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Honoring the contributions of working women and employers who support women and their families.

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Page 1: Women Today 2013
Page 2: Women Today 2013

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Sarah Poe ......................................................3

Jessi Roberts.............................................4-7

Laura LeBoutillier

and Susan Kurth .................................7-8

Shawnee Lane-Perdue........................9-10

Lindsey Norman .....................................11

Rachelle Blackwell ............................12-13

Donna Garner....................................14-15

— Inside —

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23, 2013

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CHRISTINA MARFICEARGUS OBSERVER

ONTARIO

Sarah Poe has a lot of titles.She’s a prevention specialist.A community organizer. A

writer. A poet. A mom.“It’s a great balance because I’vedecided to fill my life with things Iwant and things I love,” she said. Born in Payette, Poe moved toOntario at age 13. She went tothe College of Idaho and lived inBoise, where she worked fornonprofits and became the coor-dinator of Idaho’s Poetry OutLoud program, which she stilldoes today. But Poe realizedquickly that she wanted to comeback to Malheur County, due inlarge part to her mother’s influ-ence in her life.“She was always a good role mod-el, but it wasn’t really until I was anadult that I really saw all the workshe was doing,” she said. “I justknew that I wanted to be part ofthis connected community.”Especially after her now-3-year-old daughter Aurelia was born,Poe appreciated the rural upbring-ing she had had under her ownmother’s influences.A longtime executive directorfor the Malheur County

Commission on Children andFamilies, Poe’s mother, Kelly, haslong been an active, recognizablecommunity face. CFF partneredwith numerous local organizations,including the Treasure ValleyChildren’s Relief Nursery, Boysand Girls Club of the WesternTreasure Valley, Harvest HouseMissions and the Oregon FoodBank. Since closing CFF, she hasbecome involved with MalheurCounty Poverty to Prosperity ef-

forts and other volunteer projects.“She was very present,” Poesaid. “She volunteered at everyschool I ever went to, includingcollege. She is definitely an inspi-ration. She showed me that ifsomeone really cares, there is aplace for you.”That lesson is one that Poe ap-plies to her work every day. Whenshe returned to Ontario, sheworked as the community out-reach coordinator for the Ontario

branch of the Oregon Food Bank.Since May, she has been the pre-vention coordinator for Lifeways.Her work has always been deeplyrooted in community, andMalheur County’s sense of com-munity is one of the area’s greatestdraws, she said.“So much of the work I do nowis in bringing communities togeth-er,” Poe added. “I feel like I alwayswant the message coming from meto be positive — that this is a greatplace to live.”In her work at Lifeways, Poesaid, she has the opportunity tospread that message through shar-ing resources for prevention andrecovery.“It is personally relevant to me,but I think it’s personally relevantto all of us. It’s relevant to everyparent, child, colleague,” she said.“We care about the people aroundus — that they’re healthy and hap-py and lead productive lives.Prevention is important to me as amother, but also because I careabout this community. Preventionis something that’s important toall of us because it’s about buildinga safe and healthy community. Alot of what I’m doing is just tryingto connect people and make thatcommunity stronger.”

CHRISTINA MARFICE | ARGUS OBSERVER

Sarah Poe watches a presentation at Hands Around the Park for Recovery, an eventshe spearheaded for the first time this year.

Back home, Sara h Poe is coming into her own

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CHERISE KAECHELEARGUS OBSERVER

NEW PLYMOUTH

Jessi Roberts is the owner ofCheeky’s, a “farm girl chic”boutique in New Plymouth at 121 N. Plymouth Ave., that

opened in November 2011. The fol-lowing is a Q&A with the WestTexas native who was looking to filla niche with her store in theWestern Treasure Valley.

Name: Jessi Roberts

Where are you from?West Texas Native, where it’s “thehigher the hair, the closer toHeaven.”

What’s your background inbusiness? Twelve years in the automotiveindustry and grew up having mygrandparents as business owners.At 24, I was given the 40-under-40award as one of the youngest recip-ients. At that time I owned an ad-vertising agency in Boise and han-dled primarily automotive clients.

