News: Granton - Honored
Citizens (2022)
Transcriber: Stan
Surnames: Eibergen
----Source: TRG (Abbotsford, Clark Co., Wis.) 07 Sep 2022
Every year, the Granton Rotary Club selects an individual or couple to honor who
has had a positive impact on the community through the work they do and their
volunteerism. The couple chosen as this year’s recipients of the honor are no
strangers to volunteering, having been a part of many organizations over the
years that have contributed much to the village of Granton and they hope their
story will influence the younger generations to take up the cause of helping the
community in the future.
Gary and Roxy Eibergen were selected as the honored citizens of the year by the
Granton Rotary and the couple will be riding through this year’s Fall Festival
parade on Sept. 11 as part of that honor. They were notified by the Rotary of
their nomination a few weeks ago, which took them both by surprise.
“We heard about it a couple weeks ago,” said Gary. “We were very surprised.
There are other people more qualified than we are for this award.”
“We are very honored to have been selected,” added Roxy. “Even though we don’t
want to brag, if it’s enough to inspire others to volunteer then we are glad.”
Volunteering has been an essential part of life for Gary and Roxy. As a native
of the Granton area, Gary grew up on a farm just a few miles north of the
village. After graduating in 1977 from Granton High School, he attended a short
course of college at UW-Madison where he met Roxy, a native of Storm Lake, Iowa,
who was also attending college there.
“I grew up on a farm two miles north of here and we lived there when we were
married and until we built this house (where they currently live) three years
ago and sold the cows,” said Gary. “I went to a short course in Madison (after
high school) and graduated from there. We’ve been here ever since.”
“It’s kind of a long story,” added Roxy on how they met. “The short version is I
traveled up here many years ago and started school at UW-Madison. I met Gary and
stayed.”
The two were married in 1989 and raised two children, Connie, who now resides in
Elk Mound, and Kevin, who lives in Eau Claire. While farming on about 1,100
acres of land and milking 360 cows with Gary’s two brothers, Roxy spent her time
over the years raising their kids, and working in various careers.
“Gary was farming and I graduated from Stevens Point,” she said. “I stayed at
home for a few years to raise the kids and then worked as a teacher for a few
years at the Granton School. I was also the high school secretary there for a
while and when the kids were little I was the clerk for the town of York. I now
work at Marshfield Clinic in information services and research as a project
manager.”
While they worked, Gary and Roxy took up volunteering, something they continue
to this day. In their earliest days of volunteering, the pair was a part of the
Granton Young Adults organization which helped to put a jungle gym up at the
Granton Community Park back in 1996. The Granton Young Adults eventually
disbanded as its members got older, but both Gary and Roxy said the organization
did a lot for the community and helped them establish connections with other
families in the area. “When we were young we were a part of the Granton Young
Adults,” said Roxy. “We were a very active group. The jungle gym that was built
in the park was built by the Granton Young Adults.” “We were a part of the
Jaycees,” added Gary. “But all the money from our dues went out of the area so
we decided, ‘Let’s have our own club and keep the money in the community’ and
that is what we did. We had fun doing it.” Another volunteer project they had
fun doing and are proud to have been a part of was with the construction of the
Granton High School softball diamond. Before it was built, they said the Granton
softball team was co-oped with nearby schools even though they had the numbers
for their own team. When discussing it with some friends, they said they decided
to take it upon themselves to build the field. “We helped in building the
softball diamond at the high school,” said Gary. “They used to have a girls
softball team but they had no place to play, they played in a co-op but there
were a lot of girls. They wouldn’t have had to be in a co-op except they had no
field. We had a lot of volunteers come to help us out to build it.” “That was
Easter time,” added Roxy. “That whole area was just brush at the time. We got
the kids to help raise funds that summer and we raised it very quickly. We
cleared the brush and leveled ground. We learned a lot about softball fields.
That next spring we had our softball diamond. I’m really proud that we were a
part of making that happen. We may not have a softball team anymore, but we see
the 4-H kids up there all the time. We made use of that land, it was a nice
project.”
In addition to those volunteer projects, Gary and Roxy have been involved with
several other organizations over the years. As members of the FFA Alumni, Gary
and Roxy have both held officer positions with the Granton chapter over the
years -- including a brief stint as a state FFA alumni officer for Gary. Their
volunteering in that area has led them to helping several generations of FFA
members practice or competitions and interviews, host the Granton Dairy
Breakfast, have field trips of classes out to their farm, and assist the FFA and
local 4-H at the Clark County Fair, where Gary was a member of the Livestock
Committee.
Individually, they also pursue their own work in volunteering. Roxy has been a
part of the Romadka Homemaker’s Club that sponsors the annual Granton Easter Egg
hunt, and has formerly helped at Zion Lutheran Church where they attend services
with Sunday School, Vacation Bible School and their annual Christmas program.
For Gary, he has been a member of the Granton Fire Department for the past 38
years and for the last three years, he has been the fire chief.
For Gary and Roxy, volunteering is an important part of being a member of their
community.
“It’s always important to give back to the community,” said Gary. “It takes a
lot of work, but there is a lot of pride in the work ... It’s important to us,
it’s important to the community and it’s important to the school to volunteer.
It just seems like the right thing to do.”
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