Top: Loved: Donna Cooper is greeted by Cambodian kids.
Bottom: Family affair: Sam and Donna are justly proud of their work.
More at The Weekly Times Now
March 7, 2012
BECOMING a successful businesswoman doesn't mean you have to ignore ethics, writes SARAH HUDSON
Donna Cooper's life would make a great TV documentary, an even better book, or possibly a film.
Hers is a rags-to-riches tale with a twist; one of humble, even tragic, beginnings, a love story, an adventure - of a tireless fundraiser who establishes a Cambodian charity to fight poverty - with a fashion label and global travel thrown into the mix.
Sitting in a Woodend cafe, on a fleeting visit home, Donna is an unlikely heroine with her alternative jet black, half-cropped hair, a nose-ring, and a high-pitched girl's voice.
So why haven't we heard her story before?
"I'm so busy," laughs the mother-of-three.
"I spend about eight months of the year overseas. But my work is everything to me. It's what I was born for.
"I want to write a book that shows no matter where you come from, or what you were born into, you can be a great person, it's a matter of determination."
So where to begin with the Donna Cooper story?
Although she breezes over it, her childhood was a traumatic one, referring to her parents as "evil".
Unable to read or write (although now fully literate), she left home and school at 14, working in retail and cleaning jobs.
Her saviour is her husband, Ian, whom she met at the Footscray YMCA when she was 12 and he was 15.
They married when she was 21 and had three children, Sam, Jack and Indiana, who was born deaf.
The early years were tough. "We couldn't afford to feed the family. We could live five days a week, but not seven.
Those last two days we struggled. Ian drove trucks but we couldn't afford the petrol.
"I wanted my kids to go to private school, have braces to straighten their teeth and travel the world. One day I said to Ian I'm going to change our stars."
So Donna started selling items from home they no longer needed - clothes, books, furniture.
With $1000 in coins and cash, 13 years ago she took out a lease on a Woodend shop, fitted it out from items found at the tip, and established Color Me Cooper clothes store.
Initially selling recycled clothing, the shop "went from strength to strength, 30 to 50 per cent increases every year" and Donna began selling items sourced from Asia and then, in 2006, opened another shop in Daylesford.
Color Me Cooper took a major turn when Donna realised she was stocking items from Asia that were made using cheap - even child - labour.
It was a light bulb moment.
Not only did it see Donna travel to Nepal, Thailand, India and Indonesia to hire hand-picked, ethical tailors (some of whom were even political dissidents), but it also led to her most successful venture to date, establishing the Cambodian Kids Foundation with her daughter Sam.
"When my children had gone to private school, had teeth braces and had travelled, I started to think about other people in the world, especially mums, how I could help them help their children."
In 2006 she travelled to Cambodia with Sam, at that time aged 16, with the hope of finding a new fair trade tailor in that country.
Instead, Sam was overwhelmed by the poverty.
"We realised no one in Cambodia was in a place to run a business. They were barely able to get enough money for food," says Sam, now 21.
"I said to mum we need to do something to help. I said I didn't want to go home until we had committed to helping. Mum said it may be too hard."
Donna adds: "I wondered how I could do everything - three kids, business and charity. But Sam went back to the hotel room and designed the logo and I thought 'this is going to be our life, it's going to be huge'."
Now, Donna says, the Cambodian Kids Foundation is her life - and has allowed her own children, particularly Sam and Jack, "to shine" - while the Macedon Ranges community has rallied behind the cause, donating tens of thousands of dollars to the foundation, from sausage sizzles to bike rides.
Last year Jack took time off school, while Sam deferred her graphic design degree to work full-time for the foundation.
"Every second I'm thinking about it," says Sam, who has travelled to Cambodia 12 times and works in Color Me Cooper.
"I would say I'm a normal 21-year-old, I just have to do a lot more things.
"I still take out the rubbish and look after my cats, but I have less relaxation time.
"I'm very proud. It's made me who I am."
Donna has largely passed the reins of Color Me Cooper to her staff, while Ian looks after the family and admin, and she spends most of the year fundraising or ensuring projects stay on track.
"This is my chance to make mothers' dreams come true. Our little bit of help means so much to them. It's changed their families' lives forever.
"Helping is good, isn't it? There's nothing better. It's a beautiful feeling."
Cambodian Kids Foundation: cambodiankidsfoundation.com/ and Color Me Cooper: colormecooper.com.au
Checklist
Clarkefield Music Festival, March 18, Clarkefield Hotel, with funds to the Cambodian Kids Foundation, details: (03) 5428 5391.
