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All the right ingredients to be a LEADER by: Fred J. Maahs, Jr.
Collette is a bright, caring, 30 year-old woman with a true sense of who she is and where she wants to go in life. She also has Down syndrome, but do not have pity for her. It hasn’ t stopped her from many achievements nor would she want your pity anyway. She grew up in Ridgefield, Connecticut and began her love of baking at 4 years of age but really didn’ t begin serious baking until she was a few years older. After taking some baking classes in high-school, she came up with a recipe for a chocolate chip cookie with cinnamon, and it was a hit! That cookie is now referred to as“ The Amazing Cookie” and is the featured cookie on Collettey’ s web site.
After high-school she finished a three year LIFE program at Clemson University in just two years. It was then she decided to move to Boston because she was“ sure to find work there.” But, as is the case with so many people with disabilities, the unemployment rate is more than twice that of people who do not have a disability, even though qualified and able to work, Collette was rejected by many employers. She wasn’ t about to let this defeat her and decided that she would turn her passion for baking into a business and founded“ Collettey’ s Cookies” and her first orders were sold by a local grocery store. And, one would argue, her big break came in 2016 after a local news station did a piece on her. She hasn’ t looked back since!
But, having a business that sold product wasn’ t enough for Collette. It’ s always been important for her to give back to the community and to make sure that she employed other people with disabilities. Today, she has 17 employees, about half of whom have some type of disability. Each day, her staff makes the dough, bakes, and packages about 140 fresh orders of cookies. Collettey’ s also makes fresh, organic dog biscuits. That’ s right, dog biscuits. Tasty enough for a human, but made special for canines. And, because Collette believes being employed is an opportunity that applies to everyone, she has recently hired a person who was once homeless. Collette also started a Foundation, Collettey’ s Leadership. Because she feel so strongly about entrepreneurship, she felt it was necessary to help others so she travels around the country providing workshops, speeches, training, as well as leadership and empowerment sessions to people with and without disabilities. Her website has all the information you may need about her leadership programs.
As you can imagine, Collette has traveled quite a bit during her speaking engagements, but her favorite trip of all was when she spent two weeks in San Diego to visit her sister. She said they would sit on the cliffs and watch the sunset and that it was good just spending time together.
It seems, almost obviously, that Collette’ s strong work ethic and drive comes from her mother. Rosemary is not only busy with her own business in construction, but took on the additional responsibility of being Collette’ s manager and Board Choir of Collette’ s Foundation. According to Rosemary, she“ had to step in and help Collette when 60-80 emails a day with orders and questions were coming in from all around the world.”