January 4, 2024 • 19 mins
When Molly Ambrose's son donned the Marine Corps uniform, it wasn't just a personal milestone—it sparked a movement that has since wrapped our heroes in the warmth of community care, called Semper Fi Flo.
Join me, Natalie Webster, on Tonka Talk as I sit down with the remarkable Molly, founder of Semper Fi Flow, and unravel the story of how what began as a heartfelt care package initiative has grown into a beacon of hope, sending comfort and a slice of home to service personnel across the seas.
Molly's dedication is a powerful reminder of the impact a single determined spirit can have. Tune in and be inspired by a story of steadfast support and the community ties that bind us all in gratitude to our troops.
Learn more and connect with Molly and Semper Fi Flo at www.semperfiflo.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SemperFiFlo111
Learn more at https://www.tonkatalk.com where we share more about our Lake Minnetonka community, including upcoming events and our take on local experiences.
Connect with us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TonkaTalk/
If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions of a future guests creating community and connection, email natalie@tonkatalk.com
We appreciate your support in sharing Tonka Talk Community and Connection with someone you think could benefit from our content.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome to Tonka Talk.
I'm Natalie Webster.
We talk about the ways peoplecreate community and connection,
here and today, my guest isMolly Ambrose and she is a mom
on a mission to help militarypersonnel.
Welcome, molly.
Well, thank you, I'm honored tobe here.
I was very excited to learnabout what you were doing.
We met each other through thesocial, the social media
(00:23):
Facebook, yes, and we live inthe same community.
Now you have a nonprofit.
The nonprofit is called SemperFi, flow, correct, which tell me
what that means.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Semper Fi is always faithful in the Marine Corps.
And then Flow is short forFlorence Nightingale.
Oh, I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I absolutely love it.
You have this nonprofit whereyou put together care packages
for military personnel, but howdid you get started doing this?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I attended a Minnesota Marine Mom meeting
after my son enlisted in theMarine Corps in 2015.
And some of the moms were goingto get together and put
together care packages withpillows in them, and they wanted
to buy king-size pillows withking-size pillowcases and cut
(01:11):
them.
And I'm like I don't.
It sounds like a lot of work.
Yeah, I don't have the money,nor do I know how to sew.
Maybe there's a quicker way,yep.
So I asked if anyone had evercalled my pillow.
Yeah, they all looked at melike I was crazy.
This was a.
Saturday morning and by Monday Ihad 50 my pillows in my
basement.
Wow, that's amazing.
So I was on to something Sure.
(01:31):
So the Marine Moms and I endedup doing a care package event.
We packaged care packages forour sons and daughters and some
of us have kids in the Army also, so they or Navy so they did a
couple boxes and they shippedthem out.
And then our daughter ended updoing it for her capstone
project at Chanhassen HighSchool and she shipped 336 care
(01:56):
packages.
Wow, that I think it was 2016.
She did that and my pillowsupplied all the pillows and
paid for all the shipping.
Yeah Said we were on tosomething.
Yeah, following fall, we gotthe schools to give us Halloween
candy.
Love Creek Elementary, victoriaElementary.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And the candy.
Tell me about the candy,because I know these were one of
the things.
I was a little well notsurprised, but I found very
interesting what it there's,because where a lot of these
military personnel are, they'renot getting candy.
No, they don't get candy?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah.
So when we, when we do a carepackage, you have a coloring
book, coloring crayons, pads ofpaper pens, a handheld game, a
little trinket for the holidaysyeah, Toiletry bag, snack bag.
Then they have Halloween candyand we separate it into the
(02:54):
sweet candy versus the chocolatein case the chocolate melts.
But when we get thank yous inthem, there's a MyPillow in the
box and then when we get thankyous back, the number one thing
is the MyPillow.
The number two thing is candythat actually is brand named
candy, like Hershey's, and thatyeah, yeah, that's really what
(03:14):
they want Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Now your son went into the Marines and this was
kind of like your son's in themilitary and you're looking for
a way to can do something withthat nervous energy that a mom
gets with a child in themilitary.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Absolutely.
So we did care packages, andthen I decided to go to Chan
High School and ask them if theyhad a wall for the military
kids.
Yeah, when they, you know youhave a wall saying where all of
the kids are going to college.