What gave you the idea forCheeky’s? My husband and I wanted to cre-ate a business that our community

needed... It was this or a laundro-mat, and something girly waswayyyy more interesting!

Cheeky’s has been very suc-cessful in New Plymouth. Thelast time we talked I believe youwere opening a store in theNampa area, is that still going?Have you thought about expand-ing?

The store in Nampa, located inKarcher Mall, has certainly been alearning experience. It’s such a dif-ferent customer than what we havein New Plymouth. It’s a struggle butan enjoyable one. We have thought of expandingour space in New Plymouth buthave real estate concerns. We are al-ways trying to figure out ways to of-fer something original and afford-

able to our customer and havingtwo stores to do that for is not easy.We have no business loans and runas little as possible on terms, so in-ventory is always a struggle.Keeping it fresh and plentiful is notan easy task.

What has been your experi-ence opening and owning yourown business? Is it a learn-as-

Sassier than most, Jessi Roberts is ‘working

Jessi Roberts

At right, Cheeky'soffers clothing forthe fashion for-ward farm girl.Roberts has start-ed an auction siteon facebook forher items and hasa facebook pagewhere she showsher new productsin the store.

At left, Cheeky'sboutique indowntown NewPlymouth as wellas a new locationin Nampa. Thestore has grownin popularity tothe point that shemay need a newlocation.

ABOVE PHOTOS BY CHERISE KAECHELE | ARGUS OBSERVER

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hard and looking good’you-go type deal? One thing I didn’t expect washow many people would copy ourideas. I was shocked that peoplewould directly imitate us rightdown to the same website back-grounds, shopping bags and prod-ucts. We have people steal our pic-tures from facebook, our trash andeven lie to us to suppliers to try andget our orders. Although my grand-mother said “imitation is the high-est form of flattery,” it’s a tough pillto swallow. Even though I havewanted to pull my hair out withfrustration and discouragement Iam grateful... we now produceitems in house like our shirts, wehave our own line of clothing andaccessories being manufacturedand so many other things in theworks that we never would havebeen pushed to do.

Have you learned any life les-sons since opening the business?Do anything differently? The list of life lessons would belonger than I am tall in fine print ifI typed them out. There are a lot ofthings I would do differently, but Ithink God had a plan for us and I’malong for the ride. We have workedvery hard to be as kind as possible,make women of all ages feel as

beautiful as possible and to makethings as affordable as possible. Inever could have imagined that ourstore would have grown as quicklyas it has and I sure wish we hadmore space in New Plymouth. Imight have opened a completelydifferent store in Nampa lookingback. We have wanted to open astore that is more suited to childrenfor sometime. So keep watch forSweet Cheeks in the future.

You also have a very popularFacebook page. Where did youget the idea to auction off items?What other offers do yourFacebook fans get? Facebook was another animalthat grew uncontrollably fast. Wespend the majority of our advertis-ing budget on Facebook. We wereoffering auctions on our mainFacebook page, however, Facebookis not really designed for the smallbusiness. Facebook charges us topromote each post and when yourinventory item is not very expen-sive, it’s not cost-effective to pay foreach post. Our auctions were start-ing to lose effectiveness becausepeople didn’t see them in theirfeeds. We created a page, “CheekysBoutique Back 40 Auction House,”that is specifically designed for auc-

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Sharon Miles Debbie Jerman Dana Lirgg

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tions and now folks are able to gothere directly to get great deals oncloseouts and special purchases.Our main page showcases newitems, sales and special discounts.

You also have a hair salon inthe back of your store. Was thatsomething you planned? Does ithelp business? Our salon was not something weplanned originally. We did plan onhaving tanning, but I did not haveany schooling in cosmetology. I wasapproached by a couple of ladieswho did and we started building. Itwas such a natural fit and if it wasaffordable we would have put onein Nampa, as well. Our girls offerservices that bring customers infrom all over the Treasure Valley. Iam amazed at how talented theyare and consider each one of ourstylists such a blessing to have bothbusiness wise and personally.

