Vandendriessche, Arvizu, Buyck will be honored as Lyon County’s Outstanding Senior Citizens at the fair this weekend
Saturday’s Senior Citizens Day at the Lyon County Fair will take on an extra special meaning for Tracy this weekend.
This is a day when volunteers and others are honored for the work they do in their communities, and this year, three will receive the designation of Outstanding Senior Citizens — and they are all from Tracy.
Jan Arvizu, Jeanine Vandendriessche and Joe Buyck will take center stage this Saturday morning at the Lyon County Fairgrounds. They have been chosen as this year’s recipients for the benevolence they have shown in Tracy over the last year, and in years before.
Vandendriessche was part of a fundraising machine
• BIG DAY AT THE FAIR
Three Tracy residents will be recognized at Senior Citizens Day at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the hoop barn at the Lyon County Fair.
as a member of the Community Center Workforce Group that was a driving force in making Tracy’s new community center a reality. Arvizu was part of that group as well, and also serves as a member of the Tracy City Council and runs the S.A.I.L. class; and Buyck has dedicated his time and energy as a board member of the Tracy Lions Club’s Help Tuck Them In bed program.
Each, in their own way, has made Tracy proud.
“We try to acknowledge all of the efforts that go into making our communities great places to live,” said Jaen Weilage, who is on the committee that chose this year’s recipients. “It starts with people like this.”
Weilage came to Tracy from Marshall last Thursday to break the good news that the three Tracy do-gooders have been chosen as outstanding senior citizens.
“They have done so much to make a difference,” she said. “(Tracy) was named the sixth most livable city by AARP — I can see why. I don’t think we’ve ever gotten more letters of support or recommendations than we did with these people.”
Weilage said philanthropy is about more than giving monetary donations, as these three have proven.
“They’ve given something that is more precious — they’ve given their time,” she said.
The Outstanding Senior Citizen Award has been given out in its current format for about 14 years. It started as part of a Minnesota State Fair program, but that stopped after the pandemic.
“We rallied locally to make a committee to make something happen here,” said Weilage. “These people are role models for us; they’re the activators in our commutes, they keep us humming along.”
Saturday’s program will be at 10:30 a.m. under the hoop barn at the fairgrounds in Marshall.
