WOMAN WHO INSPIRED COCO HAD
£34 towel’s makers are on 45p an hour
WIMBLEDON towels beloved as souvenirs are created in India by workers on 45p an hour.
The £34 towels are made under the Christy brand name, which boasts of its English roots.
But we can reveal the firm is Indian-owned and the parent company, Welspun India, ditched production in Britain in 2006 and switched to low-wage factories in Gujarat.
The towels are made in the company’s Vapi facility, which pays workers the minimum wage of 45p an hour. It would take a worker on that pay more than nine days to earn enough to buy one of the Wimbledon towels.
Christy has been official towel supplier to Wimbledon since 1988. Its website markets the firm as Christy England and says: “The Christy story stretches back to 1850, when our Manchester cotton mill began weaving the softest bath towels the world has seen.”
According to its website, Welspun Group is valued at around £2.7billion.
Welspun said: “We comply with all requirements related to minimum wages.”
Wimbledon said: “Christy is a longstanding, valued partner and we are satisfied that they comply with minimum wage and industry working requirements.” THE burning desire that is pushing 15-year-old sensation Cori Gauff towards Wimbledon glory is embedded in her amazing family.
Coco – as she is known – knocked out five-times champion Venus Williams and is now through to the last 16... inspired by her amazing grandmother.
Yvonne Odom was the same age when she battled even greater odds than those that tennis can bring.
Yvonne, 73, was the first black pupil at all-white Seacrest High School in Delray Beach, Florida. Her arrival made headline news in the local press.
It was 1961 – a time of segregation and prejudice. Yvonne was banned from a bus carrying white pupils, and teachers even asked her not to use the same loos.
And despite being a sprinter and captain of her old school’s basketball team, she was cruelly denied the chance to play or compete at Seacrest simply because she was black. It shattered her dream of a college sports scholarship.
Today, Yvonne reveals the spirit and drive which helped her overcome adversity – and which is reflected in the achievements of grand-daughter Coco.
The pair exchange phone calls and texts and Yvonne offers words of wisdom and sends Bible passages to motivate Coco. But then Yvonne knows how to dig deep to beat the odds.
Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Mirror, she said: “I was the same age Coco is now when I was the first black girl at my high school.
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“I just had to deal with it, to find the strength in myself, and I did. I felt people were depending on me. Either I would validate some misconceptions about my race, or I would change some minds.
“On the first day you could see them looking away when I looked at them. They didn’t want to be make eye contact.
“I felt I had what I needed when I was in that classroom and Coco has that too. It’s a confidence to achieve things. God has a way of putting you in the right place at the right time.”
Coco is now a hero to kids back in Delray Beach, where Yvonne lives with husband Eddie, 75. The grandparents are just streets away from Coco, her parents Corey and Candi and her brothers Cody, 11, and Cameron, six.
It’s all so different to Yvonne’s childhood, when large parts of the city were off-limits. Despite making up 40 per cent of the city population, black people could not use the same restaurants, shops, nightclubs, beaches or swimming pools as white people.
They were barred from ambulances and relied on hearses from black funeral companies to take them to hospital.
On her first day at Seacrest, on September 25, 1961, Yvonne was ordered to arrive two hours after other pupils and police were so fearful of trouble they sealed off neighbouring roads.
White faces stared from every window as she was led in by a blonde pupil, who had volunteered to help her settle in. Yvonne, a retired maths teacher with a college degree, quickly realised she was the fastest runner at Seacrest, even quicker than the boys.
But Seacrest officials would still not let her play sport. For her own safety she had to be taken to and from school by her dad, the Rev
Ralph Lee. Yvonne met Eddie when they were in the ninth grade – just as she was embarking on a new life at Seacrest. In 1971 they founded the Delray Beach American Little League for kids to play baseball. And Eddie, 75, is incredibly proud of his wife and Coco.
Of Yvonne’s first day at Seacrest, he said: “It was a very big thing. It was history. Thankfully things are different now. I am very proud of what Yvonne achieved. She made good, strong choices