From working in the marketing department at an electronics company in Rochester to doing graphic design at the Fillmore County Journal to working in tourism, the Chamber of Commerce and the EDA in Preston, Gabby Kinneberg has gained skills and formed relationships at each job that have helped her with her career at the veterans home in Preston. “It’s crazy how much I learned in those six years (with the city of Preston) about local government and legislative processes,” she said. “I formed a lot of relationships with other communities, which has really helped in this job.”
Gabby has been working at the veterans home for a little over two years now as the Public Relations and Volunteer Coordinator. “My main job is really to make sure we have good relationships with the community and different organizations that support us, and also working with donations,” she explained. She also coordinates the newly started volunteer program at the veterans home and is managing almost 20 volunteers. “We’ve had a really big interest in volunteering up here,” Gabby said. She creates the schedule, coordinates training, and handles all inquiries into the volunteer program. She also works with the recreational therapy program, ensuring that the residents have plenty of fun programs and activities to keep them busy. “I really love it,” she said about her job. “Every day I come to work and I know it’s a good mission. I’m not doing direct care, but my job is making sure that their quality of life is great.”
Gabby, a self-described people person, says that the staff at the veterans home, which currently numbers over 90 staff members, is the biggest one she’s ever worked with. “This is my first job in healthcare,” she said. “It’s been a big learning curve, but it’s good. I always want to be learning or challenged.” As the veterans home is still so new, there have been lots of changes to adapt to, but Gabby feels like things are really settling in now after the roller coaster of building the home and getting it started. Her hours are full time, but she sometimes pops in on a weekend if a tour is scheduled or if there’s a holiday such as Veteran’s Day. “It’s a really nice schedule,” she said. “It allows me to participate in volunteer stuff in the community.”
While working with the Preston Area Chamber of Commerce and EDA, Gabby was involved in many groups with the city, but when she was hired at the veterans home, she decided to take a step back and evaluate her priorities. She currently serves as a member of the VFW Auxiliary and a board member of the Preston Area Community Foundation as well as teaching Sunday School at St. Columban Catholic Church in Preston.
In addition to her volunteer work around Preston and making a difference in the lives of veterans, Gabby and her husband John recently started a small business called Legacy Renewed. “It’s more of a hobby,” she explained. John works at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery in Preston and he and Gabby both have a deep appreciation for veterans and also for preserving legacies. Her interest was piqued at a program at the Fillmore County Historical Center in Fountain about cleaning headstones and then she saw some videos on social media about cleaning headstones. She and John thought that was something they could do for family headstones, but then it turned into something more than that. In April, they made their first social media post about Legacy Renewed and right away, four people messaged them about cleaning headstones. She and John decided that for every five stones they clean, they will clean a veteran’s headstone at no cost. “We do that because we think they should be honored,” she said. As they clean headstones, they post before and after pictures, which has sparked even more interest. “We’re not in it to make money so it’s really affordable,” she explained.
Legacy Renewed is definitely a family venture as Gabby and John’s fourth grade daughter Paisley is very involved in it as well, cleaning headstones right alongside her parents. She especially likes cleaning veterans’ headstones. “It’s been ingrained in her brain to have that respect for veterans since she was little,” Gabby said.
The Kinneberg family has cleaned over 30 headstones just this summer, with each one taking 1-2 hours to clean, depending on its condition. They don’t just clean the headstones though, they make it a point to learn the history of the people so they feel like they know them. As of now, they don’t do any cement work restoration and instead focus on cleaning and re-edging the base of the headstone. They use only one product, a natural, bio-safe product that is also used at the Arlington National Cemetery. “We want to make sure the stones are preserved,” Gabby explained. She and John plan to keep Legacy Renewed as more of a flexible hobby than a job. They’ve got about a month left of cleaning this year before the weather prohibits it and are already taking requests for the spring. She encourages people to reach out if they would like to be put on the list.
Leave a Reply