Renee Taylor, Profile

"I want to feel vital in the world I am a part of."

That's the great motivation for Renee Taylor, a Fox Valley mother, wife, and health-care sales associate.

Taylor, 28, lives in the Fox Valley because, she says, "I feel it is progressive, diverse, small-town enough to be friendly and safe and large-town enough to have lots of opportunity." Although, she says, "I would love a small river community, a farm, or a commune in the country," her husband, Joel, and she made a compromise when house hunting--she wanted small, and he wanted Madison. However, she explains, "We both felt that being close to family and looking at school districts as well as job opportunity and culture was more important than size so we very quickly agreed on the Fox Valley. We stay because it fits us and we fit it, it is home and symbiotically we are filled with the spirit of this community."

"Learning, teaching and engaging drive me," says Taylor. "I feel that the true purpose of the human body and mind is to experience and understand, almost as if we need to report this amazing life back to some cosmic historian."

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Erika Van Ryzin, Profile.

Erika Van Ryzin dreams of warmer climes and travels there in spirit, through sampling ethnic food, listening to world music, and mixing herbs and herbal remedies. To this end, she also makes her immediate world a more comfortable place as well, nurturing her son, Shen, her massage clients, and her friends with caring touch.

Born and raised in the Fox Valley, Van Ryzin considers herself a fate-based person whose "...great daily satisfaction that really makes my soul sing is smelling essential oils and blending herbs."

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Julie Miller, Profile

Julie Miller moved to the Fox Valley several years ago, when, as she puts it, "My husband Jeff was offered a job with the Appleton PD. We’re from Illinois, but we were living in Texas at the time. We thought Appleton sounded like a good city even though we’d never been here before. One reason being the FVUUF’s website…we found it when we were researching the area, and it sounded like everything we were looking for in a church. And when we did finally get there, it felt like home."

Miller, a full-time mother of two daughters, Madeline and Mia, enjoys the quality of life she can have with her family in the Fox Valley, being available for her daughters and husband. In addition, she adds, "Well, as a mom, my favorite entertainment is the Building for Kids, the YMCA, Wild Air, places like that. As just myself, I love going to Barnes & Noble or Conkey’s to just hang out. I also like Brewed Awakenings for meeting friends and the farmer’s market in the summer. And, of course, the library."
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Angela Lewis, Profile

Angela Lewis is full-time mom of four kids, a college-student, a wife, a cook, and a writer.
She's also a resident of the Fox Valley, a Liberal, and a member of the Fox Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

Born and raised in the Fox Valley, Lewis, 32, lives in Menasha, with her husband, Jay, and children, Mykaela, Sophia, Maxwell, and Jackson. Lewis is studying to be an interior designer through The Art Institute of Pittsburgh's online program.

"My job now is raising kids," Lewis says, "taking care of kids to the best that I know how. My career goal is to be a great designer, an interior designer and I'm going to school for that --The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Going to school--it's satisfying because I'm learning and learning is great for me, recently. That hasn't always been a great passion. It's hard though. I used to think it was really easy to just get on the computer whenever you want, but how do you do that when you have kids to raise and feed and care for? When do you have time? I need to just sit there for two hours--when can I find time for that?"

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