The Cardi Girls with Guest Sarah O'Donnell

I'm Sarah O'Donnell. I'm married, mum of 3 daughters aged 19, 16 & 13. Owner of Aspendale Swim School which we built at home 17 years ago. My husband and I started the business whilst I was on maternity leave after having our first daughter.
There have been some challenges along the way, 2 years after we opened the swim school, we ended up in VCAT. Kingston Council tried to impose unreasonable operating restrictions on the business, so we challenged them and won. O'Donnell V Kingston Council has since been used by other swim schools Australia wide who have faced similar challenges. All three daughters now work in the business whilst at school and uni.

Then along came Covid and lockdowns, swim schools were one of the hardest hit industries and locked down for nearly 2 years. Opening and closing your business is incredibly draining and expensive, I often wondered if I could keep doing it. I attended protests, received an $1800 fine, only 800m from my house, it was later removed after I contested it. This is when I found my voice.

I ran in the Federal election as a Liberal Democrat, I had loved what David was standing up for in Victoria and I joined the party. I ran against Mark Dreyfus and did surprisingly well taking 4.87% after a 6 week campaign. I resigned from the party soon after the election and declared independent for the State election and was the 4th candidate behind Labor, Liberal and the Greens. I finished with 7.35% of first preference votes and around 10% after preferences were distributed, which I was very happy with, after a self funded campaign.
Now I'm running for Council In the City of Kingston in the Yammerbook Ward., keeping very busy at the moment.