Well, where's the military wallfor the kids that have been
listed, that they didn't haveone.
They didn't have one.
(03:48):
So I kind of lost my craziness,lost your mind, yeah.
And they walked me down to themedia center and the media lady
in the Chan High School Librarypushed over a business card and
told me to call this gentlemanand said Colonel Bob Ayotte,
he's out of Chanhassen.
Every time I tried calling himI had to hang up because I could
(04:08):
not get.
Thank you for your service.
I could not say my son is aMarine without crying.
For the first six months.
I finally saw his wife's nameon a military page.
I'm on.
I asked her in a privatemessage or related to Colonel
Bob Ayotte, and she replied why?
What did he do?
So?
I knew I was going to love herright there.
(04:30):
I ended up connecting with Bob.
I told him what I do.
He ended up telling me he had aveteran family in need, which
led to another veteran family inneed.
After a half an hour Icommitted to adopting six
veterans that were in need thathe knew of.
Wow, we added three Marinefamilies onto that.
So the first year I wasshipping out care packages and
(04:54):
now I've committed to adoptingmilitary families from Minnesota
that have hit a bump in theroad.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Wow, that's such a great way to be able to when you
think about, too, if people inthe military are overseas and if
their family or some of theirfamily is home struggling, how
heartwarming for them to knowthat they're being taken care of
while they're gone.
What are some of the responsesthat you get from the military
(05:19):
personnel when they receivethese care packages, you told me
, like the candy, they get veryexcited about.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, the care packages alone are a huge morale
booster.
Yeah, I've had a lot.
Quite a few military personnelreach out to me and say hey,
molly, we need a little bit of aboost.
Could you possibly ship outcare packages?
And when we do that, then wewill either ship out individual
care packages to the militarypersonnel or we'll ship out
(05:47):
community packages, meaning onebox has all shampoo and
conditioners, another box hasall snacks, another box has
razors, anything that they arein need of, sure, and then we
supply those.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Wow.
We're going to share all of theways that you can get a hold of
Molly and that you cancontribute as well, because
there are so many differentitems that when you do these
drives that you're looking forthat are needed, and again,
we'll put a link to all of thisso you can kind of do a deep
dive on it and find out how youcan help.
What are some of the items?
(06:19):
Are there some more than othersthat you and I should also say
financial donations completelyaccepted as well, and we're
going to share a link for that.
That is absolutely huge.
But what are some of the itemsthat you collect that people
might be kind of surprised by?
That you're actually lookingfor and need for these care
(06:40):
packages?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Hand warmers, so like there's some general and some
personnel that are in reallycold temperatures.
If we can get the hand and thefoot warmers.
They are really into gold bondfoot powder because they're
using their boots.
Their boots get wet, theirsocks are wet, they end up with
blisters band aids another thing.
(07:02):
But they really love food.
Yeah, yeah, the food.
Imagine Like little boxes ofmacaroni and cheese ramen
noodles.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Really.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Absolutely, because some of them.
When our son was deployed, hewas on the USSS six for nine
months and the food got a littleold, so we would ship him items
to make like mac and cheese andramen noodles.
Sure, it was a hit, becausethey didn't have that.
No, no, no, no Chicken.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Wow, and these are items too that you can find at
Costco or Sam's Club or otherbig box stores to get in bulk.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yep, and we have an Amazon wish list.
Okay, so I put together everyyear at Amazon wish list the
what we're going to send, thatat the holidays we do a big care
package kickoff.
So this year we just shippedout 400 care packages about
three weeks ago.
It's about $80 to $100 ofcontents in the per care package
(08:00):
and it costs $22 a box to shipWow, which, again, is why
financial donations are soimportant.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Now you want to take this show on the road.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
You want to be able to reach more people and to be
able to get more support, butalso be so that you can do more
of these packages, so you canshow more support towards our
military personnel.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, well, we do quite a few things.
We adopt military families atthe holidays that are vetted
through their veteran serviceofficer or the readiness
officers, and then they reachout to me and we adopt them.
They are posted on my Facebookanonymously with a wish list
from the family Multiple peoplecan adopt a family and then I
get them in contact so they'renot repeating gifts and if they
(08:43):
do, that's fine.
And then we do the carepackages and then we also adopt
the veteran homes and we doother missions along the way
through the year.
