Four great givers in Perry were recognized this week for their unselfish dedication to the community during the novel coronavirus global pandemic with a plaque and cash award in the Great Western Bank Great Gifts of Gratitude program.
The one-time Great Gifts of Gratitude awards aim “to recognize the selfless work and unwavering dedication of community members who have gone above and beyond during the pandemic by gifting a total of $70,000 to the 140 winners across our nine-state footprint,” according to the Great Western Bank statement.
Great Western Bank asked the public to submit stories of people throughout their community who were making an impact during the pandemic, and they received more than 600 online nominations. The bank said they tailored the gifts to each award winner in order to make an impact back in the winners’ lives and to help local businesses at the same time.
“I go back to our values,” said Mark Borrecco, Great Western Bank president and chief executive officer. “We want to empower locally and think globally, and we want to do the right thing. More so, we want to make sure we are committed to the communities we serve now more than ever.”
Great Western Bank Perry Branch Manager Trace Schmitt and Personal Banker Courtney Straker honored four winners in Perry, the most of any community in the Great Western Bank footprint:
- Theresa Cromwell, $600
- Juan Meraz, $300
- Sven Peterson, $1000
- Brandi Valdez, $600
Theresa Cromwell is on the kitchen staff at St. Patrick Catholic School. Her co-worker Kayla Rothmeyer nominated Cromwell for the Great Gifts of Gratitude award, noting that “during this pandemic, she’s found a way to distribute not just lunches to our students daily but making a family meal for the families. It’s all part of our grab-and-go program. Currently, she’s trying to find ways for this to continue this through the summer months for our families.”
The family feeding began in March, when the governor closed the schools, and by May Cromwell and Rothmeyer had served about 4,000 meals, all prepared in St. Pat’s School kitchen. Was it a loaves-and-fishes moment?
“We had some really awesome donations from people around town that let us do it all summer long,” Cromwell said in receiving her Great Western Bank award. “The community and the parents came together for us to do it.”
The donations are still coming. To the $600 Great Gifts of Gratitude award, the Perry Hy-Vee added $100 to support the family meals. St. Pat’s Principal Kandice Roethler said nutritional support is a crucial component of St. Pat’s mission for its families.
“We wouldn’t be doing what we’re called to do if we weren’t offering that service of food,” Roethler said. “At the end of the day, if their food needs, in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, aren’t met, they struggle. So that’s ultimately what it is. It shows we’re more than just a school and more than just a church. We’re here to do what we can.”
Cromwell said that once the grab-and-go program started, the need became very plain, and family meals were the logical reaction.
“It’s like see a need, and fill a need,” she said. “It was one less stress that we could take off those families. Our biggest part was that we were feeding your family. You could always go to the public school and get a sack lunch with a sandwich in it, but you got legit a casserole dish that you could put in the oven and feed your grandma and your mom and everybody.”
Juan “Karma” Meraz of Perry was nominated by Great Western Bank’s Straker in gratitude for his kindness during her mother’s final illness.
“He reached out and helped me in a time of need,” Straker said. “And it wasn’t just me. He helps anyone and everyone, and I’m just grateful that I can help give it back.”
Meraz, a Los Angeles native who moved to Perry in 2001, humbly accepted the Great Gifts of Gratitude plaque and $300 cash award.
“I grew up in the streets,” he said. “I didn’t grow up with money and stuff like that. I wish I had somebody there to help us out. So I hate to see people struggle. I hate to see people suffer.”
Meraz is always the first to step up and help people in a crisis, and he has developed a wide network of supporters in his charitable efforts. He has assisted some 375 people during the pandemic, he said.
“It just comes out of me naturally, I guess,” Meraz said. He dated his charitable nature to his teens.
“I had an experience at 15 years old, when I ran away from a foster home that I was in,” he said. “I was very thirsty, and I stopped at a store and asked for a glass of water. They denied me. They wanted a dollar. Right then and there I said, ‘I’m going to try my best and try to help out without asking.’ So that pretty much motivated me. I was 15, and I was thirsty, and it was sad that they said no.”
