Moments in Time
Moments in Time is a weekly series featuring recollections of area residents. To suggest someone to feature in Moments in Time, please contact Mary Jane Grenzow, editor, at editor@themonroetimes.com.
MONROE - Progress through persuasion.
That sums up the role Diana Vance has played in Monroe through her involvement in three important organizations that blossomed under her influence.
As executive director of the Monroe chapter of Big Brothers and Big Sisters, she helped touch lives on a personal level.
"I was finishing up as the Monroe correspondent for the Rockford Register Star when I just saw an ad and applied. It was as simple as that," said Vance, 72. "I do have a BA in early education, so I thought that would help. Next thing I knew, I was the director."
She would spend seven years with it, retiring in 1998.
"The first year we had three matches, which is a lot in a smaller town, bringing the number to 18 which was at the time the highest ever," Vance said. "And nothing was easy because of where we were - in a parsonage studio upstairs in next to the MAC (Monroe Arts Center). I mean, we were in a bedroom.
"And I'll never forget the wasp nest we had in the only window."
Vance would forge ahead, however, and through a bowl-a-thon fundraiser she helped bring the organization's coffers from $30,000 to well above $200,000, she said.
"I just hit up every business I could think of," said Vance, who by this time was already a proven commodity on the fund-raising trail.
Vance also helped establish a tutoring program that would grow to the participation of 200 students.
The big-little partnership she cherished most during her time involved the late Marge Edler, a widowed retiree of Swiss Colony.
"She was like a mother to this girl," Vance said. "Tragically, the girl would die in a car accident and I'll never forget when Marge stood up at the service and talked about how dear she was to her."
It was the overcrowded conditions of the old Monroe library at 9th Street and 15th Avenue that motivated her decision to join the Library Board in the late 1980s.
"You had to squeeze around everything," she said, turning her body side to side in demonstration.
That said, she'll never forget how hard it was to pass up a $250,000 anonymous donation toward a new library - with one condition.
"The donor said it was contingent upon it being built at East School Park, the site of the old school," Vance said. "But we knew the people really wanted it to be downtown."
So she helped convince the board to not only reject the money but swallow hard and ask the taxpayers for $2 million in a referendum.
The Monroe Clinic had just moved, leaving a building empty in the heart of downtown. Lee and June Geiger bought it (in 1993) and donated it to the school district, which ran the library, but the transition required some big dollars.
"Still, the referendum passed 2-to-1," Vance said. "It was a good example of representing the people."
She said she never did learn the identity of the donor.
Then there was Vance's time in the 1970s as the president of Monroe's United Way organization.
"It was my second year on the board when I was told I had to be president," she said. "Guess I had no choice."
More of the same came six years later, after she stepped down, when the call came asking for her return.
"That led to an additional three more years," said Vance.
During her time with the United Way, the YMCA had big hopes of establishing itself in town. Up until then, it was something of a nomad.
"It was sponsoring different programs at different locations. For example, you could take an exercise class in the upper level of Turner Hall, things like that," she said.
Most organizations would ask the United Way for $2,000 in assistance, maybe $3,000, Vance said, "But the "Y' was asking for $25,000. It was hoping to be under the United Way umbrella and to build a facility."
On went her fund-raising cap again, and she hit the speech trail with a movie she scripted in hand.
It featured the late Joe Urban of WEKZ radio fame and John Franks of what was then First National Bank. They sat under a Twining Park tree, which served to illustrate how the United Way helps others, and chatted about the process and its importance.
"The roots were the businesses, the trunk was the campaign that brings the money up to the tree branches, which were the different agencies," Vance said. "And there was John saying, "Joe, it's like this tree...' It was simple and fun and we took it everywhere with us, to every business to every school. And it worked because we always met our goals."
And today a healthy YMCA building sits on the city's north side.
Meanwhile, Vance's love of writing - now in the form of fiction - has come full circle as she works on a sequel to her first novel.
