I’m a Medical Laboratory Scientist (MT, AAB certified) with over 25 years in the lab, a grandmother, and the founder of Aqua Ollie LLC here in Cedartown, Georgia. But none of those credentials are why this company exists. Ollie is.

When my grandson Ollie was just a baby, viral meningitis nearly took him from us. He survived, but it left him with disabilities that changed how our whole family moves through the world. Somewhere along the way, we found the water. In it, Ollie is different — freer, stronger, lighter than gravity ever lets him be. The water became his therapy, and honestly, his joy.

I looked everywhere for something that would let him be safe and supported in the water without holding him back. Nothing on the market was built for a child like him. So at 57 years old, with no background in product design, I decided to build it myself.

That’s how Aqua Ollie was born: a specially designed aquatic support vest, currently Patent Pending (Application #64/086,346), built from years of hands-on caregiving and the stubborn belief that kids like Ollie deserve equipment made for who they actually are, not who the market assumes they are.

I was recently recognized by Influential Women as CEO and Founder of Aqua Ollie LLC, and I’m grateful for it. But the real recognition happens every time Ollie is in the water, moving on his own terms. That’s the whole reason I’m doing this.