Polly Anna Colvin of Green Bay turned a violation of free speech into a business. And, a mission.
In 2014, Colvin, formerly Polly Olsen, was handing out homemade “Jesus loves you valentines” at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay when security officials stopped her and told her that her actions might be offensive to other students.
Handing out the valentines was a tradition started by her mother who had died that year. It was a hard year for Colvin. In addition to her mother’s death from pancreatic cancer, her brother broke his neck and became a quadriplegic. Her dad lost his job.
It was in the midst of this that she was stopped by NWTC security. When a similar incident happened in 2018, Colvin was ready to fight. With the assistance of a nonprofit legal foundation and legislators, a lawsuit was filed alleging violation of her free speech rights.
She won the lawsuit, and as her story came to light, she gained international prominence.
“In 2019, my story was international news and President Trump heard about my fight for freedom of speech and invited me to the White House to speak about freedom of speech as he signed an executive order to protect the first Amendment on campuses,” Colvin said.
A fire was lit and Colvin co-founded Free Speech for Campus; she also formed a business that has a line of products and also includes speaking. In addition, she is in the process of writing a book. The business was named Life with Polly Anna LLC.
“My goal is to preserve freedom and inspire leadership through the sharing of Polly Anna’s story. My mission is to inspire others to realize their own value, voice and purpose. My speeches and products all have that theme,” she said.
The leadership role is fitting. She was homeschooled and active in 4-H where she received the 4-H Key Award for her club, county, and state involvement. In 2013, she was second runner-up for fairest of Brown County Fair and then went on to serve as assistant director for the 70th Alice in Dairyland finals.
Colvin holds a paralegal degree, is a graduate of the Urban Hub Entrepreneurial Program, and is currently working on obtaining a degree in mass communications at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Through it all, her vision was a future in entrepreneurship.
She said, “I’ve had several different kinds of jobs while I was going to college, but going back to high school, I always wanted to have my own business. Homeschooling and 4-H gave me a wide range of skills that I enjoyed. To incorporate all of them, my initial dream was to be an event planner.”
To prepare, she worked events at several local venues, spent time working at a florist, and had other related jobs. But after the events at NWTC, her dream changed. She still wanted to start a business, but it would be completely different from what was originally envisioned.
As the business came together, a COVID love story brought her a husband and partner named Brandon Colvin, a disabled veteran.
In talking about their meeting, she said Colvin was an answer to prayer. It was a long-distance romance that started with a social media post featuring a shark and her response, “Nice shark!” That led to a conversation, a first meeting (they lived in different parts of the country), and what she said was love at first sight.
They married in 2020 and now work on the business together. The scope has enlarged. It now includes speaking engagements, a line of products, and books. They are also planting an orchard that will supply ingredients for some of the natural products.
“Having an orchard and many different kinds of medicinal plants and flowers allows me to have a lot of homesteading projects,” she said.
She has skin-care products that are gluten- and dairy-free and others that have plantain ingredients. There are also homemade jams, herbal teas, salves, potpourri, ornaments, personalized heart magnets, pancake mix, and dairy-free fudge.
“I have learned that I have a good variety of products (many are available on her website, lifewithpollyanna.com) that have many uses and are helping people who felt hopeless in the medical system and are finding something natural that’s working for them. There are two main ideas behind the products I have made: how can I use them to lift someone up, and how can I use what’s growing in my yard,” Olsen said.
In addition to those items, there are also the T-shirts that started it all. Those shirts, with bold statements such as, “The First Amendment still stands, will you?” have caused issues at some area farmers markets and she has needed to have her attorney write a letter explaining the law. As the news of that circulates, she is finding that markets are more welcoming.
A few weeks ago, she was one of the temporary sellers at the Christkindlmarket on Broadway. With that success, she is planning on applying to other markets in hope that her Christian-themed and patriotic merchandise will be accepted so that she can spread her mission.
She is planning her schedule now for summer market events and is spending time on branding. She chose Life with Polly Anna as a name that will be easily recognized. Most of her products and speaking engagements are under that LLC. The orchard will become its own entity.
She said, “Our orchard will become an LLC this summer as it reaches production age. Our mission is to help veteran families by providing a place for them to come and build relationships and strengthen family connections through educational events, classes, and seminars.”
Educational events are also part of her schedule as she offers lessons in many of the skills she learned in 4-H.
She said, “I would love to share what I have learned over the years. People can contact me about an area of interest and I can create a lesson for it. I have done lessons in sewing, Ukrainian eggs, painting, wood working, photography, cake decorating, ballroom dance and more. I will do group classes as well.”
With so much going on between making products, teaching, speaking, events, writing books, and planning the orchard, Olsen and her husband are busy people. She describes herself as being organized, self-driven and creative. Those are traits that will help her balance all of these pieces.
However, even as that balance is achieved, she believes the next step is learning stronger mass communication skills in order to better promote the upcoming books and business. That’s the impetus behind pursuing that degree (while continuing to do everything else) at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
And no matter how the business evolves, she is motivated by a desire to encourage others to persevere in making certain their voices are heard. In addition to the victories she has won in the fight for freedom of speech, Olsen is inspired by a Bible verse her mother wrote as a “life verse” for her daughter.
The passage from Psalm 119 says in part, “Remove from me their scorn and contempt, for I keep your statutes. Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees.”
Tina Dettman-Bielefeldt is co-owner of DB Commercial Real Estate in Green Bay and past district director for SCORE, Wisconsin.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Life with Polly Anna hopes to inspire others ‘to realize their own value’
Reporting by Tina Dettman-Bielefeldt, For Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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