The 400 care packages we justshipped out went all over the
world.
So when our son was out there,when he came back from being
deployed, we went out to CampPendleton where he came back to,
(09:06):
and they were dropped off atNew Barracks.
Well, he was left with what hehad on his back and what he was
carrying for nine months.
He went into the New Barracks.
There's nothing in there.
There's no bedding, there's notowels, there's nothing.
We would like to drive out in asprinter van and have a
collapsible laundry basket withlaundry detergent, cleaning
(09:26):
supplies, snacks, towels andsheets, just to get these guys
through the first couple of dayswhen they get back from
deployment.
I understand their military.
They're supposed to struggle alittle bit, but you know what?
There's a need out there.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Because when they come back their stuff is either
back at home in a differentstate or it's across base in a
storage unit or it's off baseand now they got to go collect
all their items to put back.
So we just thought maybe it'dbe easy to get about 250 of each
item and take them out to theguys and gals that come back.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
That's such a great idea because if you think about,
even when people you know whenyou're moving you have all your
stuff, you're in the middle.
In fact, my sister just movedback to Hawaii and sent all of
her stuff on a ship and isn'tgoing to get it for weeks.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, so wouldn't it be nice Someone show up with the
laundry basket?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yeah, to be able to have those things and to be I
think, about the militarypersonnel in terms of being away
from their family, and I meantalk about moving and being
uprooted and so much change andhaving a care package, having
these things there.
It sounds like such a smallthing, but from what you're
saying it sounds like the impactis humongous.
(10:43):
And what I love about whatyou're doing with your nonprofit
, which again is called Semper 5Flow and we're going to share
in the show links where you candonate items, where you can
donate financially and learnmore about what she's doing with
her nonprofit, how you can it'sall about right who you know,
what you want to get going.
(11:03):
Your idea of kind of goingacross the country with the
Sprinter Van I absolutely lovethat idea, but you know they
need donations and if you guysout there know anyone who's got
a connection to a Sprinter Vancompany, you know, be it
Mercedes, ford, whatever thatwould love to sponsor this type
of organization and this mom'smission, because I think she's
going to be hell on wheels.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
We put about 12,000 miles a year for Semper 5 Flow
on our personal vehicles and wehave done this for the last
eight years and she wasunenlisted.
So we decided after this thatthere's a need for our logistics
because we are now going out toschools, to the Hazelton
Foundation for one of theirevents and we're doing care
(11:49):
packages and like snack bags andtoiletry bags and we need to
transport all this stuff backand forth yeah, where we're
using up to four SUV vehicles totransport things back and forth
.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Wow, that's a lot.
Avan would make a really bigdifference.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
It would be huge.
It would be huge, it would be areally big difference.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, what else are some of the items that people
can donate?
That would really help.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
We have pages on our Facebook page of what we collect
.
Toiletries are huge, likeshampoos, conditioner soaps,
razors.
Luffa sponges are big.
Oh, wow See, I wouldn't havethought of that one.
Yeah, absolutely, luffa sponges, peanuts, snacks, candy, hard
(12:34):
candy, jolly ranchers are big,wow Again.
The gold bond salt powder ishuge.
Band-aids Anything you thinkthat you might need when you
where you can't get it right.
Yeah, yeah Beef jerky, huge Wow,mm-hmm, love jacklinks.
Yeah, general Mills donates tous.
They give us all of our granolabars for the care packages.
(12:57):
Sure, mystic Lake gives usplaying cards for the care
packages.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
So we do.
You know, we would love ifcompanies have anything that
they would like to donate, toput into our care packages or to
donate to any of our familiesor to the veteran home.
That would be fantastic.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yes, Having those corporate sponsors where they
can bring you not just 10granola bars which even 10
granola bars is appreciatedAbsolutely but to bring you
thousands of it.
So again, if you're listeningto this and you have a
connection or you work for acompany that creates different
food items or products, maybethere's a way that you can
connect with Molly and get someof those to go into the care
(13:35):
packages for the militarypersonnel.
What is your son doing now?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Right now he's working in Human Resources.
He finished his eight-yearcontract this past July.
Wow, he was looking into lawenforcement.
Not sure if he's going to gothat route or not.
