Supporting our deployed troops with "boxes of home" from the non-profit organization Operation Turbo

[00:00:00] Alison: Today we're talking to Diane Smith and Diane is actually going to be the first person. What are we at episode? 90 something. I don't know, 90 something. And you are the first non military spouse person that I've had on the show. So but I think that obviously you're connected to the military and what the, what you are doing is connected to the military.

[00:00:21] Alison: We're going to get into it. But Diane is the founder and CEO of Operation Turbo, which is where she'll tell us all about what that program is. So Diane, welcome to the show. I'm super happy to have 

[00:00:32] Dyan: you here. Thanks, Allison. I appreciate being the first non military spouse to be on your show. Operation Turbo sends what we call boxes of home care packages to deployed service members with a focus on those that aren't receiving support.

[00:00:49] Dyan: We send to all branches. We send to everyone we get a request for but we really try to reach those that don't have anyone supporting them once they're deployed. And sadly, there are more of them than people think. So that's what we do. We're pretty, we're a grassroots organization. We're small, but as I always put in parentheses, but mighty.

[00:01:11] Dyan: We are starting, we're ending our 14th year. We're 100 percent volunteer organization. We are based in Hilton Head, South Carolina. We were originally started in 2010 in Arlington, Virginia, but we relocated. 

[00:01:30] Alison: Well, let's just kind of go back to the beginning a little bit. So what, obviously you're, you're not a military spouse. So what is your affiliation to the military? And then how did the program start? Cause I think that's a really cool 

[00:01:43] Dyan: story. Great. So our niece, Heather was, she did Roxy at university and was based out of Norfolk.

[00:01:53] Dyan: We were in Arlington. She was about to leave for her first big deployment. I have never been on a ship before. I've never been on a base before. So we went down, my husband and I went down to tour her ship. And she was on the USS Stout, which is a destroyer. About 325 to 350 sailors on the ship. And during the tour, I said, Heather, what do you want me to send you?

[00:02:17] Dyan: I'll send you anything you want, as much as you want. And she said, Auntie, she called me Auntie. She said, Auntie, that's so sweet of you. She said, I would appreciate anything you send me, but she said, you know, I feel so guilty sometimes because I get so much stuff sent to me, even here on the base. And so many on our ship don't have anyone supporting them.

[00:02:41] Dyan: I come from a large Italian family that has a lot of support. And so I just, I couldn't wrap my head around that. Yeah, that was a Saturday. And on the way home Sunday, I was very quiet. That made my husband nervous. He said, The wheels are turning. He said, What are you so deep in thought about? And I said, I just can't understand how people can be gone six months to a year and not even get a, a, a note, a card, anything.

[00:03:14] Dyan: Yeah. And at the time, I was a very busy hairdresser. And I thought, I can collect 350 notes of gratitude, one for each sailor on the ship. So, Monday morning, got up, sent an email to family, neighbors, clients, just a whole big list of people. And I said, if everybody writes one note, we can make sure that they all know they're appreciated.

[00:03:41] Dyan: That's where it got its start. I had a very dear neighbor who passed away, but she started bringing all kinds of like candy and cookies and all these different things. And I thought, Oh, well, I didn't think about this aspect of it. So. I started sending them all these sugary treats. Right. When they got back, they joked and said, they all gained weight because of me, but they really didn't anyway.

[00:04:14] Dyan: So everybody on that ship. knew that their sacrifice and their service to our country mattered. And that's where it got its start. It was truly just supposed to be notes of gratitude, which by the way, we still put a note of gratitude in every box that we send out. And that, that is very important to me.

[00:04:35] Dyan: And we get notes from all over the country. People reach out and say, Hey, I heard that you need some notes of gratitude. What do I need to do? So that's where it got its start. And then from there, our niece's best friend I always say this wrong. It's a Marine. She retired for a while and then got back in, but she's still a Marine.

[00:04:59] Dyan: Anyway, they were in Afghanistan at the time, were supposed to be home for Christmas. Found out three weeks before, no, found out six weeks before that they were not going to get home until February. So. I decided that I would collect Christmas anything, and we had three weeks, we packed up 55 boxes. Holy cow!

