Colby Miller

Colby Miller continues to amaze her family and friends despite a tragic hit-and-run automobile accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down and without the use of her fingers. But Colby, who is 25, exhibits an attitude that inspires others.

“The accident happened and I have gotten over it; I am just looking ahead for myself and doing well with Avon, a career I have chosen,” said Colby from her power chair at her home in Lehigh Acres. The driver of the other vehicle that crashed into her car has never been found and nobody on the scene could offer a plate number or much more about the appearance of the vehicle.

Selling Avon isn’t something new to Colby because she grew up with it, admiring her 94-year-old great grandmother who has been selling Avon products in Missouri for 50 years and is in the President’s Club every year as a top seller. She also has the support of her grandmother in Lehigh who acts as her business manager, taking care of all the paper work, and her parents, Jeff and Malissa Turley. Everybody knows her mom as Misty, who takes care of the administrative work.

“My mom is great and my best friend,” Colby said.

Her mother heaps praise on her daughter in return.

Colby Miller is shown with her mom, Misty Turley. Photos by Mel Toadvine

“She’s one never to say no and she’s been through a lot since that accident in March of 2005 -, just a week before her 21st birthday – on the Interstate. The person who hit her kept on going even though her vehicle flipped several times. Had it not been for a nurse in a car behind her, she may not have been alive today.

Colby said the registered nurse, a woman, held her head and told her not to move until help arrived. The nurse knew Colby very likely may have suffered a spinal chord injury.

Colby spend a long time being hospitalized and then strenuous rehabilitation at a facility in Naples.

But as she says, that is in the past. She now is looking forward to the future. She’s a bright young woman with blond hair who has a boyfriend, a paramedic, from Punta Gorda.

“He’s a blessing,” Colby said.

She grew up in Kansas City, Mo., and moved with her family to Southwest Florida nine years ago, saying the family had visited the area since she was six years old.

Colby said her ambitions were in the fashion field and selling Avon products seems to be the perfect niche for her.

She likes to give praise to her many friends who helped to raise $60,000 to buy a van and to help with medical bills. And she especially gives praise to Jay Anderson, a commissioner with the South Trail Fire Board who helped to provide a car for her. Because of not being able to use her fingers, gripping the steering wheel is a problem, so her mother is her chauffer and takes her whenever she need to drive.

And because of her determined attitude, Colby has been recognized by such groups as the Christian Reeves group, Energizer Batteries for the Never Stop Going Award.

“You know them, they’re the ones with the bunny with the batteries that never stop,” she laughed.

Colby’s been selling for Avon now for about eight months and she has built up a sizeable amount of customers from all the people that she knows and the friends she has on Facebook on the Internet.

It’s easy to contact her if you want to buy an Avon product. Her cell number is 239-464-6274 and she’s on the Internet with a website www.youravon.com/colbymiller.

“It’s an interactive website where customers can make orders. They can see a list of our products and it’s a great way today to buy Avon products,” she said.

Not only because her great grandmother in Missouri continues to sell Avon products, she says a commercial sparked her interest and she became a part of the Avon family with the sponsorship of Dolores D’Angelo of Lehigh.

“She is my inspiration. She signed me p and she has helped me so much and I am very thankful to her,” Colby said.

“And I get lots of advice from my great grandmother, Anna Medley, who lives in Independence, Mo. She gives me pointers about how important the pamphlets are showing my customers new products. They go out with every order,” she said.

“I like to build a relationship with those that buy from me. If I don’t know them, they become my friends and that’s important with me just starting out,” she said.

Colby is shooting for the stars. The President’s Club is a top honor with Avon and her great grandmother has been a top seller for years and is in the club.

“I want to be in the that President’s Club, too, and by the end of this year of 2010,” she said. “I can do it.”

That’s the attitude that her mother has seen ever since her daughter fought to live after the accident.

Already, she’s a leadership representative which means she has been successful in bringing others into the Avon family.

And she plans to stay in Southwest Florida and be active in as many organizations as she can showing that disabled people have a life and can succeed. She’s an advocate for the disabled in the area.

“I’m not angry any more about the accident. It happened and it changed my life; it changed everybody’s life in my family and I want people to know my story so it may help others who find themselves in similar situations,” she said.

“My goal now is to get into Avon’s President Club and I’m gunning for it,” she laughed.

She was featured just recently in an Avon magazine for those working for the company. Along with her great grandmother’s picture was hers with a headline: With Avon, success runs in the family.

A sub headline read: Motivation is the key, regardless of ability or age.

In the story, the writer wrote that even though Colby began her Avon career a few months ago, she finds selling and recruitment easy.

“It’s easy to do both; but you have to want to do both. It’s a balance,” said Colby.

Avon says she has that powerful upbeat spirit and “can-do” attitude that has made her successful.

And you can bet if you’re a betting person that she’ll very likely be on Avon’s President Club list this time next year.