Here, Ian McDonald, founder of Bloom Water Bath, is picture with MCAHT’s Executive Director, Lori Hill.
The day is dreary, and with construction going on at the next store over, Bloom Water Bath feels like a fragrant refuge. Ian McDonald, the unassuming founder of the Bloom Water Bath company, is there to meet me. We walk past aesthetically pleasing displays of bath and body products and stop at a long metal table, where Ian invites me to sit. He explains that the table is where customers work one-on-one with Bloom Water Bath staff to create their own bath products. I learn that working as “co-creators” with clients- especially children- is what Ian finds most fulfilling about his time in the store.
The Bloom Water Bath company was birthed in April of 2021, but the first storefront location just opened in Flowood this past November. The plan is to open several locations. The long-term plan is to open many. But there’s more to Ian’s dreams than simply running a profitable business. He wants Bloom Water Bath to be a blessing to the world.
Ian tells me about Sweetwaters, a Mississippi-based ministry he leads that seeks to provide restorative care to the Sweetwaters community in South Africa. A native of South Africa himself, Ian feels compelled to be a part of the solution to the suffering he has witnessed there. As we talk, he explains that the HIV/AIDS crisis has been devastating for South Africa, and as a result, some of the children there have been left without parents. Ian was particularly impacted by a 6-year-old girl named “Cindy,” whom he and the Sweetwaters Board Members met at a children’s home they visited in rural South Africa. Ian becomes tearful as he remembers Cindy’s beautiful smile and thinks of the exploitation she was subjected to prior to moving to the children’s home, when she lived unprotected and alone. Cindy’s story and others became an impetus for the work Sweetwaters does to alleviate suffering in South Africa and the effects of human trafficking on a larger scale.
Besides his calling to do good work in South Africa, Ian knew he wanted to do something that would specifically benefit Mississippi, the place he now calls home. So, he decided to partner with the Mississippi Coalition Against Human Trafficking (MCAHT) with the hopes of helping human trafficking survivors in this state recover from their trafficking experience. Bloom Water Bath hosted a fundraising night for MCAHT this January, and five percent of candle sales at Bloom Water Bath go to MCAHT all day, every day.
Bloom Water Bath was formed with the idea of generating profit to support the work of Sweetwaters, but Ian is passionate about the business itself. He cares about the quality of his products, which are ethically sourced and produced. He wants people to come to the store because they value the products and feel cared-for by the staff, not because Bloom Water Bath supports anti-human trafficking work. For Ian, it’s important to clarify that he wants to support important causes through his work, not exploit those causes for his own benefit. In a world that thinks mostly of itself, Ian McDonald works quietly, behind the scenes, to improve the lives of others.
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