WAXHAW, N.C. -- 'Tis the season of giving, but a local businesswoman makes a habit of giving all year long.
She is a working mother of three who runs a wildly successful international company out of an office she built above her Waxhaw garage.
But don't call her the CEO.
“I’m the chief designer of all things luscious,” Jackie Mcfee says.
Mcfee designs notebooks, but not just any notebooks.
“Everybody has pens and paper but they were just boring,” she explains.
Her notebooks have pizzazz. So much that they're sold everywhere from Target to CVS and Wal-Mart.
“It’s surreal, it’s amazing. I don't think I ever realized it would have gotten this big,” she says.
Her creations are regularly featured on big time television shows, including the megahit Glee.
“One of the set designers literally purchased a notebook -- and he had no idea it was to benefit anything,” she says.
Mcfee donates a chunk of all her profits to fighting leukemia. It’s something she started four years ago when her then 2-year-old cousin Kendall was diagnosed with the disease.
“It just changed me,” she says. “I thought I can’t just draw dots and stripes to draw dots and stripes.”
Now she draws them with meaning, even creating a "Kendall" collection.
“To create a project that is beautiful and literally has the ability to pay it forward…it’s really special.”
It seems that her project is working.
Her first line of bedding comes out next year and luggage may not be far behind. All of it means more money for Kendall and others fighting leukemia.
“It’s just a notebook, but it’s so much more, it’s been awesome,” Mcfee says.
Now, Kendall is in remission and Jackie is working on her next collection.
She has already donated more than $80,000 to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