Sure, but he's enjoying histime out.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah, what does he think about you doing all of
this?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
When he went in, all he said was Mom, let me do my
four years, you don't need toget involved, you don't need to
do anything, you don't need tomake friends, Just let me get
through my four years.
And I did not listen.
I drank the water by gulping ithuge, and he's really proud of
me, he's really proud of whatI've done, and it's all because
(14:20):
of what he did.
It was a shock to us when hewas going in.
We were not a military family.
We had four kids in five years.
They're all best friends.
And he came home one day andsaid I think I'm enlisting in
the Marine Corps and we're like,no, what are you doing?
And then he had a recruitercome over, chatted with us.
(14:43):
He went away to a mini bootcamp for a weekend when he was a
junior in high school.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Wow, I did not know that that was a thing, yeah, but
a camp for a plate.
So you could go kind of for aweek and get a taste when you're
in high school.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
And then he decided no, that is not for me, these
guys are crazy.
And then he graduated highschool when a year over at
Normandale, and then decided oneday, I think I'm going to
enlist, and he enlisted.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
That's really interesting that he kind of did
a 180 on that and then ended upserving for was it eight years?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
It's an eight-year contract with the Marine Corps.
And it's four years active,four-year call-up.
So he has to do the four yearsand then he can come home, go
back in the civilian world, kindof get a job and stuff.
But if the military needed himthey could call him back up Wow,
but he's done, so they can'tknow, wow.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
So the next step kind of what you're doing with
Simper Fi Flow is it just soundslike you're really kind of
scaling up and rallying thetroops to get more support to do
what you're doing but be ableto do it on a bigger level.
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
And we take care of.
We're a Minnesota non-profit501c3.
We became that in 2019.
We found that very importantbecause then people, charities,
can donate to us also.
We take care of Minnesota-basedtroops and we take care of
Minnesota families that have hita little bit of a speed bump in
(16:09):
the road during the holidays.
We take care of the Minnesotaveteran homes.
Eventually in the future, Iwould like to maybe branch out
to Wisconsin, iowa, the Dakotas,yeah, but right now we're
Minnesota.
To date, we have helped over109 Minnesota military families.
Wow, we've shipped over 5,500care packages.
(16:31):
We have adopted all fiveveteran homes and we're on the
second rotation of those.
Wow.
What are some of the needs?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
for the veterans homes.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
The veteran homes.
Well, this year we did.
There are 57 residents up inSilver Bay, minnesota, so we got
them each a flannel shirt, asweatshirt or a jacket, which is
a jacket, sweatshirt, pajamasand a sherpa blanket, so every
resident will get one of thosein a bag they get to open.
(17:01):
It's all wrapped.
They redid, they remodeledtheir kitchen, so we got a wish
list from them.
We put it on on Facebook.
Whoever didn't, whatever wasn'tdonated, we went with donations
and purchased everything likean espresso maker, a coffee
maker, dishes, utensils,anything that they needed,
(17:24):
cutting boards that they needed,wow.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
That is absolutely amazing.
In the show notes, we are goingto share all the ways that you
can reach Molly and connect withher, and just whether it's
donations straight donations orfinancial donations.
I would love to see theSprinter Van become a reality
and see what else that you cando.
You've been doing this for howlong now we started in 2016.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Nick went in in June of 2015, July, excuse me, of
2015.
And then I attended a meeting,a Minnesota Marine Moms meeting,
and then it just kicked off.
So basically we say we startedin 2016.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
That's fantastic.
That's fantastic.
We are going to share all theways that you can reach her.
Definitely, reach out andconnect.
She's obviously a force.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Well, we have a huge mission.
We call them missions.
We have a huge mission comingup in February for Girl Scout
Cookie Donation.
So last February this past yearwe got 1,500 individual Girl
Scout Cookie Boxes donated to usand then we spun those out into
care packages.
(18:30):
Wow, that's amazing.
Those will be shipped out thebeginning of April and then
we're just going to kind ofcontinue to do stuff throughout
the year Different missions wedid back when George Floyd
happened.
The National Guard was broughtinto Minneapolis.
They didn't have underwear,socks, towels, so we swooped in
(18:50):
and bought 150 pairs of socks,150 pairs of underwear, 150
towels.
And then General Mills came inand donated all the granola bars
and then we put out a 911,basically on Facebook, and
everyone started donatingdeodorants and everything that
they needed because they werecalled upon so quickly.
