lil' IG Wins Big

Brings Emmy to New Hampshire

1590 Broadcaster,

June 9, 1999

By John Collins

"Yes, I'll make money off of this," says Big Jim Tomaszewski. "But that's not what it's about." The owner of J.E.L.T. Graphics sits in his cluttered office inside the eye-catching storefront building at 102 E. Hollis St., next to the Henry Hanger Company. Work clothes for this former Georgia College standout first baseman consist of a golf shirt, shorts and sandals. He shares his McDonald's breakfast with me as he speaks about the unlimited future of the Children's Safety Foundation and its priceless signature character, "lil' iguana."

The next day, at the 22nd Annual Boston New England Emmy Ceremony at the Plaza Hotel Jim will run off with an Emmy Award in the children's television category for his work on the "lil' iguana TV Show," which airs Saturday's at 8 AM on Ch. 68/WABU).

"I could've sold lil' iguana for $3.5 million dollars to the last person who made an offer," says Jim, referring to a Boston-based marketing agency that wanted to buy all rights to the character. "I could've taken that money and run." But to say that money, trophies, or even Emmy Awards are what Tomaszewski and lil' iguana are all about, is to say that Jim would be willing to profit from the murder of a 10 year old Jeffrey Curley.

For it was the Curley case that was the tear-shedding event the drove Tomaszewski to make lil' iguana so big. "I really could just take the money the J.E.L.T. brings in and just go live like some of these other snobs. In a mansion with 8 cars, and everything else," says the father of 3 (who named his business after the initials of his wife and three children). But I'd never be able to live with myself if I did that, because people would know every day that I'm a hypocrite.

In fact, Jim, Jimmy, Erica, Eden and wife Laurie live only 3 blocks from the screen printing company, on the top 2 floors of a modest 3-family Nashua apartment building.

"I really don't have time to cut the grass and paint the house and stuff like that. I used to do it all the time." Jim recalls. "Then I just made a moral, in-my-heart decision that I wanted to make a difference."

Tomaszewski, together with J.E.L.T.'s brilliant young, tattooed, pierced and dreadlocked artist, Jeremy Selmer, began to make the difference over lunch one day at Anthony's North End Restaurant in Nasua's Railroad Square. Second table on the right, by the window.

"I said (to Jeremy) I really want to make something for my kids, in case I die. So, on cocktail napkin, we sketched out a little iguana character."

When he first created lil' iguana, Tomaszewski knew he wanted it to be a wholesome character who could teach kids a few things about safety. But it was the shockingly brutal kidnapping and murder of a young ballplayer from Cambridge, Massachusetts that compelled Jim to make lil' iguana really big.

"One day I'm reading the paper at the Y and see this story about Jeffrey Curley. And there's nothing you can do but cry," says Jim, who apparently did just that. "People were looking at me, asking "Jim, what's wrong?" I said it's this story. They said 'But what can you do about it?'"

What Tomaszewski did was get off the exercise bike and go to work.

"I called everybody in and said 'we're gonna turn this (lil' iguana project) into complete safety. Teach kids. So that we can make a difference.' And we did. And we do." Jim gestures to the many letters from children and their parents that are pinned up on his office walls. "They write that: my son was saved from molestation; or my daughter wasn't picked up by a stranger; or my kid learned not to push on window screens, and not to eat lead paint. And (kids write) 'I love you.' You got a kid whose life you touched so much (from one 30-minute stage show) that drew your picture 10 times."

For Jim those loving words and pictures are what it's all about. "If it was about money I would just sell my products, take your money and say, 'Bye. Thank You.' And that's it. Just like Barney does. Just like Teletubbies. That's not what our responsibility is, which is to show kids how to be responsible. In a cool way."

"Instead of having these crappy shows on, with people shooting people, we should have more educational shows on to teach our kids. We don't need to see another guy gettin' blown up on TV"

It's also a challenging time for lil' iguana's creator who discovered a purpose in life that he could have barely foreseen just 10 years ago, b.c. (before children). "It's the most amazing thing when you have 17, 20, 50 children - who you've never met before - and at the end of an event, they come up and tell you they love you. And they're willing to talk to you, simply because you gave them 30 minutes of your time."

Tomaszewski is disturbed by government surveys showing the average parent now spends only 45 minutes with their children - per week.

lil' iguana takes that fact into account when educating the kids. "You tell a 2-year-old not to chase a ball out into the road. (But) to a 2-year-old that means nothing. It means you might as well just tell him to go chase a ball out into the road. But we roll the ball and show the child what we mean. And we put it to music. The fastest way for a child to learn is through music."

At this point Jim launches into the lil' iguana song: "Learn To Be Street Smart. (Put safety first and you won't get hurt, learn to be street smart. Cross on the crosswalk, look to the left and to the right, make sure no cars are in sight, before you cross the street.)"

Currently lil' iguana doesn't talk or sing, but the character soon will become vocal through some voice synthesizers Jim plans to purchase.

"(The voice synthesizers) are something we just had to raise money for through the lil' iguana Child Safety Foundation. It's a non-profit organization. Right now J.E.L.T. pays for lil' iguana to go out there. Last year we put $80 thousand dollars into it. This year, with requests for shows all over New England, we'll probably spend double. So we really need to get some help," says Jim, who also offers Internet Ig-citement. (http://www.liliguanasafety.org).

Because of the initial success of his idea, Tomaszewski is very likely to make money he needs to fulfill his dream of taking the lil' iguana Safety Program nationwide within a year. He confides that a deal with a "very large" marketing company is currently in the works at the national product licensing show he plans on attending in New York this week (June 8-10th). Whatever big money Jim makes from selling stuffed lil' iguanas, shoes, books, videos, and even a CD-ROM game, he plans to pump back into the Children's Safety Foundation, and to keep it going "forever" without ever selling out.

"I've got the greatest job in the world," says a Jubilant Jumbo Jim. "I get to go out and make kids happy…Kids walkin' up to us telling us 'I love you' That's the greatest feeling in the world."