For many parts of the United States, May marks the beginning of the summer months. School is drawing to a close for another year and the official start of the tourism season kicks off with Memorial Day. As much as we love talking about all things travel and hospitality, for the team at Sawgrass, May is much more than just the kick-off to the busy travel season, and Memorial Day is more than just a reason to find a perfect short-term rental for a weekend away.  As a military spouse-owned company, we want to take a moment to reflect on the passion we feel for the journey of Military families as we observe Military Appreciation Month throughout all of May.

When one person serves, the entire family does too. 

For Courtney Ross, founder, and Chief Marketing Officer of Sawgrass Marketing, entrepreneurship started with a love story. While working at a large marketing firm in D.C., she met and fell in love with her now husband, Eddie, a United States Marine Corps pilot. However, Eddie was stationed down the East Coast in North Carolina, and with remote work not as much of an option as it is in our post-Covid world, Courtney quickly found that in order not to take a huge pay and title cut, she was going to have to get creative with her career as she relocated to North Carolina to follow Eddie. One week before they were married, she filed for an LLC, and Sawgrass Marketing was born. 

“So many military spouses find themselves forging their own path,” says Courtney. “It is not just the service member making sacrifices for our country, it is the entire family.” Unfortunately, unemployment for military spouses is staggeringly high. According to the Department of Labor (DOL), 92% of military spouses are women and only 53% participate in the labor market, compared to 76% of the general population. Roughly 23% of military spouses are unemployed- about seven times the national rate as of March 2023. They are also a highly educated workforce as 89% have some college education, but because of the nature of military service and reassignment probability, many find it hard to maintain tenure.

This is why Sawgrass has made it a part of our mission to support military-spouse-owned businesses by providing four start-up businesses with complimentary branding every year. We know how hard it is to continually start over in a new place and we wanted to support other military families as much as possible. Here are just a few of the amazing military-affiliated businesses we have partnered with over the years:

So as we kick off the high season of tourism this month, we ask you to take a moment to not only honor our country, but also pay tribute to the entire military family: the spouses that have sacrificed their careers so they can be with their families, and the children who have had to have a parent missing on birthdays or dance recitals. This is all a part of our “why” here at Sawgrass.

This Memorial Day we ask just one favor. When you pop a top on that cold longneck beer while watching your family splash in the waves by the shore - toast to the ones who never came home, pray for the families that mourn every day, and most of all cherish the moments and memories you’re able to make because of our democracy and freedom.