YEA! is an after-school initiative that teaches middle and high school students how to create, run, market, and profit from a business. Once a month after school, students learn marketing, finances, and how to create products and services for consumers to purchase.

Kaye first learned of YEA! through an e-mail her parents received. Although she doesn’t plan to study entrepreneurship in college, she now knows the basics, thanks to the year-long course.

Meanwhile, Odike joined through the program’s director, Ellen Fisher, who works with Odike’s mother, a business owner herself. Odike enrolled, thinking it would be interesting to further her knowledge by creating her own business.

“I’ve always been interested in business, and it’s very helpful for the future,” Odike said.

Odike said that Kaye came up with the idea of selling throw pillows to help cancer patients. Their passion for arts and crafts – and helping others – inspired their venture’s name, Apollow Pillow. Named after Apollo, the Greek god of healing, the pillows will hopefully bring comfort and happiness to people who are sick.

“We try to make our pillows whimsical and fun and like to think of it as an art piece,” Kaye said.

By purchasing an Apollow Pillow, another handmade pillow is donated to children with cancer. Each pillow is handsewn by the girls with vibrant, fun-colored fabrics. They use fabrics donated to them by fabric and crafts shops in the area. Each pillow has a print on the front side with a matching solid color on the back. All proceeds from the girls’ efforts go back to the Ronald McDonald House by creating pillows for patients.

“We like what they do at the Ronald McDonald House,” Kaye said.

The young entrepreneurs began their venture with the hopes of having something fun to do while making an impact on many people. Kaye said that the duo will be assessing the next steps for their pillow production and donations in the future.

“The program helped us get our business out there,” Odike said.

Although they go to separate schools, they have maintained their drive, passion, and collaboration to create pillows that are for more than just sleeping. The girls contact each other once a week to share updates and discuss the direction of their shared endeavor.

The girls learned different perspectives of entrepreneurship, particularly how maintaining a business is more than what customers see. For Kaye, the most important lesson from the program was to always write everything down. Writing notes helped her retain key concepts for classes and track sales and pillow inventory.

“If you think something is important, write it down because chances are you’re going to use it,” Kaye said.