For other women interested inopening their own business,what are some words of advicefor them? Any cautionary tales? I have had some pretty amazingmentors in my life, very few of themwomen other than my grandmother.All of them were tough and hadnonnegotiable expectations for me. Ihave tried my best to help otherwomen opening their own storesand have consulted several openingtheir own outside of our area in thelast year. My suggestion is to just notmake excuses. Don’t expect to havea loan, a grant, an extra helping be-cause you are a woman. If you wantto own it, then earn it because youare a hardworking honest person,not because you are a girl. That be-ing said, “act like a Lady.” Our sloganis “Workin’ Hard and LookingGood.” As a woman, you can dothat. It’s not always easy to be kind,to take your lumps and work like aman while smiling, but it is worth it.

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Since Andrews Seed Co. moved intoits space on the corner of Oregon andSoutheast Sixth Avenue, much has

changed. The iconic business has seen arecent expansion into the nursery businessand the implementation of an ever-grow-ing number of community projects, due inlarge part to the vision and goals of its cur-

CHRISTINA MARFICE | ARGUS OBSERVER

If you could go back to the firstday you opened Cheeky’s, whatwould you tell yourself? Whatwould you want to know?Thinking back I would tell myself tohold on ‘cause there is a hell of a ridecoming. I would also tell myself to trustmy gut. Oh, and that in NewPlymouth, folks are Vandal fans andthere is no need to stock up on BroncoSpirit items.

Is there anything else peopleshould know about you? Having a little of a spunky attitudeand being a southern free spirit has cer-tainly made heads turn a bit in such asmall town, but being true to who I am,even if it’s a bit sassier than most, hasworked to my advantage. People don’talways know what they are going to getfrom us, but they know it will be a funtime, a good giggle and a great deal. Weappreciate so much how this communi-ty has supported us and hope that weare able to give back.

In the photo at left, Laura LeBoutillier, right, andher mother, Susan Kurth, work as a team to pro-mote the community outreach programs currentlyemployed by Andrews Seed Co., which has be-come their family business.

Andrews Seed grows fromgeneration togeneration

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rent mother-daughter team: Laura LeBoutillierand Susan Kurth.Kurth, whose husband took over Andrews35 years ago, has been a part of the compa-ny’s daily operations for 17 years. WhenKurth started, Andrews Seed Co. wasn’t thenursery that it is today.“It’s always been a seedhouse,” she said.“There was a very small garden store. Our nurs-ery was an empty parking lot. Ontario didn’thave a nursery, so we saw a need for that.”Kurth’s three children have always helpedout in the store, but LeBoutillier has stayed onand assumed a bigger role within the compa-ny. According to LeBoutillier, joining the fami-ly business was a natural choice.“It’s home,” she said. “We’re both local girls.”Now she works full time at the nursery, fo-cusing much of her energy on Andrews SeedCo.’s several community outreach programs.“I used to water for pizzas, and now I waterfor paychecks,” LeBoutillier joked.In reality, LeBoutillier works a lot with dis-plays and merchandise, but she also has spear-headed Andrews’ community outreach pro-grams, including the Japanese Garden at FourRivers Cultural Center, Ontario’s communitygarden, Adopt-A-Pot and the upcomingPumpkin Palooza event, Kurth said.“We feed off each other’s ideas and help eachother,” LeBoutillier said. “It’s more fun that way.”And now that a few of their programs are es-tablished in Ontario, LeBoutillier and Kurthare enjoying watching them grow. “The City of Payette just started its own potprogram,” LeBoutillier said. “So it’s kind ofspreading. It’s fun to see it grow because that’sthe whole purpose.”The Adopt-A-Pot program is one that both

LeBoutillier and Kurth are proud of. Using do-nations from area businesses, they’ve placednearly 30 pots with seasonal flower arrange-ments in downtown Ontario, with plans toadd as many more as they can get sponsored.According to Kurth, the pair was wateringpots one day when a driver stopped and said,“I knew it had to be women doing this, it’ssuch a wonderful community project.”“We hear those things every week,” Kurthadded.Both women say they hope to start more,

similar projects in the future.“Our intention for the future is to continueprojects to beautify Ontario,” Kurth said. “We’ll continue to do community projects,develop projects in progress and watch for newopportunities,” LeBoutillier added.One thing is for sure, though. The dynamicduo at Andrews Seed Co. is sticking together.“If Laura ever even suggests she’d like to dosomething else, I’m like, ‘What?’” Kurth said.“I just love what I do here,” LeBoutillierreplied.

