DUMONT - If she had all the world's resources to do just one thing, Shelene "Shelly" Codner said she might open a resort for troubled kids.

But she also wants to fight cancer and finish her degree.

Codner, 40, of rural Dumont, already is an author, master gardener, 4-H leader, board of education member and award-winning champion of the earth.

She's a member of Iowa State University Extension's youth advisory committee and Mason City's Earth Day Committee. Fights breast cancer with the Susan G. Komen's Race for the Cure Committee.

She will receive the Governor's Volunteer Award in May.

"I don't know what my goal is, and that's why I think I do all these things," Codner said. "I have so many varied interests that I kind of dab in a little here, a little there.

"And there are a lot of great people to work with out there. That's another thing that gets me motivated, is other people's motivation," she said.

Codner is an area resource specialist for Iowa Waste Exchange, helping businesses, schools and cities save money by reducing all sorts of generated waste.

She has provided hospital-bound youngsters with stuffed animals saved from the landfill, and sent books and Bibles to Cuban missionaries - and nearly new textbooks to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

She established a worm composting farm at Des Moines' Blank Park Zoo. The worms eat manure, bedding and food scraps, producing rich fertilizer which can be used for zoo landscaping.

"She just gets involved with everything that she's asked to and then some," said Bill Rowland, director of the Landfill of North Iowa, who works with Codner and the Waste Exchange. "She's very, very passionate about what she does. I admire her motivation and her dedication to the projects she takes on."

"She'll give you 100 percent of whatever it is she puts her mind to," said State Rep. Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, a friend from their native Butler County.

Codner is especially proud of her family: husband John, daughter Kayla, 19, and son Jeffrey, 17.

The kids motivated her to return to school at North Iowa Area Community College. She plans to finish her bachelor of liberal studies degree at Iowa State.

"Your employers are going to change, your jobs can change," she said. "But my most important job is those kids, being a mom and being a wife. Those are always going to be your kids, and that's what keeps me going too. And my husband."

In her spare time she's an AmeriCorps member, working with Communication and Marketing for the Department of Natural Resources' Keepers of the Land Volunteer program.

She also reads, writes and escapes into her garden.

Codner's law: use available resources to make a difference, and always stay positive.

"Search for alternatives," she said, "not saying why it won't work, but looking to find reasons why it can work."

Contact Dick Johnson at

dick.johnson@globegazette.com.