(19:11):
So we do quick missions likethat also.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
It's so needed.
It's so needed.
We're definitely going to haveto chat again, absolutely, and I
want to hear about how thingsgo with this, you know,
especially if you get the van.
So if anybody has a hookup, byall means reach out.
Let's get this going, please.
It's so wonderful to be able toshare an update and maybe talk
again later, especially when itgets close to Girl Scout Cookie
season.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Let's get those cookies for the troops.
Yes, thank you so much.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, everybody else.
I will talk to you later.
Hello everyone and welcome to Tonka Talk.
I'm Natalie Webster.
We talk about the ways peoplecreate community and connection,
here and today, my guest isMolly Ambrose and she is a mom
on a mission to help militarypersonnel.
Welcome, molly.
Well, thank you, I'm honored tobe here.
I was very excited to learnabout what you were doing.
We met each other through thesocial, the social media
(00:23):
Facebook, yes, and we live inthe same community.
Now you have a nonprofit.
The nonprofit is called SemperFi, flow, correct, which tell me
what that means.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Semper Fi is always faithful in the Marine Corps.
And then Flow is short forFlorence Nightingale.
Oh, I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I absolutely love it.
You have this nonprofit whereyou put together care packages
for military personnel, but howdid you get started doing this?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I attended a Minnesota Marine Mom meeting
after my son enlisted in theMarine Corps in 2015.
And some of the moms were goingto get together and put
together care packages withpillows in them, and they wanted
to buy king-size pillows withking-size pillowcases and cut
(01:11):
them.
And I'm like I don't.
It sounds like a lot of work.
Yeah, I don't have the money,nor do I know how to sew.
Maybe there's a quicker way,yep.
So I asked if anyone had evercalled my pillow.
Yeah, they all looked at melike I was crazy.
This was a.
Saturday morning and by Monday Ihad 50 my pillows in my
basement.
Wow, that's amazing.
So I was on to something Sure.
(01:31):
So the Marine Moms and I endedup doing a care package event.
We packaged care packages forour sons and daughters and some
of us have kids in the Army also, so they or Navy so they did a
couple boxes and they shippedthem out.
And then our daughter ended updoing it for her capstone
project at Chanhassen HighSchool and she shipped 336 care
(01:56):
packages.
Wow, that I think it was 2016.
She did that and my pillowsupplied all the pillows and
paid for all the shipping.
Yeah Said we were on tosomething.
Yeah, following fall, we gotthe schools to give us Halloween
candy.
Love Creek Elementary, victoriaElementary.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And the candy.
Tell me about the candy,because I know these were one of
the things.
I was a little well notsurprised, but I found very
interesting what it there's,because where a lot of these
military personnel are, they'renot getting candy.
No, they don't get candy?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah.
So when we, when we do a carepackage, you have a coloring
book, coloring crayons, pads ofpaper pens, a handheld game, a
little trinket for the holidaysyeah, Toiletry bag, snack bag.
Then they have Halloween candyand we separate it into the
(02:54):
sweet candy versus the chocolatein case the chocolate melts.
But when we get thank yous inthem, there's a MyPillow in the
box and then when we get thankyous back, the number one thing
is the MyPillow.
The number two thing is candythat actually is brand named
candy, like Hershey's, and thatyeah, yeah, that's really what
(03:14):
they want Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Now your son went into the Marines and this was
kind of like your son's in themilitary and you're looking for
a way to can do something withthat nervous energy that a mom
gets with a child in themilitary.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Absolutely.
So we did care packages, andthen I decided to go to Chan
High School and ask them if theyhad a wall for the military
kids.
Yeah, when they, you know youhave a wall saying where all of
the kids are going to college.
Well, where's the military wallfor the kids that have been
listed, that they didn't haveone.
They didn't have one.
(03:48):
So I kind of lost my craziness,lost your mind, yeah.
And they walked me down to themedia center and the media lady
in the Chan High School Librarypushed over a business card and
told me to call this gentlemanand said Colonel Bob Ayotte,
he's out of Chanhassen.
Every time I tried calling himI had to hang up because I could
(04:08):
not get.
Thank you for your service.
I could not say my son is aMarine without crying.
For the first six months.
I finally saw his wife's nameon a military page.
I'm on.
