Proud Parents Rent Her Storks to Herald Little Bundles of Joy

When Cynthia Mastropiero had a baby earlier this year, everyone in her Danville neighborhood knew about it.

The pink, seven-foot wooden stork on her front lawn was a dead giveaway.

Mastropiero is one of many area women who have announced their motherhood in this colorful manner, giving birth to a fanciful business.

Concord resident Liz Seaholm didn’t expect much when she decided to build a small flock of one-dimensional, wooden storks and rent them to proud new parents.

“I thought it would just be a passing fad,” Seaholm said.

Now, Stork Delivery Inc. is fielding inquiries about establishing possible franchises in Florida, Illinois and Chicago.

Seaholm, 32, isn’t quite ready to take that step, but she envisions the day when her fledgling business will hatch more storks.

“I’m starting to think that I will have so many storks that I won’t be able to haul them around or store them in my garage,” Seaholm said.

There have only been four bigger-than-life storks since Seaholm started the business in mid-1988. Two are painted with pink clothes and two with blue clothes. The pink storks herald the arrival of a baby girl and the blue hail the birth of a boy.

The storks remain on the parents’ lawn for three to seven days at a price ranging from $35 to $55. By renting an average of three storks per week, Seaholm estimates her business has collected more than $2,000 so far.

The gangling birds return to Seaholm’s nest at the end of the rental period, but the parents do get a keepsake from the spectacle: a hand-painted bundle bearing the baby’s name, date of birth and weight. The bundle dangles from the stork’s beak during the lawn vigil.

“There is also a potential hidden benefit,” Seaholm said. “One lady told me the whole neighborhood comes and showers you with gifts when they see this in your lawn.”

Gina Santucci, who rented a blue stork to announce her son’s Jan. 17 birth, didn’t get any extra gifts, but “all the neighbors have commented on it. It’s been a big hit.”

Seaholm doesn’t bear the markings of someone who would go into the stork business.

Until 1983, she worked as a data-processing manager for the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco. She left the Fed after the birth of the first of three children.

The stork-on-the-lawn concept is known to be popular in the East, but Seaholm said she was self-inspired. She traces the idea to an occasion when she saw a bunch of birthday cards in the yard of new parents.

The business appealed to her, she said, because it’s something she can do with her children--6-year-old Stephen, 4-year-old Paul and 2-year-old Kristen.

Her biggest problem so far has been getting the storks to homes far away from her Concord base. She has delivered to lawns as far away as Livermore, Benicia and Antioch. She had parents in Castro Valley and Pacifica come pick up the birds.

None of the storks have been stolen, although one overjoyed parent wanted to buy the woodwork.

Seaholm turned down the offer.

“Can you imagine holding this seven-foot stork for all those years and then when the kid turns 18 saying, ‘Look what I’ve got for you.’ ”