"There will be references to Monroe in it," she said.
She has also written a novella and plans on writing a saga in the near future.
That sums up the role Diana Vance has played in Monroe through her involvement in three important organizations that blossomed under her influence.
As executive director of the Monroe chapter of Big Brothers and Big Sisters, she helped touch lives on a personal level.
"I was finishing up as the Monroe correspondent for the Rockford Register Star when I just saw an ad and applied. It was as simple as that," said Vance, 72. "I do have a BA in early education, so I thought that would help. Next thing I knew, I was the director."
She would spend seven years with it, retiring in 1998.
"The first year we had three matches, which is a lot in a smaller town, bringing the number to 18 which was at the time the highest ever," Vance said. "And nothing was easy because of where we were - in a parsonage studio upstairs in next to the MAC (Monroe Arts Center). I mean, we were in a bedroom.
"And I'll never forget the wasp nest we had in the only window."
Vance would forge ahead, however, and through a bowl-a-thon fundraiser she helped bring the organization's coffers from $30,000 to well above $200,000, she said.
"I just hit up every business I could think of," said Vance, who by this time was already a proven commodity on the fund-raising trail.
Vance also helped establish a tutoring program that would grow to the participation of 200 students.
The big-little partnership she cherished most during her time involved the late Marge Edler, a widowed retiree of Swiss Colony.
"She was like a mother to this girl," Vance said. "Tragically, the girl would die in a car accident and I'll never forget when Marge stood up at the service and talked about how dear she was to her."
It was the overcrowded conditions of the old Monroe library at 9th Street and 15th Avenue that motivated her decision to join the Library Board in the late 1980s.
"You had to squeeze around everything," she said, turning her body side to side in demonstration.
That said, she'll never forget how hard it was to pass up a $250,000 anonymous donation toward a new library - with one condition.
"The donor said it was contingent upon it being built at East School Park, the site of the old school," Vance said. "But we knew the people really wanted it to be downtown."
So she helped convince the board to not only reject the money but swallow hard and ask the taxpayers for $2 million in a referendum.
The Monroe Clinic had just moved, leaving a building empty in the heart of downtown. Lee and June Geiger bought it (in 1993) and donated it to the school district, which ran the library, but the transition required some big dollars.
"Still, the referendum passed 2-to-1," Vance said. "It was a good example of representing the people."
She said she never did learn the identity of the donor.
Then there was Vance's time in the 1970s as the president of Monroe's United Way organization.
"It was my second year on the board when I was told I had to be president," she said. "Guess I had no choice."
More of the same came six years later, after she stepped down, when the call came asking for her return.
"That led to an additional three more years," said Vance.
During her time with the United Way, the YMCA had big hopes of establishing itself in town. Up until then, it was something of a nomad.
"It was sponsoring different programs at different locations. For example, you could take an exercise class in the upper level of Turner Hall, things like that," she said.
Most organizations would ask the United Way for $2,000 in assistance, maybe $3,000, Vance said, "But the "Y' was asking for $25,000. It was hoping to be under the United Way umbrella and to build a facility."
On went her fund-raising cap again, and she hit the speech trail with a movie she scripted in hand.
It featured the late Joe Urban of WEKZ radio fame and John Franks of what was then First National Bank. They sat under a Twining Park tree, which served to illustrate how the United Way helps others, and chatted about the process and its importance.
"The roots were the businesses, the trunk was the campaign that brings the money up to the tree branches, which were the different agencies," Vance said. "And there was John saying, "Joe, it's like this tree...' It was simple and fun and we took it everywhere with us, to every business to every school. And it worked because we always met our goals."
And today a healthy YMCA building sits on the city's north side.
Meanwhile, Vance's love of writing - now in the form of fiction - has come full circle as she works on a sequel to her first novel.
"There will be references to Monroe in it," she said.
She has also written a novella and plans on writing a saga in the near future.