When Holly Rebelez is asked why she prioritizes volunteering in the Prairie Meadows Hydroponic Farm on the WesleyLife Meals on Wheels campus, she chuckles a bit as she finds her answer.
“It’s warm in there, and I’m tired of being cold!” the former Los Angeles resident says with a laugh before diving into her actual response:
“West Point’s motto is ‘Duty, Honor, Country.’ I take that seriously. And if I can work to make something better, that’s what I want to do.”
Holly isn’t just name-dropping West Point; she graduated from the military academy, as did her husband, Darren Rebelez, CEO of Casey’s General Stores, and their daughter, Kelsey. Since her days at the academy, she’s enjoyed a successful career as an information technology executive, raised two children and become a proud grandmother, and enhanced any city she’s lived in through her commitment to volunteerism and philanthropy.
It was that sense of commitment — and her enjoyment of pickleball — that led to Holly’s becoming one of the hydroponic farm’s most faithful volunteers.
Pickleball and gardening
“I play pickleball with Glenda (Kretzinger, wife of WesleyLife president and CEO Rob Kretzinger), and one day she asked if a bunch of us would like a tour of the farm,” Holly says. “I’m a gardener, so that piqued my interest. We came and took a look, and here I am.”
The Prairie Meadows Hydroponic Farm, the nation’s only hydroponic operation associated with a Meals on Wheels location, grows thousands of pounds of greens and herbs each year to augment the nutritional value of the meals that WesleyLife Meals on Wheels delivers to about 2,000 older adults and military veterans daily.
The farm grows crops without soil, using only 20 percent of the space of a typical growing operation and a fraction of the amount of water to create an identical amount of produce. The farm employs a full-time grower and relies on volunteers to help plant and harvest greens.
“I’m curious about a lot of things, and I found this way of growing crops pretty fascinating,” Holly says. “It doesn’t have much in common with the kind of gardening I’m familiar with, but it’s been fun to learn something new.”
Varied skills come in handy
Holly says her favorite step in the hydroponic process is harvesting crops, but she’s happy to participate in any task, from cleaning crops to helping to install the farm’s pump system. “I like to use my skills, and those are pretty varied,” she says. “When the farm’s grower asked me to put the pump system together, I asked for some hints to get me started — but I got it done!”
Holly says she likes knowing that the greens she harvests are going directly to people who can benefit from them.
“Meals on Wheels delivers meals that are good quality anyway, and knowing that I can help make them even better is a good motivator,” Holly says. “I have a hard time sitting still, so I like to be busy — but I’m particular about the organizations I give my time to. Meals on Wheels is a good fit for me.”
In addition to WesleyLife, Holly has spent her time in the Des Moines area volunteering for other non-profit organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity and LifeServe Blood Center. Her advice to anyone who is considering volunteering: Make sure the organization’s cause resonates with your goals and values, and set boundaries.
“Even if you have just a small amount of time, find an organization that appreciates that,” she says. “Making the world a better place in small increments is perfectly OK.”
