We were lucky to catch up with Yvonne Coombes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Yvonne thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Every year military families are moved around the country and the world on the needs of the military and these families are expected to start over and thrive with every move. This isn’t always easy to do and sometimes, even those special events that take place in the military community to help these families bond, create camaraderie and connect end up (inadvertently) leaving people out because not everyone can afford to attend. Operation Deploy Your Dress was born to help alleviate the cost of military balls, proms, homecomings and all those special events that help military families connect into the communities in which they are planted

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

About me, myself. I love being in the military community and being a connector in the military community. I love learning about the various resources that are out there to help improve the military life experience and helping people within this community to find those resources and benefit from them. I entered into the military life as an Army Spouse at the very young age of 19 years old. From the beginning, I tried to find any and every way to pitch in, learn and make connections. For 24 years, I volunteered my time to this community that has given my family so much while raising my 2 boys (now 27 and 19 years old). I volunteered at schools, I coached youth sports, I held various positions in spouses clubs, I sat on numerous boards and then about 15 years in, I Cofounded a nonprofit. It was supposed to be a 2 day event of collecting dresses and “deploying” them to military spouses to help get them to the ball. What I thought would go away in a 2 day event has blossomed into a full blown nonprofit with 15 brick and mortar shops on installation around the country and in Europe. From all of these experiences, I was named the army spouse of the year in 2020 and 2021 which widen my network within the military and veteran community and allowed me to have access to even more resources and connect and help even more military families. 3 years ago I embarked on a career in the mortgage industry but not in the average way that most people enter the mortgage industry. I wasn’t a loan office, I entered in a military outreach capacity. To help this company, Rate, connect into the community they are serving and learn a little more about the needs of the military community and also educate the military and veteran community on their VA home loan benefit and the ins and outs of that benefit. Military families move around so much and so often, they blindly trust that people in the mortgage industry have their best interest at heart. It’s my goal to show them to trust but verify. Learn about this benefit so that when they go to use it, they know what they’re doing and how to use it properly. I have been able to build a whole career around my love of connecting the military community AND being an educational resource to this community and I found the perfect company to do it with.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

The story of the ODYD confounders is a fun one. We were 5 friends and neighbors all living on Fort Bliss, TX. We lived near one another. Our children played and went to school together. Our spouses worked together. In the military community, you become fast friends with your neighbors because you’ll likely only be there for 2-3 years. We had service members in 3 large units on post who were having military balls. Myself and one cofounder (Ronya) were in a planning meeting for an upcoming ball where they were trying to sold the age old question “how do we boost the attendance, especially in the younger/junior ranking servicemembers and their spouses.” We came up with the answer to do a “dress swap”. When we went home after that meeting, we saw on a neighborhood page that 3 other neighbors (Renee, Melissa and Liz) were going to host a dress swap for their units as well. We decided to team up to do one big dress swap for the whole installation. We had a goal of collecting 200 dresses. That goal was quickly exceeded after some national media attention and collected 3000 dresses before we knew it. We gathered at at Renee’s house to discuss what this can look like and how we’re going to manage it all. We were 5 army spouses that had ZERO knowledge or experience in starting a business or a nonprofit. We quickly divided up duties and started googling. 6 months after our initial idea to have this event, and only about 3 month after saying we would try to formalize this, I had to move across the country to Virginia and then shortly after that, the others dispersed around the country. As military spouses do, we figured it out and now 9 years later we’ve grown into a pretty large and impactful program and nonprofit in the military community.

Have you ever had to pivot?

We learned very quickly that ODYD requires a bit of flexibility and the ability to react and adapt and it can’t be strictly planned. WE thought it was only going to be a 2 day (weekend) event and quickly learned that the need was there and the desire to help was there. We also have always tried to keep it simple and remind ourselves that it’s free dresses, Don’t overcomplicate it, but also things developed that we never even dreamed would happen. We had to mentally pivot and realize, this is more than a dress. We have become a place that military spouses can work and volunteer with us and they’re gaining work experience, building a community, and really connecting people within the community. We had to start looking at ourselves as more than a free dress shop. We had to make sure that we were getting the right people into our shops as volunteers. Make sure that we’re always cultivating an inclusive environment. And make sure the right atmosphere is being put forward for our shoppers and our volunteers. We had to pivot from the mindset that we were just tying to get people to the ball and realize that this is a community within itself and nurture it as such

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.operationdeployyourdress.org
• Instagram: ODYD1 and eevee_coombes
• Facebook: Operation Deploy Your Dress
• Linkedin: Operation Deploy Your Dress and Yvonne Coombes

Image Credits

the picture with the girls in dresses and the ODYD balloons was taken by military spouse photographer Juliana Hill Photography LLC

The other pictures are from my cellphone