Life Connected

2 Latina Entrepreneurs Left Their Successful Careers to Give Back

The women are making a difference by running a business with a culture of giving back

In a warehouse in Walnut, California, two sisters carry on a tradition of service which started with a phone call ten years ago. Monica Gonzales and Ann Marie Smith are two Latina entrepreneurs who left successful careers to start working for themselves, with the goal of helping others.

Gonzales was working in the dental field and her sister Smith was working in education when they decided to go into business together, making shoes for girls ... but not just for those who could afford them.

"We're going to donate a pair -- for every pair we sell -- we're going to donate a pair to a child in need and we're going to keep it here in the U.S.," Gonzales said. 

Every year for the past 10 years, their shoe company, Aldabella Scarpa has held a shoe giveaway for the neediest girls in the East San Gabriel Valley -- the same community where they were raised.

"In the past 10 years we've been able to donate thousands of shoes in this country that for the first time are putting their foot in a new pair of shoe and that's the best feeling in the world," Gonzales said.

It's also a chance for the sisters to inspire the next generation.  

"I want kids, especially in our community to say we're two Latinas from La Puente and we get to have an amazing life because we didn't stop at no," Smith said.

After taking kids from tagging on the streets and turning them into urban artists, Smith wasn’t able to find printing companies that would do one design or 12 colors on one shirt.

"I said forget it, we're starting our own printing company." 

They now run Venti Printing, based in Walnut. It was born out of Smith's work with at-risk kids.

The sisters credit their parents for setting the example of working hard and giving back, especially their mother who overcame the challenges of being an immigrant. 

It's a lesson they're now teaching their own children who've started a company called Crazy Amazing Me, which sells socks and shirts. The profits are used to do random acts of kindness. 

The sisters have a goal of giving away 14 million pairs of shoes because that's how many children live in poverty in the United States. 

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