Disabled-Veteran Owned
From Poland to Michigan: The Early Days
Joanna and Barbara are sisters and co-owners of Birdy Boutique. They immigrated to the United States from Poland as children in 1988. Watching their mother perform hard physical work to put food on the table, they learned early on that hard work and determination equal success.
Education was of utmost importance, and both sisters pursued college degrees and began conventional jobs immediately after graduation. Barbara answered the call of military service, and Joanna dedicated herself to classroom teaching.
Service, Teaching & Family
Barbara Kentgraduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1999. She went on to honorably serve in the US Army Military Police Corps for 13 years, after which she was medically retired as a service-disabled veteran by the Department of Veterans Affairs. She is wife to an active duty Army Engineer, mom to two very busy teenagers, and dog mom to a very clumsy German Shepherd puppy named Hans. Her family has been stationed in Alaska, Hawaii, and Virginia, and currently resides in Germany for her husband's duty assignment. She loves her sewing machine, traveling, good food, and wine, and stays active in Army spouses'clubs raising scholarship funds for military kids!
Joanna Serragraduated from Wayne State University with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and completed graduate coursework in Educational Leadership at the University of Michigan. During her tenure as an elementary teacher, Joanna earned some of the highest teaching awards in her field at the state level. She is a proud married mama of three little ones and a loving rescue dog named Silo. She lives on an old farm in Michigan where she loves birding, photography, exploring, teaching, her Instant Pot, and scoring good deals!
How Birdy Boutique Began
When life and career transitions aligned for both sisters, sewing projects for their own children quickly turned into a small business. Since they are lifelong bird lovers, their shop initially consisted only of items with birds on them. They quickly learned that not everyone loves birds quite as much as they do!
They pushed forward with their ideas and created a wide variety of children's items in unique designs and patterns:
- Learning Blankets®: Trademarked Innovative Educational Designs on reversible blankets featuring the 50 US States, 150+ Sight Words, Dinosaurs, Math, and English-Spanish bilingual vocabulary.
- Car Seat Ponchos: Crash-tested fleece coats designed to keep toddlers warm without dangerous coat bulk under car seat straps.
- Learning Tapestries™: Classroom and bedroom wall hangings that inspire daily positive affirmations, alphabet practice, and world geography.
Fundraiser Blankets®: Giving Back to Schools
Coming from disadvantaged school systems, Joanna and Barbara knew firsthand what it felt like when schools didn't have the funding for extras. Beyond consumer educational textiles, they developed an initiative to help schools fundraise nationwide.
Traditional fundraisers often push overpriced frozen cookie dough and cheap plastic toys with tiny profit margins. With Fundraiser Blankets®(fundraiserblankets.com), schools sell high-quality, customized 50x60 plush spirit blankets and keep over 50% in net profit. The program has helped more than 5,000 schools raise over $10 Million for booster clubs, marching bands, cheer teams, and youth sports.
Today, Birdy Boutique is powered by a proud team of 20+ women: moms, sisters, retired teachers, veterans, and military spouses. Beyond our consumer educational textiles and school fundraisers, our sister divisions include Veteran Threads(specializing in private-label textile manufacturing and custom softlines for corporate and government sectors) and our community give-back initiative Snacks for Students, helping provide classroom snacks so no elementary student has to learn on an empty stomach. Our retail and wholesale partnerships have included national and regional leaders such as Meijer, Walgreens, and Harris Teeter.