It's Labor Day Weekend and We're Celebrating our Amazing Production Team

We are so proud to bring you great tasting Yaupon Holly Tea, but we couldn't do it without the amazing team behind the scenes that make it happen!

This Labor Day weekend, we wanted to recognize the contributions of the people behind your tea - the enthusiasm, positive attitude, team atmosphere, all make the Rise Yaupon organization one of a kind.

The heart and soul of production (and events): Donna Rooney

When you empower your team and encourage them to do the things they love, they will go above and beyond.  Donna embodies above and beyond in all things.  She loves plants, gardening, and hosting events and is our resident decorator!  She is the official Tea "Grandmother", and doesn't have a favorite yaupon holly tea, because she "loves them all!"

Production powerhouse: Mary Porter.  Mary recently joined our team and she's been a force ever since.  Her favorite yaupon holly tea is the sweetened Strawberry Zen.

We have partnered with the EmployU organization - to give job training to special needs and differently-abled students in our area.  We have a wonderful coordinator, Evelyn and have had 3 students so far who have done a rotation through our production facility:

Angelica, MaKayla and Pierce.  They are eager to learn and have a lot of opinions on the music choice and dance skills of the leadership team.

Jon Bennett is new to the team as well and he's mainly our leaf processor.  He's also a culinary student and is learning the ropes in all things yaupon.  Jon's favorite yaupon holly tea is the Chocolate Mint-Up.

Every week, we have Tommy Stephenson join us as a volunteer.  A retired UPS driver, Tommy is the unofficial mayor of Edgewater and an avid supporter of the community.  In addition to working here, he is the #1 dog walker at the Edgewater Animal Shelter and is involved in beach cleanups every week.  He is a gem in our community and we are so fortunate that he spends his time with us.  Tommy's favorite yaupon holly tea is the Healthy Kick. 

Another volunteer is Josef Phelps and his aid, Kari.  Josef brings a light to the team with his wit and especially his dance moves.  It's 1/2 karaoke show when Josef is on shift!  The extra hands keeps our crew moving smoothly.

Our yaupon tea patriarch is Mark Steele.  He is hands-on in all aspects of the business and as an added bonus, he engineers and maintains a lot of our production equipment.  Mark jumps into production when needed but you can find him at events, in the cafe, doing tours and headlining history talks.  He's the "Token Male Spokesmodel" of this women-owned business and his favorite yaupon tea is Healthy Kick.

 

Our production crew is led by our yaupon tea Matriarch, Mary Steele.  Mary runs a tight ship and has been working on the inventory cache for the upcoming fall season.  She is hands-on daily, keeping the team running efficiently.  We love how talented Mary is!  In addition to her leading production, we are so lucky to have Mary make ceramic mugs for us!  She's working in her off time at the potters wheel, and we'll soon be offering her one-of-a-kind mugs for the holidays.  Mary was the brainchild behind the Chocolate Mint-Up tea, and that's her favorite.

 

The talent, dedication, work ethic, and overall joy of this team is palapable and hopefully it comes through in everything we do.  

Thanks to a great team and hope you all have a restful Labor Day Weekend!

Warmly,

Shelly