CHRISTINA MARFICE | ARGUS OBSERVER

Laura LeBoutillier replants flowers in the Andrews Seed Co. nursery. LeBoutillier hasbeen working in the nursery since she was young, but has taken on a more active rolein the family business in more recent years.

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JoAnn [email protected]

425 S Whitley Dr. Ste. #1Taking houses and making them homes.

PROUD TO BE SERVING YOU

Taking houses and making them homes.Taking houses and making them homes.www.TriCitiesIdahoRealEstate.com

WILLIAM LOPEZARGUS OBSERVER

ONTARIO

Shawnee Lane-Perdue’s moth-er used to joke that havingan argumentative child could

be a valuable career trait. “My mother always thought Ishould be a lawyer, because I tendto be slightly argumentative,”Lane-Perdue said. Become alawyer is exactly what she did. Lane-Perdue, originally fromOntario and a Fruitland HighSchool graduate, has been alawyer for four years and an asso-ciate attorney handling civil suitsat the Ontario law firm YturriRose for nearly three, she said. Lane-Perdue said that she initial-ly became interested in law whiletaking a government class in highschool. While taking constitution-al law as an undergraduate, her in-terest grew. “No other career path interestedme,” she said. After obtaining her law degree,both Lane-Perdue and her hus-band wanted to move closer totheir families, she said, and thecouple moved to Boise.

At one time, the legal professionwas mostly composed of males,Lane-Perdue said, but to her sur-prise it was mostly female stu-dents when she attended lawschool. “This used to be a predominant-ly male-led career, but now I’d saythat lawyers my age tend to besplit about fifty-fifty,” Lane-Perduesaid, adding that gender makes nodifference. “For the most part,people really just listen and pay at-

Gender not an issuefor Ontario lawyer

Shawnee Lane-Perdue

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Shawnee Lane-Perdue takes a few moments in her office to respond to e-mails.

tention to people who know what they’re talking about, regardless ofgender.”Lane-Perdue did say that because of her age and gender, she has oftenbeen mistaken for an administrative assistant, but that it never bothersher when it happens. “I really think great strides have been made and women are reallyhaving great successes in the legal field,” Lane-Perdue said. “It’s veryencouraging.” Lane-Perdue said that the most enjoyable part of her career is some-thing that she didn’t have the chance to do while practicing law in alarger city, and that is being able to work on cases in varying areas. “In California, I was mostly focused on a more specific area of law,but here, because it’s a smaller area, I can handle more types of civilcases,” Lane-Perdue said. “I really enjoy the experience of being able topractice all the different areas and laws. Keeps things very interesting.” Lane-Perdue credits much of her success in a still fairly early career toa supportive family and husband, she said, and intends to remain inthe area for the foreseeable future and continue her business.

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LARRY MEYERARGUS OBSERVER

ONTARIO

Dr. Lindsey Norman, veteri-narian, marked her 23rdyear in practice in Ontario

in September.Although busy with her practice,Norman has taken on a new rolein teaching and is enthusiasticabout the changes in technologyand science she sees.Norman was somewhat of atrailblazer in the field, as she waspart of the first wave of women tobe accepted in the Oregon StateUniversity College of VeterinaryMedicine. Now, 75 percent of thestudents in the school are women,she said.“I wanted to be a veterinariansince I was a little girl,” Normansaid. But it was not an easy road.“I had to really work.”She earned three degrees beforebeing accepted to veterinaryschool. She had a bachelor of artsdegree in history from Lewis &Clark College, a bachelor of sciencefrom OSU, followed by a master ofscience degree in genetics and pop-ulation, with a minor in biochem-istry, also from OSU. Her first de-gree was in history, she said. “Iloved that stuff,” she said.However, Norman said she was

