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Working as a difference-maker

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Photo by Bill Olmsted

Jennifer DeGarmo

JANESVILLE — She's been off the farm for years, but the farm has never been far from her heart.

"I believe that's where I developed my work ethic," Jennifer DeGarmo said. "It was my parents."

Farmers are jacks of all trades, by necessity, she said. But her parents did more than work that never-ending job. Her mother, Jean McCartney, was a Milton School Board member for many years. Her father, Tom, was Harmony Town Board chairman.

DeGarmo runs her own marketing business and volunteers her skills to the causes she loves, drawing rave reviews from those she works beside. And she's a wife and a mother.

But it's not always as smooth as it might look from the outside, she said.

She has days, like all of us, when things don't go well and she doesn't feel like the superwoman some think she is.

"I've always struggled with motherhood and being a professional businesswoman and volunteerism. I've resigned myself to the fact that it will always be a struggle," she said.

But those who know her marvel at her energy and commitment.

Dan Cunningham of Forward Janesville calls DeGarmo a force on the board of the Leadership Development Academy.

"Her creativity is a huge asset. … We just think she's the greatest. We love her," Cunningham said.

"That woman does not have 'no' in her vocabulary. She volunteers for everything, … does pro-bono marketing work for tons of organizations," said friend Carrie Hermanson. "She's a close friend to everyone she meets and the first to offer personal or professional assistance to anyone who even hints of a need. Honestly, she's the most caring individual I know."

"She's been a mentor of mine. She's an inspiration to me," said spokeswoman Allison Hokinson of the YWCA, where DeGarmo was a board member.

Kim Hesgard, director of marketing at Mercy Health Systems, calls DeGarmo "a doer and a difference-maker."

"She's awfully quick to divert attention to someone else when it really should have been her spotlight to begin with," Hesgard said.

Her friends are all the more amazed because they know about the cancer.

She lost her father to prostate cancer in 1996. Her mother got breast cancer in 1983 and just had a recurrence. Her sister has terminal brain cancer but has outlived doctors' predictions.

Jennifer is battling thyroid cancer for the second time. Only her brother is cancer-free.

"I think my brother is scared to go to a doctor," she joked, adding that humor is a weapon in the arsenal against the Big C.

"Attitude is everything," she said. "I know that's what kept my dad alive as long as it did."

DeGarmo said she has come to realize she can't do it all. She's decided to take a breather from community involvement.

"You want to help and be an advocate for the organizations you're involved in, but it comes to a point where you realize you've got children who are depending on you," she said.

And yet, it will come as no surprise to many to see DeGarmo helping out in the not-so-distant future.