[00:05:26] Dyan: Yeah, we sent them candy and decorations and everything under the sun that we could find and that people would donate to us. Yeah. So, from there is where it really started to kind of... Word started to spread a bit. Now, for the first four years, my husband and I paid for all the shipping that went out. And then in 2014, friends and family were, just kept saying to us, you need to become a non profit.

[00:05:58] Dyan: You're going to take yourself to the poor house. 

[00:06:01] Alison: Because shipping's expensive, right? It's not 

[00:06:03] Dyan: cheap. It is our largest expense. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So I, as you and I discussed earlier, I'm the jump head first. My husband's kind of the cool cucumber. I was like, sure, you signed some papers. What's to it? So in 2014, we did sign those papers and became a registered 501 C3.

[00:06:26] Dyan: And then from there is when it exploded because You know, word got out that our packages were really good packages. Our boxes of home were filled with quality items and full size items. People felt comfortable enough to donate because then it became a tax write off for them. And, you know, we just evolved from that very first ship of sending sweets and candy and things like that.

[00:06:54] Dyan: To being an organization that really puts a lot of thought and care into each package that goes out. We're not an assembly line. We do not do, you know, 100, 000 packages in a weekend. That's not what we do. We do three, we, we say we have three categories that go into our boxes. The largest amount is protein.

[00:07:20] Dyan: So lots and lots of protein items. The second amount is personal care items. And the third amount are a few treats. So we do full size everything. We don't do travel size. You know, if you're gone six months to a year, travel size isn't going to help. It's 

[00:07:39] Alison: going to go real fat. I never thought about that, but that's a very good point.

[00:07:42] Alison: You're right. That's exactly right. Yeah. 

[00:07:44] Dyan: So that's That is where we are very different than some organizations, and we also pack gender specific items. So we pack female boxes and boxes for men. We pack whether they're at sea or on the ground, because two very different things. We pack seasonal and climate.

[00:08:07] Dyan: You know, because somebody that may be deployed in Eastern Europe doesn't want the same thing as somebody that's in Djibouti. Right. So you take that all into consideration. Seasonal is more Christmas. We try to do Santa hats in the boxes and, you know holiday candy, stuff like that. So try to make it special for each person.

[00:08:30] Dyan: So 

[00:08:30] Alison: what is the, like, what, for example, if you were going to do a box for a female sailor, what would, what would be, what would that box look like? What would be in 

[00:08:40] Dyan: there? Okay. So The protein items are typically the same. Right? We do a tuna packet, we do a bag of beef jerky, a 16 ounce jar of peanut butter, nuts, trail mix I'm in my office, I'm looking around.

[00:08:58] Dyan: Looking at your shelves. But for the females, what separates the females is we send them A soap that's geared towards females, we send them female deodorant. We have what we call soap sheets or water soluble soap that we have pink ones in a pink container that we try to send them. We don't always have pink toothbrushes, but when I do, I try to send them to the females.

[00:09:28] Dyan: We have those, you know, those scrunchie poof things. Yeah. I love those. Yeah. Yeah. We send those when we have them. Yeah. We used to do an 18 count box of tampons, but it got cost prohibitive to do that. If we get a request for female hygiene products, I will do my best to get them to them. I will always do my best for specific requests like that.

[00:09:54] Dyan: But those few things that I just talked about are what separate the females from the males. From what I understand, those few little things make the ladies just feel better. 

[00:10:06] Alison: Right. Yeah. I could, and that's, and that's an interesting dynamic that I, I really can't speak to because I haven't been a female and a mostly male dominant.

[00:10:18] Alison: Group. Right. I mean, the military is predominantly male. Right. So I think just, you're right, those little, like, I'm still a girl and I can still smell nice. And I can, I mean, like there's little things that you just don't think about, right. That it's like, yes, I, you know, I'm still, I'm still female here.

[00:10:35] Alison: Right. Yeah. So what, so you said that when you, in 2014, when you became a 501c3 organization, that that kind of really lit the fire and you took off from there, what is, what was, is that just like, were you able to get more funding to be able to do more boxes? Like what, what made that kind of burst of growth 

[00:10:55] Dyan: happen?

[00:10:56] Dyan: You know, honestly, I think it is the first four years of us. sending boxes just on our own, just slowly started to ripple. And then, you know, we did the website and started doing social media and just the ripple effect just started to happen. Chaplains who are a big resource for us, they really know who isn't getting support.

