Loads of Love

Katey Cooper did not arrive at where she is today by following anyone else’s blueprint. She built her own—with grit, vision, and perseverance.

Growing up in Yorktown, Ind., Ms. Cooper is the first in her family to attend college. As a self-supported, first-generation student, she describes her experience as “having to pull up a chair at a table where you are not sure if you are invited to sit.”

Navigating that uncertainty led her to make a difficult decision after her freshman year: step away from Ball State University and take control of her future.

“I rolled up my sleeves, took my financial future into my own hands, and ended up paying off student debt on my own to get back into school debt-free,” Ms. Cooper said.

During her freshman year, she noticed a gap no one had filled—students and busy families in Muncie lacked convenient laundry solutions. When she paused her educational journey at Ball State, she turned that idea into Loads of Love, a valet pickup and delivery laundry service serving Delaware County and surrounding areas. She started it alone, grew her business, and built something that matters in her community.

By the time Ms. Cooper returned to Ball State, she had already done what many business students hope to do someday: build something of her own. She became a five-time dean’s list honoree and finished a recent semester with a 4.0 grade point average. In December, she expects to graduate magna cum laude from the Miller College of Business—where her real-world experience gave her an unexpected advantage.

“I reverse-engineered the degree,” Ms. Cooper said. “I started the business, then came back to school to get the degree.”

She is also the 67th Miss Ball State University, a title she earned after years of competition and personal growth. Determined to return with a standout talent, she taught herself piano, harmonica, and vocals in just four months with no prior musical training—performing Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” at the Miss Ball State 2026 competition.

As Miss Ball State, she has used her platform to expand Loads of Love’s reach through the CLEAN Start Initiative, a nonprofit arm of her business providing free or reduced-cost laundry services to those in need. In May, she sponsored what organizers described as the largest community laundry

day in Delaware County history, serving more than 120 people and washing more than 5,100 pounds of laundry in just two hours.

Rachelle Huston, a Loads of Love customer and mother of four, said the service gives her something priceless: time.

“Loads of Love gave me that time back to spend with my kids—less stressed and more present in the moment,” she said.

Ms. Cooper hopes to scale her business into community laundry hubs across Indiana and continue showing up for the students who see themselves in her.

“It is never too late to redefine your flight path and fly at Ball State,” Ms. Cooper said.