Straker thanked Meraz and all the Great Gifts of Gratitude winners “for their good deeds in the community, just being good people and helping out during the tough time and putting good out there.”
Perry City Administrator Sven Peterson was nominated for the Great Gifts of Gratitude award by Perry DMACC Director Eddie Diaz in recognition of Peterson’s response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Diaz said Peterson was proactive in meeting the virus, and “this was not easy given that his position is outside of the public health industry, state or federal government. Where others had to wait for direction before making a decision, Sven took it upon himself to encourage collaboration between public and private sectors.”
Diaz praised Peterson’s reallocation of funds toward the purchase of recreational equipment for kids stuck at home and his help in purchasing and distributing “thousands of masks weeks before guidance from the federal government encouraged the use of masks. Sven has worked behind the scenes on many initiatives and has tirelessly advocated for the residents of this community.”
Diaz said Peterson made Perry “better prepared for the pandemic,” and he “will be integral in the recovery of Perry from the pandemic.”
Brandi Valdez’s three years as a para-educator in the Perry Community School District was preceded by eight years at New Opportunities in Perry, so she is no stranger to the needs of local families. She volunteers for the Perry Soccer Club, is active in Hispanics United for Perry (HUP) and is a reliable bilingual translator in all circumstances.
Valdez was nominated for the Great Gifts of Gratitude award by Jolene Galvan of Perry, whose home was destroyed by fire in April. Galvan said she is grateful for Valdez’s goodness to her and her husband, Cisco Galvan, and their family in the days and weeks following the fire.
Valdez saw a need at the Perry Elementary School when she noticed that “a lot of kids are wearing their masks over and over and over and over,” she said, “and we all know that’s not safe for them.” To solve the problem, she began having child-sized face masks made, and she said she plans to use part of her Great Gifts of Gratitude winnings on making more children’s masks.
Valdez is also a longtime helping at Showtime Dance and Tumbling Studio in Perry, and Showtime owner Carlene Coleman joined her at the award ceremony Friday at Great Western Bank. Coleman grew emotional when she told about Valdez’s helping a great-grandmother with dance lessons for her little great-granddaughter who lives in an unstable home situation.
“It feels funny that a great-grandma would put her kid into dance when she’s low on funds,” Coleman said amid her tears, “but I’m what’s normal. This little girl came to us every Tuesday last year, so we’re enormously in her life, her stability, and her great-grandma knew it.”
Among the hundreds of other stories from across the Great Western Bank footprint were many that stood out, such as the givers who:
• Helped a therapist who started offering free mental health care and through her efforts, started a network of therapists to provide free care to those in need. She will receive a video calling device to talk with and see her family in Malaysia, as well as a set of luggage for when she is able to visit them again, and clothes to build her professional wardrobe.
• Gifted childcare equipment to a community member who opened her home for free care to neighborhood families who needed assistance during school/daycare closures. Also added to her overall gift was a $300 gas gift card to help her efforts of delivering bread and providing transportation/deliveries to neighborhood elders.
• Put $1,000 toward a local brewer’s mortgage because he halted normal production to create and donate hand sanitizer (leaving him without sales for months).
• Gifted desk pedals to a caring teacher to help keep her students’ spirits and activity levels up during this unique school year.
• Covered part of a grocery budget to a volunteer who has been working tirelessly at a food pantry.
• Gifted a new stethoscope and scrubs to a nurse taking care of Veterans.
• Helped a mom take her kids back-to-school shopping.
Great Western Bank is a full-service regional bank focused on relationship-based business and agribusiness banking. Great Western services its customers through more than 170 branches located in nine states: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Great Western Bank offers small and mid-sized businesses a suite of financial products and a range of deposit and loan products to retail customers through several channels, including the branch network, online banking system, mobile banking applications and customer care centers. Great Western Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Great Western Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE: GWB). To learn more about Great Western Bank, visit the website.