[00:11:21] Dyan: We had a couple of military chaplains, priests that were in our diocese that I knew and that helped a bit. So when people start seeing tons of boxes, you know, hit a ship or hit mail call of any kind, that's when it really, and then people go to the website and look on social 

[00:11:43] Alison: media. I gotcha. Okay.

[00:11:46] Dyan: So we don't receive any. Government funding, we've never applied for a grant. We are all, you know, just individual donors and small businesses that help us out. So, that's kind of where our funding comes 

[00:12:04] Alison: from. Yeah, a hundred percent grassroots. Like, yeah, I love it. So if then, if, if people are listening to the show and they're like, this is awesome.

[00:12:14] Alison: How do I get involved? I want to help. What can I do? 

[00:12:18] Dyan: There are lots of ways to help. We always need notes of gratitude. Okay. So you can go there. Well first let me give you our website. It's OperationTurbo. org. Okay. Instagram, Operation Turbo, Facebook, Operation Turbo. All the information on our Amazon wish list is on our donor page on our website.

[00:12:42] Dyan: How to donate monetarily is also on the donor page. There is a page to request boxes for your service member that you would like to receive a box. 

[00:12:55] Alison: So the Amazon wishlist and then just monetary donations are, are the best way. What is the, what are the items that are, cause I saw, I follow you guys that we were talking about this earlier on Instagram. That's how I connected with you.

[00:13:07] Alison: And And you just received a request for a lot of boxes. What was like 30 boxes or 60 boxes or it's a lot, right? Yeah. You've got 

[00:13:16] Dyan: 132 in our queue right 

[00:13:18] Alison: now. Oh my word. Oh my word. So what are the, what are the greatest needs that you have? Right now 

[00:13:25] Dyan: Right now, I would say toothpaste tune out in the packets.

[00:13:32] Dyan: We can't send cans and we definitely can't send glass. Yeah. We're getting into the season where they could use the foot warmers that they put in their boots. Those are on our website. I mean, on our Amazon wish list. If I could just sidebar here, our Amazon wish list is in our bio.

[00:13:50] Dyan: On our Instagram page. Okay. It is also on our website. Okay, perfect. You can find it in two places. I'm not savvy enough to tell you how to get there from Amazon to find our wishlist. But I can tell you that some people can find it and some people can't. So those two places, or message me and I'll send you the link.

[00:14:09] Dyan: Yeah. If you can message me, absolutely.

[00:14:13] Alison: Okay. Yeah. Cause I was going to say, if you're like, Oh, I'm just going to, cause this is, this was me yesterday or the day before I was like, Oh, they have a need for, I'm going to go to Amazon. And I could not find it in their search for lists. I could not find it. So I'll make sure that we have links to all of that stuff, to your Instagram and then to the website and specifically to the Amazon wishlist and the show notes so that people can really easily get.

[00:14:36] Alison: Yeah, get attached to that. So then you said there's a spot on your website where you can request a box. Is there like criteria or requirements to be able to request a box for somebody? Or is it just a... No, ma'am. 

[00:14:49] Dyan: We will, like I said earlier, we, our focus is those that don't receive support, but we send to everybody.

[00:14:56] Dyan: That we get a request for as long as they were forward deployed There's a difference between being stationed somewhere and being deployed, right? Yeah That's a hard one for us because sometimes we get requests for people that are stationed somewhere And if I know that they're on a base that has a good px It's really hard if I had if I had You know an unbelievable budget and a wealth of everything to share I would but okay back to origin all we need is to know that somebody is deployed We need their name their gender their address And a general idea of how much longer they'll be deployed.

[00:15:40] Dyan: I don't need dates because I know that's not shareable right Some general idea like it's easier if somebody Messages us early on in the deployment and not, Hey, we're leaving in a month. Can I get a box that makes it a little tough? Because like I said, we have a cube and I, you know, it's not really fair to jump someone up.

[00:16:06] Dyan: I've, I've done it in an emergency, but. Yeah, I tried it. 

[00:16:11] Alison: Yeah. Every way we can. Right. So what does that process look like? Is that, do you have like, okay, on Tuesdays we make boxes and I'm going to get this many done. Do you have like a process 

[00:16:22] Dyan: in that? So as you and I talked about, sorry about the chuckle.