I asked her in a privatemessage or related to Colonel
Bob Ayotte, and she replied why?
What did he do?
So?
I knew I was going to love herright there.
(04:30):
I ended up connecting with Bob.
I told him what I do.
He ended up telling me he had aveteran family in need, which
led to another veteran family inneed.
After a half an hour Icommitted to adopting six
veterans that were in need thathe knew of.
Wow, we added three Marinefamilies onto that.
So the first year I wasshipping out care packages and
(04:54):
now I've committed to adoptingmilitary families from Minnesota
that have hit a bump in theroad.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Wow, that's such a great way to be able to when you
think about, too, if people inthe military are overseas and if
their family or some of theirfamily is home struggling, how
heartwarming for them to knowthat they're being taken care of
while they're gone.
What are some of the responsesthat you get from the military
(05:19):
personnel when they receivethese care packages, you told me
, like the candy, they get veryexcited about.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, the care packages alone are a huge morale
booster.
Yeah, I've had a lot.
Quite a few military personnelreach out to me and say hey,
molly, we need a little bit of aboost.
Could you possibly ship outcare packages?
And when we do that, then wewill either ship out individual
care packages to the militarypersonnel or we'll ship out
(05:47):
community packages, meaning onebox has all shampoo and
conditioners, another box hasall snacks, another box has
razors, anything that they arein need of, sure, and then we
supply those.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Wow.
We're going to share all of theways that you can get a hold of
Molly and that you cancontribute as well, because
there are so many differentitems that when you do these
drives that you're looking forthat are needed, and again,
we'll put a link to all of thisso you can kind of do a deep
dive on it and find out how youcan help.
What are some of the items?
(06:19):
Are there some more than othersthat you and I should also say
financial donations completelyaccepted as well, and we're
going to share a link for that.
That is absolutely huge.
But what are some of the itemsthat you collect that people
might be kind of surprised by?
That you're actually lookingfor and need for these care
(06:40):
packages?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Hand warmers, so like there's some general and some
personnel that are in reallycold temperatures.
If we can get the hand and thefoot warmers.
They are really into gold bondfoot powder because they're
using their boots.
Their boots get wet, theirsocks are wet, they end up with
blisters band aids another thing.
(07:02):
But they really love food.
Yeah, yeah, the food.
Imagine Like little boxes ofmacaroni and cheese ramen
noodles.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Really.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Absolutely, because some of them.
When our son was deployed, hewas on the USSS six for nine
months and the food got a littleold, so we would ship him items
to make like mac and cheese andramen noodles.
Sure, it was a hit, becausethey didn't have that.
No, no, no, no Chicken.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Wow, and these are items too that you can find at
Costco or Sam's Club or otherbig box stores to get in bulk.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yep, and we have an Amazon wish list.
Okay, so I put together everyyear at Amazon wish list the
what we're going to send, thatat the holidays we do a big care
package kickoff.
So this year we just shippedout 400 care packages about
three weeks ago.
It's about $80 to $100 ofcontents in the per care package
(08:00):
and it costs $22 a box to shipWow, which, again, is why
financial donations are soimportant.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Now you want to take this show on the road.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
You want to be able to reach more people and to be
able to get more support, butalso be so that you can do more
of these packages, so you canshow more support towards our
military personnel.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, well, we do quite a few things.
We adopt military families atthe holidays that are vetted
through their veteran serviceofficer or the readiness
officers, and then they reachout to me and we adopt them.
They are posted on my Facebookanonymously with a wish list
from the family Multiple peoplecan adopt a family and then I
get them in contact so they'renot repeating gifts and if they
(08:43):
do, that's fine.
And then we do the carepackages and then we also adopt
the veteran homes and we doother missions along the way
through the year.
The 400 care packages we justshipped out went all over the
world.
So when our son was out there,when he came back from being
deployed, we went out to CampPendleton where he came back to,
(09:06):
and they were dropped off atNew Barracks.
Well, he was left with what hehad on his back and what he was
carrying for nine months.
He went into the New Barracks.
There's nothing in there.
There's no bedding, there's notowels, there's nothing.
We would like to drive out in asprinter van and have a
collapsible laundry basket withlaundry detergent, cleaning
(09:26):
supplies, snacks, towels andsheets, just to get these guys
through the first couple of dayswhen they get back from
deployment.
