Our Team
We are the O'Brien Family
We love to celebrate, and when we do, we do it BIG! I'm Daphne, and my husband Rusty and I own SG MoCo. We love spreading our joy of celebration all around Montgomery County, MD, and NW, DC.
We currently live in the Olney area, but during our almost 20-year marriage, we have also lived in Germantown, Gaithersburg, and Bethesda before settling in Olney. Most days, we are kept busy raising three very noisy and rambunctious boys: Grady (16), Shane (13), and Keegan (10).
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In 2020, during the pandemic, Daphne left her 14-year position as a chief administrative officer to home-school the 3 boys. Since the earlier years of her professional career were spent as an MCPS classroom teacher, it seemed like the best decision for the young boys' educational needs. Rusty continued his career as a statistician at the US Census Bureau from the comfort of the boy's gaming room!
During this time, Daphne was unaccustomed to being home and looked for creative ways to engage and teach the boys while providing opportunities to leave the house safely and socially distantly. In May of 2020, Daphne opened SG MoCo with Grady, at the time 12 years old, after brainstorming ways to help spread some joy in the local community while also teaching Grady a little about running a business. When Grady first started installing signs, he was 12 and had just finished 7th grade. On busy installation days, Daphne would take one route, and Grady and his Dad, Rusty, would head out on a second delivery route together. Grady was in charge of their route's sign designs while his dad, who is color-blind, was assigned to drive and help carry signs to and from the car as Grady worked on his creative masterpieces! Grady is now 16 and a newly licensed driver. He is now an expert sign installer who does approximately 30% of our signs and is also responsible for training seasonal helpers to install during peak periods. However, his main focus is as a Good Counsel High School student, working toward both STEM and IB Diplomas. Second to his studies, playing on Good Counsel's Basketball Team is his top priority and passion!
Since Grady can now go out on his own, Rusty is now our #1 Sign Pick-Up Guy!
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The Very Beginning
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On May 29th, 2020 we received our starter kit from headquarters and officially opened the doors of SG MoCo! The same day we installed our first sign for Maggie Brown, the daughter of a dear friend and brave Mom who allowed us to take over the front lawn while the birthday party raged on in the backyard! They had no idea what to expect! And we discovered the ground is a lot harder than we realized!
May 29, 2020, was a busy night; we installed our 2nd sign for our FIRST "Paying" Client, Ray Cruz. He was so thrilled with the birthday sign for his wife, Dana that he called and requested it be left up for an additional day!
Even little Shane was a star helper as he pick up signs, during our first grad-season in June of 2020!
Grady's first SOLO Sign Installation on June 12, 2020! Less than 15 days after we officially opened!
Grady's second SOLO Sign Installation for Father's Day 2020! After this one, he is officially hired as an expert installer and starts his own routes with Dad!
This picture taken in June 15, 2020 marked the end of the school year (home-school style) that first spring of the Pandemic in 2020! SG MoCo had only been open for about 3 weeks!
Our two younger sons, Shane and Keegan, are just learning to install signs and will be pros soon, but for now, they are dedicated and expert Sign Haulers and Re-Stockers! They eagerly await their much-anticipated promotions to SIGN INSTALLER in the next few years!​
As a family we LOVE to travel and particularly enjoy RV adventures! So far we have traveled through Grand Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, The Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island, Lone Rock Beach and Lake Powell, Zion, Fish Lake, Bryce Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Hoover Damn, Lake Meade. We have also traveled through much of Ohio while visiting Cedar Point, Put-in-Bay, Cleveland's Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame, and Daphne's hometown, Millersburg, Ohio. Millersburg is situated in the beautiful rolling hills of Holmes County and is home to the largest Amish community in the world. We love to ski together and have taken numerous trips out West to Colorado, Montana, and Utah to enjoy the beautiful mountain terrain.
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Not to be forgotten, our two adorable dogs are critical to our SG MoCo team! Lucy (the black and white Boston Terrier) and Lucky (the black Pug), who are both super cuddly with their sweet little squished faces, LOVE riding along and sitting in the car watching as we install the signs! They also love chasing us as we load and unload the signs from our basement sign room!
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We can't wait to celebrate with you and your family soon!