[00:16:26] Dyan: As you and I talked about, we have one room in our home. That looks like a mini Costco. Yeah, it does. 

[00:16:34] Alison: I can see it. It does look like a Costco. 

[00:16:38] Dyan: So because it's in our home I am in this office every day doing something, whether it's inventory ordering things, doing the graphics. I do everything except the it, the finances and heavy lifting.

[00:16:55] Dyan: That's my husband's job, but I do everything else. So I'm in this room. All the time, no matter what gets, needs to be done, it's done there. So there's no set day of Monday we do this, Tuesday we do that. Okay. I, I try to prep everything and prepare so that when we have volunteers come in to help pack, that it's ready to go.

[00:17:21] Alison: And how often do you do that? Do you have volunteers come and help you? Is it just like a need basis? Like, Hey, I've got all these boxes to get out. And then you put out a message like SOS. Anybody in the greater Hilton 

[00:17:33] Dyan: area come and help us. I have some incredible volunteers. I have some family that are volunteers.

[00:17:40] Dyan: I have some friends here on the island that are volunteers. But yeah, that's essentially what I do. I send out an email and I say, I'm packing on X day. At this time who can make it? Now Allison can see that our room is about 200 square feet, so it's not very big. Yeah. So we can really only have about two volunteers and myself packed at the same time.

[00:18:05] Dyan: Yeah. So yeah, but I've never lacked for volunteers. That's good. And so the small, you know, if there's 10 or 20, I can pack those, you know, I can almost do it blindfolded. Right. I'm sure. But when you've got to record, you have 132 in your queue, you need help. And so I, I'm in the process of that. There's a lot of ordering, a lot of a lot of wheels to make it all happen.

[00:18:35] Dyan: I'm 

[00:18:35] Alison: sure. Yeah, that's gotta be a lot. So that's got to be a lot to keep track of all the different things. Like you've got to be super organized to be able to make that an effective operation, right? Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. 

[00:18:49] Dyan: Because you have to have the right amount of everything and everything has to be prepared and inventoried.

[00:18:55] Dyan: Nothing comes in the room without it being inventoried. 

[00:18:59] Alison: So. That's smart. Cause that just makes it a more streamlined process. Right. So then it can be, you can be more effective that way. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So where do you see the future of operation turbo going? What do you see for, for the organization in the next couple of years?

[00:19:15] Dyan: Well, since we're relatively new to Hilton head, I am really trying to introduce. our organization to the community. So I would like to grow our base here in Hilton Head. I would, there are some bases close to us, so something I have been trying to do, and if anybody out there hears me I love to set up when there are family days.

[00:19:46] Dyan: I think that would just be a great way to network to let people know we're here for them. Yeah. You know, I, I know that some organizations branch out left, right, you know, backwards and all these different directions. And I just have always felt that if we keep our heads down. And we continue to support our military the way we are, we will grow in, you know, being able to reach more.

[00:20:17] Dyan: That's my goal is to reach more of our deployed service members. I love it. I'm sure all you wives know this, you know, the Navy, they deploy. 365 days a year. You know, they're out there all the time and armies like that. Marines are like that. And sadly, the way of the world right now, I think we're going to have more and more deployed.

[00:20:41] Dyan: So right. I agree. That's my goal. Branching out and reaching more service members.

[00:20:48] Dyan: That's my goal. 

[00:20:49] Alison: Okay. So I, so it sounds like then the best way to get involved or to help Operation Turbo is one, the Amazon wishlist. You can donate money, you can donate products and things like that to help make the boxes. If you're in Hilton head and you get on your list. Then you can come out back boxes and then number, yeah.

[00:21:09] Alison: And then number two would be if you are with a command that has deploying service members, let that command know that this is an option for those soldiers and sailors that don't have family. Cause there's a little, and it's, you know, I, I. It's interesting because I've never really thought about it before, but you're right.

[00:21:30] Alison: I mean, a destroyer is a small boy too, right? So like 350 ish sailors. That's pretty small compared to like large decks where there's thousands, right? Or units where there's thousands of people. , I think if you're an involved person, it doesn't compute almost like how would somebody, Okay.

