By Ashley Stewart

Owatonna People’s Press

BLOOMING PRAIRIE — For more than a decade, Holli Naatz has volunteered hours upon hours to local organizations throughout Blooming Prairie and Steele County.

And the kicker? She didn’t even realize it.

“It’s fun, so you don’t think of it as volunteering,” she said. “You just do it.”

And Naatz has done a lot.

For the last 15 years, Naatz has organized the Blooming Prairie High School After-Prom Party.

“I think most people identify me with that,” she said.

Naatz started helping with the after-prom party when her daughters — now a senior in high school and a senior in college — were young while one of her friends coordinated it.

“One year she said she wasn’t doing it anymore, and I said I don’t mind taking it over but I’d rather wait until my kids get older,” she said. “But nobody wanted to take over, so I did it thinking I would do it for a few years, and then not be when my kids got here.”

But she was.

However, Naatz said this year will be her last year organizing the after-prom party because her youngest daughter, Kalyn, graduates in the spring.

“I just think it’s time to pass it on,” she said. “It makes a difference if you have kids and are around kids that age.”

But Naatz will remain fairly busy nonetheless.

She, and her husband, Doug, have helped with 4-H for years, too.

“4-H’s been a big part of our life,” Naatz said. “The Steele County fair is our vacation. I mean that’s when my husband and I take the week off and we camp up here.”

And that’s something their daughters, Kelli and Kalyn, who have been involved in 4-H, are accustomed to.

“With the girls, I think we’ve shown at least six species at the fair,” Naatz said. “That’s a lot of parent involvement when they first get started.”

Naatz has also served as a leader and a softball coach.

“Then I just volunteer wherever they need me,” she said.

For her involvement in 4-H, Naatz received the 2015 Outstanding Leader of the Year award.

She has also donated her time to the Blooming Prairie FFA, First Lutheran Church in Blooming Prairie, the Blooming Prairie Area Chamber of Commerce, the Udolpho Township Planning and Zoning Board in Mower County and the Blooming Prairie School District, including driving a school bus for sporting events.

“People sit there and say, ‘You’re doing so much,’ and it’s like, ‘Why wouldn’t you do this?’” Naatz said. “That’s our social life, what our kids are involved in and church stuff.”

And when Naatz was asked how she does it all, she said “a calendar” with a chuckle but admitted it’s because she’s “very fortunate” because of her job at Sportstitch in Blooming Prairie and her home-cleaning business.

“Linda Klemmensen is the owner there, and she is phenomenal,” she said. “She is a big supporter of everything I do. She helps me out a lot whenever I need somebody to run ideas by. It’s an I help her, she helps me kind of thing.”

Each week, Naatz works two days at Sportstitch and three days cleaning homes throughout Blooming Prairie, Owatonna and Austin.

With all that on her calendar, she said her husband and children have always been supportive of her.

“It’s always family around me,” Naatz said. “There isn’t anything that I volunteer with that I don’t have my kids or my husband at. One way or another we’re all together at some point. It’s just all fun.”

And Naatz said other families and friends make it fun, too.

That’s why Naatz was somewhat surprised when she was named the 2015 Blooming Prairie Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year late last month.

“There’s so many people in Blooming that do so much that it’s like, you always look at the other person and think they do way more than you do,” she said.

Becky Noble, chamber director, said each year, chamber members nominate individuals in the community they feel contribute to the City of Blooming Prairie.

“Holli volunteers with everything,” she said. “She’s a great fit.”

And don’t expect Naatz to stop volunteering anytime soon, even with her youngest daughter graduating from Blooming Prairie in the spring.

“I’ll keep helping out,” Naatz said. “There’s always something that will come up or a new challenge, so it’ll be fun.”

One of those things may be with the American Legion, an organization that’s close to Naatz’s heart.

“I’m a veteran, and I’ve been a Legion member for many years, but I’ve never been able to really go to the meetings and help them with their events,” she said. “That will be my next venture, stepping up and helping out with that role.”

Naatz served in the U.S. Army Reserve for nine years from 1989 to 1998.

She said she’ll likely continue to work with 4-H and church.

But why does she do it?

“It feels good in the heart to do it,” Naatz said. “I don’t do it so I can tell people and talk about it. I do it because it feels good, that feeling of knowing you’ve helped somebody, you’ve made someone else’s day a little brighter.”

She said she wishes more people associated volunteering with fun instead of work.

“Other people have hobbies, I guess I volunteer,” Naatz said.

Naatz will be recognized during the Blooming Prairie Area Chamber of Commerce’s Banquet on Nov. 19 at the Servicemen’s Club.