24 | JANUARY 28 • 2021 

W

hen Ashley Kenny 
saw how isolated 
her 92-year-old 
grandmother Fran was through-
out the COVID-19 pandemic, 
she knew she had to do some-
thing to help make quarantining 
a little bit easier.
Fran, who lives at Meer 
Apartments on the Jewish 
Community Campus in West 
Bloomfield, has spent 10 months 
in a 540-square-foot apartment 
with little contact with the 
outside world. She has no cell 
phone, computer or Wi-Fi, and 
has food and books delivered 
outside her apartment door. Like 

many other older adults who 
are at higher risk for contracting 
COVID-19, Fran has been shel-
tering in place since the crisis 
first hit Michigan in March.
For Kenny, who grew up in 
West Bloomfield and now lives 
in Washington, D.C., where she 
works in media and documen-
tary film production, it left little 
option for her grandmother to 
experience important milestones 
in life. Kenny’s 1-year-old son, 
Jack, had recently started to walk. 
When she told her grandmother 
over the phone about this 
moment, Fran said how much 
she missed seeing her family. As 

an expert in video, these words 
sparked an idea for Kenny.
“I turned that frustration of 
not being able to send videos 
to my grandma into finding a 
solution,
” Kenny explains. That 
day, she found a video program 
she already had on hand and 
uploaded eight short videos of 
her sons laughing. It included 
moments from their birthdays, 
first time riding red wagons and 
walking. Similar to a photobook, 
but with video instead, Kenny 
took the completed project 
and sent it via snail mail to her 
grandmother.
When Fran received the thin, 
greeting-card-size videobook 
device, she was overjoyed. “She 
was so instantly happy,
” Kenny 
recalls. “She just told me how 
much it meant to her seeing my 
sons.
”
Fran ended up watching the 
video every single day. Kenny, 
alongside her brother Zach 
Bloom, who works in startup 
tech, realized they could scale 
the idea nationwide to help 
others like their grandmother 
navigate the pandemic and enjoy 
tangible memories that capture 
life’s most important moments.
From there, Heirloom was 
born. Set to launch Feb. 2, the 
new business allows people to 
send custom videobooks to 
those they love. Users upload 
videos through a mobile app 
that Bloom created, which are 
then transferred onto video-
books with 5-inch HD screens 
to be mailed out to recipients 
nationwide. Each videobook 
is recyclable, reloadable and 

rechargeable, and plays automat-
ically upon receipt. A 10-minute 
videobook costs $49 and comes 
with free shipping.

POSITIVE RESPONSE
App development began in July 
2020. By November of that year, 
Kenny and Bloom, who attend-
ed Temple Israel as kids, soft-
launched the product to gather 
feedback and test the process. 
They found people were sending 
videos of birthday greetings, 
engagements, weddings and 
more, with many grandparents 
even sending videos back to 
their children and grandchil-
dren. So far, Kenny says, the 
feedback has been overwhelm-
ingly positive.
“People keep sharing how 
much joy these cards give to 
their families,
” Kenny says. 
“It’s been amazing to hear how 
happy people are to see videos of 
events they couldn’t attend.
”
Through Heirloom, Kenny 
and Bloom aim to solve a 
problem facing many families: 
increased isolation and social 
distancing. By using videobooks, 
they hope to close that gap and 
keep people connected. Even 
after the pandemic, they want 
Heirloom to be a tool people can 
use to share their memories.
“Everyone is supposed to be 
enjoying life, especially seniors 
who now feel so disconnected,
” 
Kenny says. “We’
d love to get a 
videobook in the hands of as 
many isolated seniors as pos-
sible, to lift them up and bring 
them the happiness and connec-
tion they deserve.
” 

Mail a mini-movie of your cherished 
moments — easily viewable
without a computer or smartphone.

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Video Letters
to Loved Ones

Ashley Kenny, right, with her grandmother Fran Penskar

IN 
THED
JEWS

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ASHLEY KENNY

Receiving an Heirloom 

videobook through 

the mail can bring joy 

to those isolated from 

loved ones during the 

pandemic.

