Joyful Volunteer
Making an Impact with Denise Yergenson…
Denise Yergenson got an early start in community service when she was elected student body president in the eighth grade. She found a calling in working with and on behalf of others, “and I just kept going.”
The genesis of that calling can be traced to Yergenson’s late mother, Dee Richmond, who modeled altruistic behavior throughout Yergenson’s childhood and beyond. “My motivation to get involved comes from my mom, who served on the PTA even after her kids were out of school. She was the booster club president at Marysville High, and she and her best friend Daisy served on the school board,” Yergenson says.
A native of Yuba City, Yergenson graduated from Lindhurst High School in 1978, studied at Yuba College for two years and earned a bachelor’s degree from Chico State University. She met her husband, Randy, a sales rep for Western Business Products and a Simpson University football coach, while working at the Yuba-Sutter Chamber of Commerce.
The couple moved to Redding in 1986 and she went to work with Lou Gerard at the Redding Chamber of Commerce. One of Yergenson’s first assignments involved laying the groundwork for Leadership Redding, a civic enrichment program now in its 39th year. An 11-year stint in marketing at Mercy Medical Center followed before Yergenson joined Caltrans as a public information officer, a position she’s held for 23 years.
Her job at Caltrans started just before 9-11 and the fallout from the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C. became her first emergency operation as a PIO. During less-stressful times, Yergenson performs districtwide outreach and fields calls on everything from traffic cameras to highway rest stops.
Her community involvement with schools coincided with the arrival of Yergenson’s two children, daughter Kaitlyn and son Dane. Yergenson joined the Camp Fire Girls board, including a term as president, and spent 14 years as a trustee for the Redding School District.
Other previous commitments include the parent clubs at Shasta Meadows Elementary School, Bonnyview Elementary Schools, Sequoia Middle School and Shasta High, as well as the the Shasta High School Sports Boosters Club. She also served for four years on the Shasta Union High School District Bond Oversight Committee, helping direct capital improvement programs at district high schools funded by a $57million bond approved by voters in November 2016.
“I’m passionate about public education,” Yergenson says. Jim Cloney, Shasta Union High School District superintendent, agrees. “From a community involvement point, Denise is very generous with her time. Anybody that willing to be that generous I hold in high regard. She’s very open, a very good communicator and very interested in making Redding and Shasta County a very good place,” Cloney says.
Serving on a school board can be “very, very thankless work,” Cloney says, and he applauds Yergenson and others “willing to do that, to serve in that capacity and putting a lot out there” to improve schools in the community.
Beyond her interest in schools, Yergenson volunteers her time with the Redding Fashion Alliance as board chair, a nonprofit that fosters careers in fashion design and textile arts, and with Pathways to Housing, a nonprofit dedicated to helping unhoused people get off the street and into supportive housing.
The Community Foundation of the North State’s Women’s Fund is another organization close to Yergenson’s heart and she says she enjoys taking part in a unique form of collective philanthropy that works to improve women’s lives through a variety of programs. She says the Women’s Fund’s “Bright Smiles” program, which funded dental work for women to help them reenter the workforce, was particularly gratifying. To date, the Women’s Fund has awarded 51 grants totaling $563,000.
Former Redding Mayor Kristen Schreder served with Yergenson on the Redding School District board and on the Women’s Fund committee and calls her “a joyful volunteer. She’s all in on whatever board she’s serving.”
Yergenson also has been involved with service organizations, having spent several years in Soroptimist International and 23 years and counting with the Redding East Rotary Club. “All of it has been rewarding,” Yergenson says. “I tell my kids: start small and you can make a difference in the community.” •
