This week’s featured EGHS alumni has called Eagle Grove “home again” for more than 30 years. It was the love and support of family that brought her back…and kept her here despite it never being the original plan.
Deb (Ryerson) Vance graduated in 1981. She attended college at DMACC before spreading her wings in Chicago for a few years, and then moving to the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota area. In December of 1989, a health condition brought her back to Eagle Grove to let family help her recuperate. But did she expect to stay here permanently?
“NO! NO! NO! (That was) never in my plan,” admitted Ryerson.
She explained how she fell into the family auction and realty business, then she fell in love, and before you know it, “thirty-two years was gone,” said Ryerson.
It’s no wonder she fell into the family business, as she had worked at it some when she was a kid at home.
“The office opened in 1979. I did what a kid could do,” she said. “Then my senior year, I only went to school in the mornings and worked in the office in the afternoons.”
When Ryerson’s health conditions started in 1989 and she needed treatments, she said she decided to come back home so she could receive the medical help she needed, but still be able to work when she could.
“So I came back and again did what I could at the office,” said Ryerson, like when she was little.
She may have not planned on ever making Eagle Grove her home again after she graduated from high school, but she is glad she decided to stay once she did come home again. She said the reasons why are her friends, small town life, the way people are always trying to help others, being able to walk down the street/grocery store aisle and say “Hi” or drive down the road and wave.
“That never happens in a big city,” she said. “I want my hometown to grow, so I enjoy working and helping with whatever I can do to make Eagle Grove a great little town that people would want to live in and raise their kids. I get we will never be a big town, but I want it to thrive and be a good town where people want to say ‘I live there’ or ‘I grew up there and I love my town."
Ryerson loves calling Eagle Grove home as an adult, and would happily encourage others to do the same thing, whether they grew up here or are moving here for other reasons.
“It’s a great little town with the friendliest people, and it’s an affordable place to live. There’s even potential to have your own business or own a home,” she said.
Ryerson has really enjoyed seeing other alumni who have moved away over the years make the decision to return to Eagle Grove. She loves hearing their stories about when they used to live here, what they did after high school, and why they are moving back again.
“Whether you are from Eagle Grove or someplace else and you now make Eagle Grove home, do what you can do to make our community a place people want to live. Go the extra mile and be better yourself. It doesn’t have to be big: pull a weed in the sidewalk, pick up garbage instead of walking over it, say ‘HI” to a passerby, volunteer at what’s important to you. Whether you are 10 or 80 years old, inspire someone else. PAY IT FORWARD AND PASS IT ON,” concluded Ryerson.
Watch for our next EGHS alumni feature in the May 27 edition of the Eagle Grove Eagle.