drawn to medicine through her fa-ther, who was a general practition-er. “The investigative part of med-icine was intriguing,” she said. At the time, veterinary trainingincluded studies at WashingtonState University at Pullman andthen for her senior year she electedto attend University of IdahoTeaching Center, which has an em-phasis on food animals for one ofher rotations for about a month.That was her introduction to thearea. Norman then returned toCorvallis, where she finished otherrotations and graduated in 1983.Following her graduation, therewas a job opening with Dr.Leonard Sherman, who had a

mixed practice of large and smallanimals and gave her valuable ex-perience.“I wasn’t sure what I wanted todo,” she said.She worked with Sherman inOntario for three years, duringwhich time she met her husband-to-be Cliff Bentz, and they became en-gaged after she went to work southof Coos Bay. Norman came back tothe area in 1987, and she went towork for a veterinarian in Nampa.Bentz encouraged her to start apractice in Ontario. Eventually abuilding came open, andNorman’s practice focusing onsmall animals opened in 1990.Ontario Animal Hospital contin-

ues at 2514 S.W. Fourth Ave.“I felt more comfortable withsmall animals,” she said. Large ani-mal medicine requires going outto other areas, and she has likedbeing able to stay in once place.“I really enjoy internal medi-cine,” she said, and the best oppor-tunity for doing that is workingwith companion animals.Norman currently has eight em-ployees, five of them full-time. Shesaid that doing the business partof the practice, along with treatinganimals, is a challenge.Norman is also involved in theOntario Feral Cat program. She has taken up running andcycling, and along with her hus-band, recently participated inCycle Oregon.She has also started teaching atTreasure Valley CommunityCollege, teaching Biology 101.“I love the environment,” shesaid. She said she enjoys seeing ad-vances in science. She is interestedin how molecular-level genetics isbeing used to further medicineand to find cures for diseases.“It would be fun to be 30 yearsyoung and have that much moretime to learn,” she said. Noting her busy life, Normansaid, “I suffer from having a lot ofinterests.”

Ontario veterinarian suffers from a lot of interests

LARRY MEYER | ARGUS OBSERVER

Dr. LindseyNorman,right, Ontario veterinarian,talks withCaree Ball,owner of oneof Norman'spatients.

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CHERISE KAECHELEARGUS OBSERVER

FRUITLAND

Rachelle Blackwell may nothave originally planned towork in banking, but she

doesn’t seem to regret her deci-sion as the customer service man-ager at Zions Bank in Fruitland.

Blackwell, 42, had gone to cos-metology school when she wasyounger but had a skin conditionthat required her to leave. She in-stead began working with studentloans for 10 years.She had been living in Weiser atthe time and was commuting andwanted something closer to home.The Zions Bank branch in Weiser

was hiring at that time,so she began workingthere as a communityloan assistant, as wellas working with loanportfolios.She said that mostpeople begin their po-sition in a bank as ateller and work up, butshe was able to take an-other approach. Shesaid she had never hada cash drawer to worryabout until she becamethe customer servicemanager.The bank dealt a lotwith the agriculturalcommunity, Blackwellsaid, but she didn’tknow much about it.After having workedin Weiser for more

than 12 years, Blackwell is now inFruitland and has worked her wayup to customer service manager.She said the thing she enjoysabout Zions is that it is an ethicalbank and is good to its employees,which isn’t necessarily somethingthat is common in the banking

business, she said.Blackwell’s typical day includesoverseeing daily operations, work-ing with some consumer lending,wire transfers, paying bills andoverseeing four employees on theretail side of the bank, and aboutfour on the commercial side.

Rachelle Blackwell

Detour leads Rachelle Blackwell to banking

SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Rachelle Blackwell headed the team of Zions Bank employees from Fruitland andWeiser that joined together to paint the Ontario home of Lora Lee Martin in 2012 aspart of the bank’s annual Paint-a-Thon service project.

