Madison Thomas loved the paper lunch bags her mother decorated by hand and tucked in her backpack. So did the other kids in her second-grade class at Our Lady of the Elms Elementary School. They begged for the bags after Madison finished her lunch.

"The teacher had to create a list of who was getting what bag,'' said Madison's mom, Kristi Thomas.

When the children began requesting that Thomas draw bags for them, too, a light bulb went on. Thomas patented the idea, set up a printing operation and on Sunday, launched Lunchology Lunch Bags at West Point Market in Akron.

A brain teaser, interesting fact or inspirational phrase is printed on each bag, along with a corresponding drawing. The phrase, "Make the most of your day,'' is accompanied by a smiley face, for example.

"It's silly stuff,'' Thomas said.  But it's silly stuff with a purpose. Thomas, who has Masters Degrees in education and community counseling psychology, designed the bags to give kids a smile in the middle of the day and to help the tearful ones adjust to school.

The idea for the bags began germinating when Madison entered first grade two years ago. To help her get over a bad case of separation anxiety, Thomas tucked a note into her lunch bag or backpack every day.

By second grade, Madison was doing much better, but sometimes she still needed a dose of Mom during the day. On those occasions, Thomas drew something fun on her lunch bags.

"She was doing OK by then, but occasionally I would recognize she was having a bag morning,'' Thomas said.
The lunch bags were a hit with Madison and her friends. Everyone wanted lunch bags like Madison's. Madison soon began passing on requests for special bags from the other kids in class, to help them weather big events such as a trip to the dentist or a big soccer game.

When school let out last June, Thomas used the family nest egg to hire an attorney, seek a patent and put together a business plan. She also got busy creating hundreds of designs.

"I did a lot of research that summer,'' she said. "It took me months to come up with all of these.''

Thomas came up with about 1,000 themed sets in all. She introduced 15 of them Sunday at West Point Market. The brown paper bags are sold in packages of 25. Each set has a theme -- inspirational phrases, trivia and brain teasers, to start. Themes of future series range from "totally gross'' to roller-coaster trivia to rock 'n' roll facts.

The drawings and words are printed in black ink on one side of the brown bags (color is beyond Thomas' budget at this point), and on the other side is a space for the parent to write the child's name, room number and teacher's name.

This summer, Thomas plans to introduce a line of bags for adult brown-baggers, with such themes as baby-boomer trivia and TV nostalgia. A "Lunch With'' series will have facts about local celebrities.

Currently, the bags are sold only at West Point Market at $4.99 for a package of 25. Thomas will be at the store during business hours through Saturday to greet customers and talk about the bags.

By the time school resumes this fall, Thomas hopes the bags will be available in more stores. Given her energy, they will!

Madison will be Lunchology's first regular customer.