Two sets of sisters who opened separate small businesses in their hometown of Pelham are combining forces to offer design, business and programming classes to young people.

Danielle and Alyssa Marrero are the owners of DaniLee’s Helping Hands, a childcare service and learning center, and Kimberly and Katie Rosell created Rosell Studios, a computer and gaming company. Their joint effort launched courses being offered at DaniLee’s.

The Rosell sisters created a 2-D exploration game that promoted mental health and wellness to teens called The Lost Journal.

“Kim and I always wanted to build a video game together,” said Katie Rosell. “I graduated in 2020 from college when Covid hit, and it was difficult to find work and everything was hectic, so we started the idea of making a video game together. Over the years, we came up with the idea of The Lost Journal.”

Katie Rosell’s experience in programming led her to approach Danielle Marrero to see if the two businesses could work together. Katie Rosell now teaches a sticker-making workshop for fifth through eighth graders at DaniLee’s learning center. The class instructs students to draw digitally and use AI assistance.

As a next step, the two companies are working to put together computer programming and business classes for high schoolers, making these courses more accessible for Pelham Memorial High School students.

“Our biggest goal and mission is to provide different opportunities to the youth in town and to give back in a way that we were fortunate enough to have when were growing up,” said Danielle Marrero. “We both are two sisters starting from nothing really and both of us made that decision to start our own path career-wise as small business owners, as women-owned businesses and as minorities.”

The two sets of sisters have come together using Pelham resources for residents and hope to continue creating connections with other businesses in town.

“Being raised in Pelham, I will say that there were always amazing opportunities and resources for me growing up that have always piqued my interest in starting my own business and that really just expanded with having the learning center,” said Marrero. “We would love to provide those different outlets for young people.”

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