April 25, 2017: Two speakers joined us for our April 25 meeting at Riley Park, Scotty Parker for Scotty’s Ride for WMI and Kelsey Kool from Trunk Club of Charleston. Inspired by images of children who did not have clean drinking water, at age 7 Scotty decided to do something about it. For his 8th birthday he asked for donations instead of gifts and raised $618. After that he decided to think bigger and trained to ride across South Carolina to raise money for Water Missions International. He was age 10 when he made the trip and was inspired by the communities, kids and adults who came out and donated ultimately raising $70,000. That money was enough to complete two sanitary systems in Honduras. He was then able to visit to see the impact of the donation and how it changed the lives of children there. Water Missions installed sinks in every classroom of a school there but the children were afraid to drink the water. Water Missions had Scotty drink from every faucet to show the kids it was ok. He was amazed by the response of the kids to getting clean water, for us it is taken for granted, for them it was life or death.
In June 2017 Scotty will ride 3300 miles from Santa Monica to Charleston to raise over $500,000 for those kids and clean water. Asking for a corporate sponsorship in March, he was told no but the next day an anonymous donor called Water Missions and offered to match dollar for dollar any donations Scotty receives for the ride.
Our second speaker was Kelsey Kool of Trunk Club of Charleston. Kelsey has a undergraduate degree in fashion design and a Master’s degree in Education. After teaching for a year, she decided to return to fashion design and moved to Charleston to join Trunk Club.
Trunk Club started in 2009 to make shopping a better experience for men. In 2010, they hired their first sales team and a subsequent New York Times review really promoted growth. They opened the first clubhouse in Chicago and moved to a bigger space within 18 months. They have off the rack and custom clothing but personal service for all. In 2013 they created a mobile app and are able to select clothes from your closet based on photos. In 2014 they were acquired by Nordstrom for $350 million. They have since opened in New York, Charleston and Boston and now provide service for Women as well.
–Don Baus, Keyway Committee Chair