Aidan’s Monsters was opened on September 23, 2010 as a simple idea powered by Aunt Mandi’s incredible desire to help her brother’s family with their battle against Aidan’s leukemia. No one could have imagined that the store she started would become an internet sensation, but the response was enormous, and the outpouring of support quickly became worldwide.
Getting started
As Mandi has stated in the past her goal was 60 prints by Christmas. However, we received 7,684 donations through Aidan’s Monsters, and we are all incredibly grateful for your support. These past few months have been overwhelming at times, but the support from people across the world was an amazing boost to our efforts. We have been working on Aidan’s Monsters everyday for months now, and I am proud to say we have shipped every order out. This was a daunting task to manage, but Mandi was determined to keep her promises to all of the people who requested a print. Our dining room table was converted to a packaging station, and our garage was full of envelopes, paper and mailing labels. We developed product codes to be printed on the mailing labels to help speed up the process. In spite of our efforts, we do recognize that some people did not receive their print in less than 8 weeks, and for that we are very sorry that we didn’t meet our commitment. Please understand that we made every effort to deliver without “short cutting” or “modifying” the end product.
A weekend’s work
Given that our initial purpose and goal has been greatly overachieved, Mandi has elected to discontinue her management of the Aidan’s Monsters Etsy Shop, and we will be transitioning the shop to Aidan’s parents if they so desire. We both felt it important to thank everyone who helped make Mandi’s idea into what it became. I know we will never forget this experience, and I am especially grateful for the notes of support that Mandi has received. I have a new level of admiration for my wife, and she has learned that she is capable of doing amazing things.
May God bless Aidan and all of his supporters,
Sincerely,
The Ostein Family
As far as Aidan’s health he is doing very well. He takes his chemo in pill form now and has not had to spend time in the hospital since November, his treatments are going great. His hair is finally growing back and getting longer and longer every day. (Aidan says he wants rock and roll hair, haha. )
Aidan 