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By Times staff writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 10, 2001
The owners of National Window Fashions said Tuesday they will provide tassels and tension pulleys free of charge to anyone who has vertical blinds and wants to make them safer. The offer comes just days after 3-year-old Nicholas Vasquez of Seminole accidentally strangled himself in a vertical blind chain. Jim Oliver, who opened the first National Window Fashions in 1981, said he didn't sell the blinds to the family, but their story deeply touched him. Oliver suggests that consumers cut the vertical blind chain and attach a tassel to each end. Also, they can snap the vertical blind cord into a tension pulley and secure the pulley to the wall or base board with a small screw to keep the cord out of harm's way. Valued at a total cost of $1.50 a window, tassels and pulleys may be picked up at two National Window Fashions locations: 2512 McMullen-Booth Road in Clearwater and 8812 Seminole Blvd. in Seminole. "What little it's going to cost us is worth it to ensure that no other child gets hurt on these," Oliver said.