A team of Grove City College entrepreneurship majors took their school project to the next level, and helped patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s in the process.

What started as an assignment sophomore year for Ethan David, of Mars, and Luke Gilligan, of Fishers, Ind., became a passion project and business venture as they sought to help dementia and Alzheimer patients.

Their business, Resense, sells boxes of items contributing to the care and wellness of dementia patients, and they plan to take the idea a step further.

“We wanted to create something for patients to do with family, to engage them and spend time with them,” David said.

“I got to volunteer with care communities giving respite care, so I took the background knowledge from the caregivers’ point of view,” Gilligan said. “One thing that broke my heart was how individuals were treated. We wanted to create a senior-based product that gave them the respect they deserve.”

Yvonne J. English, professor of entrepreneurship at Grove City College, said she advised David and Gilligan as they created Resense, and continues to mentor them. She said both team members are committed to the mission of their products.

“Both are hard-working entrepreneurs with a passion for their venture and the customers that they serve,” she said. “They are two dynamic, and incredibly busy, young men, and it’s a challenge to run a business when you’re a full-time college student who is involved with several extracurricular activities. ... I am incredibly proud of these two entrepreneurs and am certain that they will do their part to create a better world.”

What was born from hours of research and interviews was a curated list of products for the Memory Box, which targets all five senses.

“We started researching a target market. Once we had the general area of dementia patients, we interviewed people of expertise: care partners, nursing home directors, psychologists, psychiatrists, as many people as we could get interviews with. We had about 80 people,” David said.

There was no product to show stakeholders at that point, but people offered suggestions.

“We were getting the pain points and care points from families and individuals, and we’d ask: ‘What’s something we can build to make it better in some way?’” David said.

Gilligan said the box is considered a nuanced approach to therapy used on patients.

“We don’t have taste, but we have something for all the five senses,” he said. “There’s QR codes for music therapy playlists, since music is tied to memory, there’s word searches, Sudoku, Popits for a tactile activity, lotion scented like lavender, which is used in aromatherapy.”

What was listed comes in the first edition of the Memory Box, Gilligan said, and targets those in the early stages of dementia. Memory Box 2.0 is for patients in the later stages of dementia and includes additional activities like a stuffed animal, coloring activities and a bandana for folding activities.

“We were open to ideating and changing with the feedback. We found out that no product targets the senses,” he said. “What’s in the box is from caregivers who said, ‘I wish there was a product for this.’ We were listening to people we interviewed — specifically people involved in (patients’) lives every single day.”

David and Gilligan continue to interview stakeholders every week.

“We went to a conference in California. We networked with some amazing people in the same field with great connections,” David said.

“For our late-stage box, we had a group of geriatric caregivers and psychologists approve our products,” he said. “We’re not scientists, we’re entrepreneurs, so we need scientific backing to make sure we’re doing the right thing and doing it correctly.”

Since its launch, Resense gained acclaim in the entrepreneurship field, winning prizes and providing opportunities for Gilligan and David to speak at events.

The two applied to six business competitions their sophomore year, including e-Fest 2022 at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, where they won $10,000 to put toward developing products.

They frequently visit Bingo nights at care facilities to show the product.

“One thing that’s so great is to talk to care partners. They’re shocked people haven’t thought of this before,” David said. “One time we went to a (senior) activity center, and women were racing each other to pop all the pop-its for half an hour. They found a new way to engage, and they were doing it over and over again.”

Gilligan said he’s had the opportunity to share the box with strangers when traveling home from college.

“Waiting for the plane, I saw a man and his spouse. She was agitated and elderly, (and) it was hard for her to board the plane. I handed the box to the husband and said, ‘This is for you,’ and said what we do, and she calmed down and was able to board the plane,” he said.

“That was the most heartwarming story, being able to bring calm to someone I didn’t know,” he said.

Gilligan said the goal of Resense and future Memory Boxes is to have a place in local care facilities’ therapy plans for patients.

“We’re continually growing and wanting to reach as many care communities. We want to make the box customizable, so if your spouse likes gardening, there will be a gardening activity,” he said.

Another idea they’ve considered is creating boxes for more neuro-degenerative diseases like ALS and Parkinson’s.

“Our big goal is to expand and see how many people we can touch with this,” Gilligan said.

English said she’s certain of the team’s continual growth and innovation involving Resense.

“The real strength of the product lies in the lean process that they continue to follow to continuously enhance and develop their offerings,” she said. “I am confident that this team will continue to listen to their customers to continue to innovate, which will lead to considerable success in the market. More importantly, I predict that they will have an incalculable positive impact on many lives.”

To learn more, or to purchase a Memory Box, visit resensebox.com.