By Rachel Schreiber

“I am really passionate about how camp can create a bridge in children’s lives so it crosses the economical, religious, social and cultural boundaries. When you’re at camp everyone’s on equal footing; everyone’s equally dirty,” Donna Copeland states and she should know. Donna spent over 12 years at Camp Wathana, in Holly. She began as a camper, graduated to counselor, boating director and later became camp director. It was those enriching experiences, which shaped her deep commitment to the environment

She discovered, early on, she had a talent as a super sales person. Donna recalls, “One year my dad was laid off and money was tight. Camp was the highlight of my year. If I wanted to go to camp I was going to have to earn the money through candy sales. On Fridays my mom and I would go to the banks to sell candy when people were cashing their paychecks and they had spending cash. We’d sell candy at the bowling alley on league nights. I sold enough candy to pay for two full camperships for my sister and me plus a half a campership we gave away.”

Donna grew up in Ferndale and earned her degree in recreation and park management from Eastern Michigan University. While she was attending EMU she was first exposed to Shaklee products. She loved using the green cleaning products, but once she was out of them, she’d return to the store products.

She says, “After graduation, I was the full-time camp director. I’ve always liked camping and it made a huge difference in my life. I discovered my ecological interest of taking care of the Earth through camping and wanted to train the next generation to love the Earth.” Armed with leadership skills, sales skills and motivation, Donna spent several years in various training positions in the automotive industry. She says, “I was good at that job but I had no passion for it.”

The turning point came in 1997 while she was still using grocery store cleaning supplies. She says, “I had just finished cleaning the tub when the cat jumped out and drank from the faucet. As he was cleaning himself I thought he’s going to get sick from that cleaner I just used. I decided I’m going to use only green cleaners, they weren’t all Shaklee. I went full Shaklee in 2006 and realized I did it for the cat and not for me.” It would be another two years before she became a Shaklee Distributor. During that time she researched Shaklee, read materials and watched videos. She says, “I made sure Shaklee did third party testing and extensive research on their products. I take my customer service and my business part of it very seriously; I love the people on my team. I look forward to talking with my customers for follow-ups to see how they liked the product, if they have questions or what’s going on in their lives. I like connecting with people.”

She says, “I choose Shaklee because I wanted a flexible business that was portable and sustainable. My in-laws are in Tennessee and we (her husband Keith) want to spend more time there. I didn’t want to have a business where the products are made from someplace in the rainforest and a tree has to be cut down to grow a particular type of berry or where the sales model is built on more destruction of the planet. I feel confident of Shaklee’s commitment to providing quality green products and protecting the Earth.”

One Shaklee product Donna feels totally confident about is an anti aging supplement called Vivix. She says, “Keith is 15 years older than I, we’ve been married six years. Our goal is to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. When Vivix came out, I put him on it first. After he’d been taking it for four months he realized he only had one age spot remaining and it was very faint. He also noticed his skin had regained some of his elasticity. I take it too.”

Shaklee
Donna Copeland
Phone: 734.487.5864 (v) or 734.645.0905 (c)
Email: keithdonnacopeland@sbcglobal.net
Website: www.shaklee.net/donnacopeland