It seems like good programs that help people or promote things in a community start simply as an idea in someone’s head. It takes a person with time and talent to take that idea and make it a reality. When it comes to community initiatives, Veronica Trezona has been that person.
Veronica Trezona took over the Market at the Meridian farmers market when the city decided to step down as organizer. She is the main reason the market has the space it does and so many long-time vendors. All the communication with the city and getting the non-profit status is due to her time and effort.
Veronica has spent many years volunteering much of her time at the Cramer-Kenyon Heritage Home, Market at the Meridian farmers market and she lived at the Cramer home as curator and event planner. She was the Market at the Meridian market manager and spent 15+ hours a week managing vendors and events for 5 years. She hosted events to promote literacy in our community, she organized a Scholastic Book Fair for at least 3 years with the raised funds used to give away books.
Veronica used her connections with the different organizations to promote non-profits, help them fund raise and just bring general awareness of the non-profits available in Yankton. She made sure a non-profit group was at the market each week.
Victoria Job, who nominated Veronica for the award, said, “I have served on the farmers market board with her for 4 years, she is one big reason I continue to serve in the community because of the amount of people she knows and helps through her volunteering and, honestly, I would be happy to still be out making an impact like she is well into my retirement years.”
Because of her commitment to making good ideas into community assets, United Way & Volunteer Services of Greater Yankton was honored to present Veronica Trezona with the June 2024 Volunteer of the Month Award.
We asked Veronica to share more about her volunteerism, in her own words:
I have lived here in the greater Yankton area since December 1994.
I began volunteering as an eight-year-old in Council Bluffs, Iowa, I wove hot pads, and sold them to neighbors to make money for the YMCA.
In Yankton, I started to volunteer after my retirement in 2010 from a lifetime of communication, sales (including eight years that my husband Ray and I owned an advertising agency in my hometown), and collections with FNBO.
Patty Smith got me interested in the Yankton area literacy Council in January 2012 I taught classes in English at the UCC classrooms from 2012 to 2017 and coordinated schedules of other teachers, who worked with me. From 2016-2022 I taught and coordinated teaching children, until the Boys and Girls Club took over.
Connecting Cultures was formed when Sarah Brandt made a comment during the summer of 2016, “I wish there was some organization to bring people from different cultures together and to introduce them to the Yankton community”. That sounded like a great idea to me. I took it to Nakita Maddox of Cornerstones, who suggested that Rita Nelson might be the perfect person to help implement it. I contacted Rita and the three of us started putting Connecting Cultures together with a lot of help from our friends.
SHARE, a program that encouraged community volunteering and had a monthly food distribution program, was about to close at Peace Presbyterian Church. Deb Johnson and I decided in 2014 to keep it going with new people involved, including Trinity Clark, Bruce and Carol Myers and more! That ran until SHARE Iowa decided to close in 2021.
The Cramer-Kenyon Heritage Home board offered me a place to live and engage in the history of Yankton County. Nelson J. Cramer, one of the early lawyers, built and rented out 80-acre properties in Yankton, Hutchinson and Turner Counties. Each was complete with a house (known as a Cramer home), a dairy/cow barn, a pig barn, a hen house, an outhouse and three silos. The rent was one third of the tenant’s crops. When he died in 1929, he left the house to his favorite niece, Ester Weller Kenyon. In 1974, it became a museum after Mr. Kenyon’s death. I gave tours and helped the board with events from 2015-2023.
Market at the Meridian was the brainchild of Cathy Clatworthy of LilyCrest Cottage, who promoted it and brought it to life through her efforts. Meridian District ran it for two years and discovered they lacked the personnel to manage it. In 2019 the vendors took it over with an executive board of Sharon Brandt, Victoria Job, Paul, Harnes, and me. As someone who was at the market to promote nonprofits, I was the only one with time to look for more vendors and people to come to the market. We worked hard to establish the Market at the Meridian as its own Nonprofit. We started small, but the Market has grown to fill the space. I volunteered from 2019-2023
This is my second year of volunteering with the Army Corps of Engineers at Nebraska Tailwaters Campground from May to October. As cohost of the campground, I volunteer for one week and then have a week off. My duties include checking people in, giving them information on the campground and surrounding area, answering questions and checking them out.
Approximate hours that I volunteer: 1,000 for the Army Corps of Engineers. (I’m cutting back.)
Volunteer work is enjoyable because I meet new people. Some of my closest friendships have been formed through volunteering.
My best volunteering experience is whatever I’m doing now! It has always been that way.
The advice I would give to those who thinking about getting out there and volunteering in their communities is:
Just go try it. You can always quit if the opportunity you select is not what you thought it would be. Try something else. There are more opportunities than you can even imagine!
Thank you, Veronica, for all you do! To learn more about local volunteer opportunities or to nominate someone for United Way’s Volunteer of the Month Award, please visit www.yanktonunitedway.org/volunteer, email info@yanktonunitedway.org, or call United Way of Greater Yankton at (605) 665-6766.
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