BECOMING a successful businesswoman doesn't mean you have to ignore ethics, writes SARAH HUDSON
Donna Cooper's life would make a great TV documentary, an even better book, or possibly a film.
Hers is a rags-to-riches tale with a twist; one of humble, even tragic, beginnings, a love story, an adventure - of a tireless fundraiser who establishes a Cambodian charity to fight poverty - with a fashion label and global travel thrown into the mix.
Sitting in a Woodend cafe, on a fleeting visit home, Donna is an unlikely heroine with her alternative jet black, half-cropped hair, a nose-ring, and a high-pitched girl's voice.
So why haven't we heard her story before?
"I'm so busy," laughs the mother-of-three.
"I spend about eight months of the year overseas. But my work is everything to me. It's what I was born for.
"I want to write a book that shows no matter where you come from, or what you were born into, you can be a great person, it's a matter of determination."
So where to begin with the Donna Cooper story?
Although she breezes over it, her childhood was a traumatic one, referring to her parents as "evil".
Unable to read or write (although now fully literate), she left home and school at 14, working in retail and cleaning jobs.
Her saviour is her husband, Ian, whom she met at the Footscray YMCA when she was 12 and he was 15.
They married when she was 21 and had three children, Sam, Jack and Indiana, who was born deaf.
The early years were tough. "We couldn't afford to feed the family. We could live five days a week, but not seven.
Those last two days we struggled. Ian drove trucks but we couldn't afford the petrol.
"I wanted my kids to go to private school, have braces to straighten their teeth and travel the world. One day I said to Ian I'm going to change our stars."
So Donna started selling items from home they no longer needed - clothes, books, furniture.
With $1000 in coins and cash, 13 years ago she took out a lease on a Woodend shop, fitted it out from items found at the tip, and established Color Me Cooper clothes store.
Initially selling recycled clothing, the shop "went from strength to strength, 30 to 50 per cent increases every year" and Donna began selling items sourced from Asia and then, in 2006, opened another shop in Daylesford.
Color Me Cooper took a major turn when Donna realised she was stocking items from Asia that were made using cheap - even child - labour.
It was a light bulb moment.
Not only did it see Donna travel to Nepal, Thailand, India and Indonesia to hire hand-picked, ethical tailors (some of whom were even political dissidents), but it also led to her most successful venture to date, establishing the Cambodian Kids Foundation with her daughter Sam.
"When my children had gone to private school, had teeth braces and had travelled, I started to think about other people in the world, especially mums, how I could help them help their children."
In 2006 she travelled to Cambodia with Sam, at that time aged 16, with the hope of finding a new fair trade tailor in that country.
Instead, Sam was overwhelmed by the poverty.
"We realised no one in Cambodia was in a place to run a business. They were barely able to get enough money for food," says Sam, now 21.
"I said to mum we need to do something to help. I said I didn't want to go home until we had committed to helping. Mum said it may be too hard."
Donna adds: "I wondered how I could do everything - three kids, business and charity. But Sam went back to the hotel room and designed the logo and I thought 'this is going to be our life, it's going to be huge'."
Now, Donna says, the Cambodian Kids Foundation is her life - and has allowed her own children, particularly Sam and Jack, "to shine" - while the Macedon Ranges community has rallied behind the cause, donating tens of thousands of dollars to the foundation, from sausage sizzles to bike rides.
Last year Jack took time off school, while Sam deferred her graphic design degree to work full-time for the foundation.
"Every second I'm thinking about it," says Sam, who has travelled to Cambodia 12 times and works in Color Me Cooper.
"I would say I'm a normal 21-year-old, I just have to do a lot more things.
"I still take out the rubbish and look after my cats, but I have less relaxation time.
"I'm very proud. It's made me who I am."
Donna has largely passed the reins of Color Me Cooper to her staff, while Ian looks after the family and admin, and she spends most of the year fundraising or ensuring projects stay on track.
"This is my chance to make mothers' dreams come true. Our little bit of help means so much to them. It's changed their families' lives forever.
"Helping is good, isn't it? There's nothing better. It's a beautiful feeling."
Cambodian Kids Foundation: cambodiankidsfoundation.com/ and Color Me Cooper: colormecooper.com.au
Checklist
Clarkefield Music Festival, March 18, Clarkefield Hotel, with funds to the Cambodian Kids Foundation, details: (03) 5428 5391.
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