By Julia Train
Six and a half years ago, Morgan Orlowski was 36 weeks pregnant with her son and feeling lost and confused about motherhood.
“I had so many questions about pregnancy and all of the things that were about to change my life,” she said. “So I decided to start my own little group…Just so that we could sort of lean on each other and ask each other questions and be that support network that you hear about.”
So, she created a private Facebook group for local moms, hoping to connect with others who felt the same. The page, which she called ‘Motivated Mommies,’ started with about 10 members. The group, mostly of South Jersey moms, has grown exponentially, reaching over 4,000 members. Orlowski said the page receives 20-30 requests or more a week, so she has a couple of good friends helping her manage it.
The group is filled with moms who motivate and help each other, from aiding in job searches to donating medicine to a mother with a sick child. Orlowski recalled a Tylenol shortage at one point, where she posted in the group because her daughter had an ongoing fever and she couldn’t find the medicine anywhere.
Next thing she knew, people were dropping it off at her house. One person, who was a friend of hers in high school, even mailed her a bottle from Florida without expecting money in return. She has a community of mothers who want the same as she does: to feel heard and less alone which reaches past the internet.
Orlowski arranged smaller-scale events, such as park meetups and walks and posts mental health check-ins on the page.
“I’m just really trying to build positivity in a community type of way. So we all know we’re not alone,” she said. “The number one thing I hear from these moms including myself is, ‘we want more events. We want more community. We want to meet people.’ That, along with the big presence that we have of these moms that run these side businesses, and also just local business owners in my group in general.”
A couple of months back, she decided to try a greater scale event. So Orwolski met with the event coordinator at Linwood Country Club, who helped her map out a plan to take on 40 vendors, which sold out with a waitlist of 25 people and projected to have over 600 people.
On Nov. 9, she is hosting ‘Moms Sip & Shop,’ a free event for any mom or lady that wants to come out that night for drinks and shopping with local vendors.
“I’m so excited to just do this event, meet more people and continue to collaborate and work with businesses in the area and meet the faces behind the Facebook group,” she said.
Now, Orlowski is the opposite of lonely or confused. She’s a mother of two–her son is 6 years old and daughter is 3. “I am just blown away at this point. It gives me chills just thinking about where we are now,” she said.
Julia is a student at Rider University, majoring in multiplatform journalism with a minor in social media strategies. At school, she writes and copy edits for The Rider News and is the News Director for the radio station, producing news updates. She’ll be graduating in the spring. Connect with her on Instagram @juliatrain