I understand their military.
They're supposed to struggle alittle bit, but you know what?
There's a need out there.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Because when they come back their stuff is either
back at home in a differentstate or it's across base in a
storage unit or it's off baseand now they got to go collect
all their items to put back.
So we just thought maybe it'dbe easy to get about 250 of each
item and take them out to theguys and gals that come back.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
That's such a great idea because if you think about,
even when people you know whenyou're moving you have all your
stuff, you're in the middle.
In fact, my sister just movedback to Hawaii and sent all of
her stuff on a ship and isn'tgoing to get it for weeks.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, so wouldn't it be nice Someone show up with the
laundry basket?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yeah, to be able to have those things and to be I
think, about the militarypersonnel in terms of being away
from their family, and I meantalk about moving and being
uprooted and so much change andhaving a care package, having
these things there.
It sounds like such a smallthing, but from what you're
saying it sounds like the impactis humongous.
(10:43):
And what I love about whatyou're doing with your nonprofit
, which again is called Semper 5Flow and we're going to share
in the show links where you candonate items, where you can
donate financially and learnmore about what she's doing with
her nonprofit, how you can it'sall about right who you know,
what you want to get going.
(11:03):
Your idea of kind of goingacross the country with the
Sprinter Van I absolutely lovethat idea, but you know they
need donations and if you guysout there know anyone who's got
a connection to a Sprinter Vancompany, you know, be it
Mercedes, ford, whatever thatwould love to sponsor this type
of organization and this mom'smission, because I think she's
going to be hell on wheels.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
We put about 12,000 miles a year for Semper 5 Flow
on our personal vehicles and wehave done this for the last
eight years and she wasunenlisted.
So we decided after this thatthere's a need for our logistics
because we are now going out toschools, to the Hazelton
Foundation for one of theirevents and we're doing care
(11:49):
packages and like snack bags andtoiletry bags and we need to
transport all this stuff backand forth yeah, where we're
using up to four SUV vehicles totransport things back and forth
.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Wow, that's a lot.
Avan would make a really bigdifference.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
It would be huge.
It would be huge, it would be areally big difference.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, what else are some of the items that people
can donate?
That would really help.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
We have pages on our Facebook page of what we collect
.
Toiletries are huge, likeshampoos, conditioner soaps,
razors.
Luffa sponges are big.
Oh, wow See, I wouldn't havethought of that one.
Yeah, absolutely, luffa sponges, peanuts, snacks, candy, hard
(12:34):
candy, jolly ranchers are big,wow Again.
The gold bond salt powder ishuge.
Band-aids Anything you thinkthat you might need when you
where you can't get it right.
Yeah, yeah Beef jerky, huge Wow,mm-hmm, love jacklinks.
Yeah, general Mills donates tous.
They give us all of our granolabars for the care packages.
(12:57):
Sure, mystic Lake gives usplaying cards for the care
packages.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
So we do.
You know, we would love ifcompanies have anything that
they would like to donate, toput into our care packages or to
donate to any of our familiesor to the veteran home.
That would be fantastic.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yes, Having those corporate sponsors where they
can bring you not just 10granola bars which even 10
granola bars is appreciatedAbsolutely but to bring you
thousands of it.
So again, if you're listeningto this and you have a
connection or you work for acompany that creates different
food items or products, maybethere's a way that you can
connect with Molly and get someof those to go into the care
(13:35):
packages for the militarypersonnel.
What is your son doing now?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Right now he's working in Human Resources.
He finished his eight-yearcontract this past July.
Wow, he was looking into lawenforcement.
Not sure if he's going to gothat route or not.
Sure, but he's enjoying histime out.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah, what does he think about you doing all of
this?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
When he went in, all he said was Mom, let me do my
four years, you don't need toget involved, you don't need to
do anything, you don't need tomake friends, Just let me get
through my four years.
And I did not listen.
I drank the water by gulping ithuge, and he's really proud of
me, he's really proud of whatI've done, and it's all because
(14:20):
of what he did.
It was a shock to us when hewas going in.
We were not a military family.
We had four kids in five years.
They're all best friends.
And he came home one day andsaid I think I'm enlisting in
the Marine Corps and we're like,no, what are you doing?
And then he had a recruitercome over, chatted with us.
