Hi there and welcome to the Give & Co blog and store!
The purpose for this website is to celebrate culture, entrepreneurship, confidence and all things home/hand made.I thought it would be fitting for me to give you a quick look into why I do what I do and the inspiration for creating the Giver & Co.
Growing up in an all-boy family, from the age of 3, I aspired to drive trucks like my father, ride motorbikes with my brothers and climb trees all day. As I got older, I was surrounded by multicultural influences and travelling missionaries form exotic countries. These people shared vibrant stories of culture, language and artisan-ship, I was hooked on exploring and finding adventure heard in the stories I had listened to for years. So at the age of 15 I began to travel overseas in a quest for purposeful adventure. I wanted to go with a bigger purpose, so I helped small community development projects. I travelled around the world to countries like India, Greece, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore in small teams that focused on meeting needs like rebuilding small churches that were demolished by flooding and building gardens at dilapidated retirement homes. These early experiences taught me purpose and the value of giving without reward or recognition. I never realized that this type of thought process was entrepreneurship.
During my tom-boy years, I shunned all things womanhood, femininity and dresses. But when I was about 17 I changed into a lover of sewing and home-made treasures. This change was produced by the gentle coaxing of my mother. My mother is my greatest asset, friend, teacher and sewing buddy. When I was young, I never understood how important and knowledgeable she was. I kind of just wrote her off as a fuddy duddy or crazy lady and I knew better. But now that I’ve lived a little, I know that the thing I value the most in life is my mother. She defines me, put up with my shopping centre tantrums, embarrassing questions and fanatic teenage rants about how I thought the world was. It’s safe to say that she is a unsung champion of my life and I owe her my life because she taught me life.
As I was studying at university, I studied international relations, foreign policy and entrepreneurship. This course of study taught me the value of how interconnected the world really was and the value of a business that operated with a community focus instead of a purely a commercial focus. I learnt a new style of business model, the social enterprise or social entrepreneurship. This type of business is one that I aspire to and is the heart of The Giver & Co.
The Giver & Co is a manifestation of my love for making handmade dresses that give confidence, enhance natural beauty and stand out from the fashion world's code of conformity. I love prints and fabrics that are easy to maintain and wear because there are so many things I want to do and achieve in life, so these little dress need to keep up with me! For myself, The Giver & Co is a way for me to pursue my love for travel, culture and philanthropy as I will set aside 10% of each sale for community projects. The most exciting thing about this is that you can make suggestions of non-for-profits or causes that you think would benefit from our support. After some suggestions are made, I will then do some research and hatch a plan to make it happen! Keep in mind that these causes can be international or domestic :)
Please enjoy my site and my blog. I encourage you to spread the word about The Giver and Co with your friends and families and connect with us on our social media.
Facebook: the Giver & Co
Instagram: SAMMIE_THEGIVERANDCO
If you have or are planning to purchase one of my dress, I thank you for your support and ask you to wear it with pride and confidence that you are beautiful regardless the garment and treasured, but also, you care about humanity and the way garments are made. I know that I cant change the world, but maybe we can just make it a little bit better for someone. It's that simple!
Thank you again for your support!
Much love,
Sammie