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Employees and local officials cut the ribbon on the expansion at Zions Bank’sFruitland Financial Center in 2012.

Blackwell said that there is nodegree needed to work at thebank, but an accounting degreemay help.Training is provided by the bankand there are a lot of classes avail-able to take, as Blackwell has expe-rienced. She admitted that shetook one class that was the mostdifficult financing class she hadever taken.It’s a good job to have, Blackwellsaid. Though the economy took adownturn and banks are typicallyblamed for that, Blackwell said it’smore like, “one bad apple ruinsthe bunch.”“Zions is a very conservative

lender,” Blackwell said. “We didn’tget hit as hard.”She said that Zions is now doingbetter than ever, and she’ll addthat at her bank, it’s very muchlike a family.There’s not a lot of turnover atthe branches, she said. People loveworking here because Zions treatsthe employees great. Additionally, the customer serv-ice portion is key at Zions.Blackwell often works late hoursdespite her bosses’ objections. Shetells them, “I’m not staying late foryou. I’m staying late for my cus-tomers.”

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Celebrating Women Today 2013

LARRY MEYERARGUS OBSERVER

NYSSA

After a long career as anurse, Donna Garner, 72,Payette, is enjoying a sec-

ond career as an assisted living fa-cility administrator, now at NyssaGardens, where she had helpedstaff get trained when it opened. But way before that, Garner,who was born in California whenher parents were going to Bibleschool, spent most of her earlyyears in South America — Peruand Colombia — where her par-ents were missionaries and had abig home along the Amazon Riverfor a time. While she does nothave many memories of her timethere, she remembers waiting forthe mail, which came by plane

once or twice a month.She was 7 when they came backto the United States, first to west-ern Oregon and then to Idaho.“It was nice not to have home-made clothes,” Garner said, aboutbeing back in the States. One ofher first requests was for clotheswith “tags.”Her family moved to Payette in1951, and her father, the late DonDavis, started the Bible BaptistChurch. She graduated fromPayette High School in 1960 andenrolled in Saint Alphonsus’School of Nursing, graduating in1963. Becoming a nurse had beena longtime goal of hers, Garnersaid, citing a missionary nurse,Melba Means, as her inspiration.After graduation, she was mar-ried and she and her husbandlived in Great Falls, Mont. They

moved back to Payette, and he fin-ished his education at BoiseCollege.Garner had a day care in herhome until her children startedschool and then she went to workfor Drs. Dorin Daniels, JamesMann and Kenneth Pfaff. Garnerworked 19 years in the office, onthe northside of the TanakaClinic, first as the receptionist anda fill-in nurse and then worked sixyears for Dr. Daniels as his nurseuntil he retired in 1994. Garner, whose husband died in1993, planned to seek employ-ment at the hospital. She hadworked at the hospital and workedin surgery before. However, she was approached bySteve and Sue Iwasa about operat-ing an assisted living facility.Although she had reservations,

Garner went to Portland to be-come certified through theOregon Health Care Associationand became administrator atDorian Place.“I opened Dorian Place in 1995,”she said. “I never planned to runan assisted living facility.”Later, she oversaw both DorianPlace and Wellsprings assisted liv-ing facilities for a time, then tookover Wellsprings full time until2004. She left to take care of herelderly father until he died in2006. Then, Becky Hollis, whomGarner had helped train to be anassisted living facility administra-tor at Nyssa Gardens, called to sayshe was taking another job andwas Garner interested in the ad-ministrator job at Nyssa Gardens.“Why not?” Garner recalled.

Nyssa Gardens administrator in the business

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23, 2013

“We trainedBecky, andNyssa Gardenswas using thesame programas Wellsprings,so it was a goodfit,” Garnersaid. Garner hasbeen at NyssaGardens for sixyears and enjoyshelping people,which is one ofthe reasons shegot into nursing.Garner hasfour children,12 grandchil-dren and fivegreat-grandchil-dren.

LARRY MEYER | ARGUS OBSERVER

Donna Garner, administrator at Nyssa Gardens, stands in thefront room at the assisted living facility in Nyssa.

of helping people

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