Darlane Kroening volunteers for several different organizations.
She was born and raised in Pennsylvania. After graduating from high school, she earned a degree in chemistry from Slippery Rock State College and her master’s in organic chemistry from Iowa State. Kroening worked in the chemistry department and learning center at McAllister College in St. Paul, Minn., where she also did science counseling and tutoring. She was also the pre-med adviser and taught chemistry.
She met her husband of 41 years, Roy, a chemist, while in grad school. When they retired, they moved to Shawano, which is Roy’s hometown. They have a son and two granddaughters. Kroening likes to landscape, so when they moved to Shawano, she brought 75 plants from Minnesota for their home in the town of Richmond.
Q Where do you volunteer and what do you do for each one?>
A Shawano County Historical Society: “At Heritage Park, I help to coordinate the gardeners. Boy Scout Troop 32 comes at the end of April to help and they have a canoe to go into the water. I coordinate getting mulch from Stanford Hoffman of Hoffman Fiber. We just moved the church, and we had a church walk, and we made several cute little fans. Now I’m involved in the landscaping of the church and the Sikora Archives. There are about 20 gardeners who help out.”
St. James Tabitha Society: “We take care of lunches after funerals, and if people want to volunteer, they call me. I also work with the Altar Guild to clean the altar, oil candles, dust, vacuum, change the flowers and change the vestments. We decorate for Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving.”
Shawano Lake Lioness: “This year, I’m president of the Shawano Lake Lioness. We are changing the way we do vision screening. We went in with seven other groups and bought a device that is used to determine your vision. Now we’ll be able to do vision checks for anyone over 1 year old. We volunteer at Evergreen Health Care Center, where we play bingo. We make fleece quilts and give them to four different nursing homes. We have a gate at Packers games and hand out the freebies. Our main fundraiser is the fall craft sale, and in the spring we have a rummage sale.”
Wolf River Wild Ones: “I’m the vice president of the Wolf River Wild Ones. We promote the use of natural plants in landscaping. We have a sale in the spring. At Heritage Park, we have two gardens and are going to put in a third. We help maintain the area and keep it natural.”
Master Gardeners: “This is my third year in the Master Gardeners. You each have a project, and mine is Heritage Park. We help maintain the vegetable garden at the Huber Center and help with the community gardens. We will have information at the Shawano Farmers Market.”
Shawano Woman’s Club: “I am program chairman and put together a program every month, and am garden club coordinator. We support the library and the historical society. We have a fashion show and I am in charge of the models.”
Q Why do you volunteer?
A “Everybody I know in Shawano volunteers for something. My mom and dad did a lot of volunteering. It just becomes part of who you are. When I came here, I didn’t know anybody. If you want to get to know people, find a place to volunteer.”
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