Background
Dave was born in Chester, the second child of John and Ruth Cooke. His father worked in sales and his mother ran the household.
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Dave Cooke
Edit ProfileEducation
He attended Hoole Secondary Modern but left at the age of 14 with no qualifications and several brushes with the law.
Career
Cooke trained to be a Joiner and had his own Glazing Company. In 1981 Dave had his own kitchen design and fitting business which failed in less than two years. He then went on to establish a window installation company which grew nationally and was bought out in 1986.
The news had recently broken of Ceausescu orphanages and the images of the children were appearing on television
Operation Christmas Child hit the headlines and snowballed in a matter of months. In December 1990, a convoy of 9 trucks departed Wrexham through a crowd of support with a marching band, heading for Romania with over £600,000 of aid.
From 1990-1995 Operation Christmas Child grew exponentially, delivering shoeboxes to Belarus, Bosnia and Romania. In 2006 Cooke founded Teams4U, an international humanitarian aid charity based in Wrexham who take volunteers overseas to facilitate health, education, training and empowerment programs in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.
In 2013 Teams4U launched its own national shoebox program bringing Christmas gifts to deprived children in Eastern Europe.
Achievements
Views
Quotations: “Cooke, you will never achieve anything with your life.”.
Connections
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Born
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Nationality
United Kingdom