Veterans sharing their gifts

By Tiffany Cuddihy | Citizens Staff

woman at food truck

Operation Made in RI one of 134 recipients of $15,000 grant from Citizens Bank's Small Business Recovery Program

Back in 2011, Nicole O’Brien was basically broke and about to move across the world to Japan with her husband for his active military duty. Days before they left, O’Brien found herself rummaging through moving boxes in her Warwick, Rhode Island, garage on a search for something (anything!) she could repurpose into a farewell gift for a close friend. Her hands eventually landed on some old license plates.

Just like that, inspiration struck.

O’Brien, who prides herself on her crafting abilities, got to work making a custom sign using only license plates from states where they’d traveled together. The personalized gift was such a huge hit that soon other friends and her family wanted their own signs.

License plate art quickly became her hobby. That hobby has since evolved into her business.

When O’Brien got to Japan, the military spouse group was looking for people in the community to contribute to a craft show. “Since my signs went over so well back home, I figured I could make some license plate art for the show,” says O’Brien.

“I ended up selling more than 250 pieces, and I haven’t stopped making them since,” she adds.

Today, Nicole O’Brien is the owner and founder of Unique Pl8tz, a license plate art company that has its own manufacturing facility back in her hometown of Warwick, where she now lives with family. While sales are predominantly done online through its website, Amazon, and Etsy, you can shop in person at the gift shop located at the front of the Unique Pl8tz manufacturing facility. It’s also where O’Brien’s passion project Operation Made is stationed.

The Operation Made mission

Operation Made was founded on Veterans Day in 2018. It’s an artisan boutique where veteran and military spouses can showcase and sell their handcrafted merchandise.

The products sold through Operation Made range from candles to coffee, chocolates to O’Brien’s own license plate art. While on the surface these products may seem unrelated, they all share a common background.

“Every item in the shop is made by a veteran or a military family,” shares O’Brien. “Our mission is to empower them through entrepreneurship.”

O’Brien started the organization as a way to give back to the military community that supported her as she got Unique Pl8tz off the ground. She was compelled to find a meaningful way to help veterans and their families beyond a monetary donation; she wanted to make a sustainable difference.

“These vets aren’t looking for a handout,” O’Brien says. “They just need support, because it can be so tough for them to find stable employment once they’re separated from the military.”

The need for reentry employment options for veterans has never been clearer. On average 20 veterans a day are lost to suicide, and with increased isolation and record unemployment rates due to the COVID-19 crisis, we can only assume these numbers will unfortunately be on the rise.

Operation Made has been O’Brien’s way of employing veterans while also helping them find their purpose again. Many of the veterans involved struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and use art therapy as a way to heal. Using their hands and imaginations to create art is how many of these veterans endure emotionally and, through Operation Made, financially as well.

The organization does its best not to turn any veterans or military family members away if they apply for a vendor spot. Most of them hear about Operation Made through positive word of mouth and are eager to try it out.

“The gift shop often becomes a main source of income for veteran vendors,” says O’Brien, “but it can also be a way for military spouses to bring in extra income as well.”

Vendors are charged $30 a month as a rental fee, with 70% of the profit from products sold going to them and 30% to Operation Made. Or, they have the choice to not pay rent and instead do a 50/50 profit split.

Operation Made is more than a reliable place for vendors to sell products; O’Brien also offers business advice regarding how to package, price, and sell the products for optimal sales revenue. Before COVID-19 put a halt to their in-store business, Operation Made had 60 steady vendors and was averaging about $8,000 to $10,000 in sales a month.

“Right now, we’re at about $2,000 to $3,000 since COVID-19 hit,” says O’Brien. “We need help to keep going.”

Fortunately, that help arrived in the form of a $15,000 grant from Citizens Bank’s Small Business Recovery Program. Citizens Bank has distributed $5 million to help small businesses and organizations cope with the devastating affects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including a collective $2 million in grants to 134 local businesses to help pay for expenses like staffing needs, lost income, and recovery efforts.

“There are no words to express our gratitude for this grant,” O’Brien gushes. “It was really scary trying to figure out how we were going to sustain our operations for these veterans, but then Citizens Bank came to our rescue.”

Soldiering on through a pandemic

While Unique Pl8tz is set up to sell their license plate art online, the same isn’t true for Operation Made. Until now, the organization had only sold products in person at the gift shop. To keep them afloat in the short term, O’Brien and her team have sold products on Facebook, even hosting live events where items are held up on camera for shoppers to browse in real time.

O’Brien says part of the grant money will help ramp up Operation Made’s ecommerce capabilities.

“While the gift shop will continue to operate at a local level,” says O’Brien, “the goal of the website is to get national and eventually global exposure for Operation Made.”

O’Brien will also use some of the grant money for rent and to provide a new safety protocol for her Unique Pl8tz manufacturing facility and the gift shop.

The gift shop is currently open on a limited schedule. In accordance with Rhode Island’s social distancing current standards, only three people are let into the space at a time and face masks are recommended for all who enter. The limited schedule helps with foot traffic, but it has also allowed O’Brien the ability to home school her two young kids during the day.

The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t just altered how the organization runs, but also what vendors are selling.

One vendor started selling an essential oil hand cleaner during the pandemic. Another, Sharien Brockmon of Small Town Hope, has been selling face masks.

In fact, Operation Made connected Brockmon with Citizens Bank to supply face masks for a key ceremony in June, during which the bank will give away a mortgage-free home to a deserving veteran as part of a partnership with Military Warriors Support Foundation.

From day one, Operation Made has been turning obstacles into opportunities for veterans and their families. Now is no different.