(14:43):
He went away to a mini bootcamp for a weekend when he was a
junior in high school.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Wow, I did not know that that was a thing, yeah, but
a camp for a plate.
So you could go kind of for aweek and get a taste when you're
in high school.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
And then he decided no, that is not for me, these
guys are crazy.
And then he graduated highschool when a year over at
Normandale, and then decided oneday, I think I'm going to
enlist, and he enlisted.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
That's really interesting that he kind of did
a 180 on that and then ended upserving for was it eight years?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
It's an eight-year contract with the Marine Corps.
And it's four years active,four-year call-up.
So he has to do the four yearsand then he can come home, go
back in the civilian world, kindof get a job and stuff.
But if the military needed himthey could call him back up Wow,
but he's done, so they can'tknow, wow.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
So the next step kind of what you're doing with
Simper Fi Flow is it just soundslike you're really kind of
scaling up and rallying thetroops to get more support to do
what you're doing but be ableto do it on a bigger level.
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
And we take care of.
We're a Minnesota non-profit501c3.
We became that in 2019.
We found that very importantbecause then people, charities,
can donate to us also.
We take care of Minnesota-basedtroops and we take care of
Minnesota families that have hita little bit of a speed bump in
(16:09):
the road during the holidays.
We take care of the Minnesotaveteran homes.
Eventually in the future, Iwould like to maybe branch out
to Wisconsin, iowa, the Dakotas,yeah, but right now we're
Minnesota.
To date, we have helped over109 Minnesota military families.
Wow, we've shipped over 5,500care packages.
(16:31):
We have adopted all fiveveteran homes and we're on the
second rotation of those.
Wow.
What are some of the needs?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
for the veterans homes.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
The veteran homes.
Well, this year we did.
There are 57 residents up inSilver Bay, minnesota, so we got
them each a flannel shirt, asweatshirt or a jacket, which is
a jacket, sweatshirt, pajamasand a sherpa blanket, so every
resident will get one of thosein a bag they get to open.
(17:01):
It's all wrapped.
They redid, they remodeledtheir kitchen, so we got a wish
list from them.
We put it on on Facebook.
Whoever didn't, whatever wasn'tdonated, we went with donations
and purchased everything likean espresso maker, a coffee
maker, dishes, utensils,anything that they needed,
(17:24):
cutting boards that they needed,wow.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
That is absolutely amazing.
In the show notes, we are goingto share all the ways that you
can reach Molly and connect withher, and just whether it's
donations straight donations orfinancial donations.
I would love to see theSprinter Van become a reality
and see what else that you cando.
You've been doing this for howlong now we started in 2016.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Nick went in in June of 2015, July, excuse me, of
2015.
And then I attended a meeting,a Minnesota Marine Moms meeting,
and then it just kicked off.
So basically we say we startedin 2016.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
That's fantastic.
That's fantastic.
We are going to share all theways that you can reach her.
Definitely, reach out andconnect.
She's obviously a force.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Well, we have a huge mission.
We call them missions.
We have a huge mission comingup in February for Girl Scout
Cookie Donation.
So last February this past yearwe got 1,500 individual Girl
Scout Cookie Boxes donated to usand then we spun those out into
care packages.
(18:30):
Wow, that's amazing.
Those will be shipped out thebeginning of April and then
we're just going to kind ofcontinue to do stuff throughout
the year Different missions wedid back when George Floyd
happened.
The National Guard was broughtinto Minneapolis.
They didn't have underwear,socks, towels, so we swooped in
(18:50):
and bought 150 pairs of socks,150 pairs of underwear, 150
towels.
And then General Mills came inand donated all the granola bars
and then we put out a 911,basically on Facebook, and
everyone started donatingdeodorants and everything that
they needed because they werecalled upon so quickly.
(19:11):
So we do quick missions likethat also.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
It's so needed.
It's so needed.
We're definitely going to haveto chat again, absolutely, and I
want to hear about how thingsgo with this, you know,
especially if you get the van.
So if anybody has a hookup, byall means reach out.
Let's get this going, please.
It's so wonderful to be able toshare an update and maybe talk
again later, especially when itgets close to Girl Scout Cookie
season.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Let's get those cookies for the troops.
Yes, thank you so much.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, everybody else.
I will talk to you later.
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