[00:21:48] Alison: Be deployed and not have a mom or a dad or a sibling or an aunt or a grandparent or for a friend that would be sending them anything. But it happens, right? So I think it's just something to keep in mind. And so if you are attached to a command, make sure that the leadership knows that this is an option if they've got sailors that are not getting anything from home.

[00:22:15] Alison: This is a way to support them in that. So I think that's awesome. And then you and the other one. On the front side of that, too, was the letters of gratitude, you said. So that's something easy that that doesn't cost any money, right? You could just write a few letters and that's, that will be something that would be really awesome to involve your kids into.

[00:22:31] Alison: If you've got, you know, school age kids that can write a note, that would, it's a, what a great way to foster that. Support for our, for our country and for our service members and for the sacrifices that they make for us. Right? Yeah. They 

[00:22:44] Dyan: hang that artwork up from kids and notes from kids. And I know that I've had several service members tell me that they keep every note, every, anything that they receive from American citizens.

[00:22:59] Dyan: And it means a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Two things I always hear when I hear back from our service members, our recipients. is thank you for remembering us, right? God, 

[00:23:13] Alison: doesn't that just hurt your heart? 

[00:23:16] Dyan: I still, 14 years later, still get tight in the chest when I think about it, and the other thing I hear is the quality of what's in your boxes, we will use everything, so there's nothing that goes in there that like, Oh yeah, thanks for thinking of us, off to the side.

[00:23:33] Dyan: Mm hmm. I don't believe in wasting people's money, like the donations that come in. I don't like to waste people's time. It's too important. The mission is too important to do that. Yeah. So I will say, and I think I said it earlier, we are a hundred percent volunteer. I stepped away from a very busy hairdressing career to focus on this full time.

[00:23:56] Dyan: Any money that comes in helps offset the shipping costs and allows us to purchase items in bulk. And we do have some companies that work with us. And if anybody out there has a connection to a company that would like to support us, we would be incredibly appreciative. When you're small, big companies or even medium sized companies say, what are we going to get out of it?

[00:24:23] Dyan: And so we haven't been able to break into that niche yet. So, you know, if you work with a company that wants to support a solid small non profit, we're here 

[00:24:38] Alison: for you. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I'm trying. I'm like, my wheels are turning. I'm like, who, who do I know? I don't really, I'm like, wouldn't it be great for like Costco or Sam's club or like one of those big bot, right?

[00:24:52] Alison: They've got, that's what they do. They do bulk stuff. Wouldn't that be amazing to get. Into that, somehow, I have no idea what, so if there are any of those spouses that work for Costco 

[00:25:04] Dyan: or Sam's Club or Any law person in the public eye to be our spokesperson, that's what we need and I think that would be a game changer for us.

[00:25:14] Dyan: You know, you look at like tunnels to towers. They started getting, you know, people in the public eye and they have just exploded. 

[00:25:23] I've 

[00:25:23] Alison: never heard of it. Tunnels to towers? No, what is that? 

[00:25:27] Dyan: Towers. It it's an organization that builds homes for Service members and firefighters that are first responders that are injured in duty.

[00:25:41] Dyan: They started with 9 11, like helping the families from 9 11. Oh my gosh. 

[00:25:47] Alison: See, that's why I love this show because I'm like, I've been a mill spouse for 22 years and I'm like, I you've been around for, you know, the last 10 years almost, I haven't heard of you before. Like that's, that's why I, that's why I love the show.

[00:26:00] Alison: That's why this is a passion for me. Cause I feel like we need to be better at disseminating information. Like it's just, there's so many, there's so many resources out there and we just don't know that they're there. Right. So yeah. Yeah. Just trying to spread the word as much as we possibly can. Yeah, I will have to look them up.

[00:26:17] Alison: I have not. I have not heard of that organization before. So I'll do some digging. 

[00:26:22] Alison: Well, Diane, thank you so much for your time and for sharing operation turbo with us. And I am looking forward to supporting in any way that I can.

[00:26:32] Alison: And hopefully you will get some more support from our listeners as well. And again, I'll make sure that the Amazon list and the website and how you can request a box is, is all of that is linked in the show notes so that people can get in touch with you. 

[00:26:47] Dyan: I'm incredibly grateful for your having me on.

[00:26:49] Dyan: Thank you, Allison. Yeah, of 

[00:26:51] Alison: course.