In a small community like Vandalia, some people make their mark through grand gestures. Others, like Theresa Knebel, weave themselves into the fabric of community life one gentle interaction at a time.

"I was quiet and shy," Theresa recalls of her high school years. "I didn't want to bring any attention to myself." But those who knew the 1981 Vandalia graduate remember someone who was always observing, always taking in the world around her with an artist's eye and an empath's heart.

Theresa spent four years studying commercial art in high school, nurturing a talent that would follow her beyond graduation. She also played softball, but athletics weren't her calling—art was. After graduation, she pursued a BA in art at Greenville College, a path that might never have happened without an unexpected advocate.

"A manager at KFC where I worked talked me into going to college," she remembers. "We didn't have that in our family." Starting work at KFC when she was just 15, Theresa hadn't considered higher education until this manager asked a simple question: "What are you gonna do after you graduate?"

That conversation changed everything.

Armed with her art degree, Theresa returned to the area and took on various commercial art projects—signs for local businesses, including one for the Fayette County Health Department that still stands today, decades later. "I was painting this all by hand," she explains. "This was before cutting vinyl and everything."

But art wasn't financially sustainable in rural Illinois. Recognizing she needed steady work, Theresa made a practical pivot that would define her career: she returned to school for two intensive years to become a dental hygienist at Lakeland College in Mattoon.

"It was pretty intense," she says of the program. "Chemistry, anatomy and physiology—you had to know muscles and nerves and all that stuff in the body. I didn't have much of a social life at that point."

But those quiet, observational skills that made her seem shy in high school? They became professional assets. "You're dealing with people's most personal stuff," she explains. Reading people, understanding their comfort levels, knowing when someone was anxious—these empathetic abilities made her exceptional at her work.

For decades, Theresa built relationships one patient at a time, becoming a familiar face throughout the community. "My brother would always tease me when he came home: 'You're like the mayor here. Everybody knows you,'" she laughs. "I can barely keep my hand on the steering wheel when I'm driving through town because I'm waving at everybody."

That community connection deepened when Theresa married later in life, gaining not just a husband but a young stepson, Hayden. "I got involved in his life when he was like one and a half," she says. "Pretty much helped raise him."

Now, life has come full circle in the most beautiful way. Hayden attends the same Vandalia schools where Theresa once walked the halls as that quiet, artistic girl. "It's just fun with him being in school... watching him do good things in school now," she reflects. "In the place that you went to school."

Having retired from dental hygiene two years ago, Theresa still fills in occasionally when needed. But these days, much of her focus is on Hayden and appreciating the teachers who are shaping him just as her own teachers shaped her. "We just can't thank them enough," she says. "We always are thanking them and appreciating them and doing what we can to help them in the classroom."

When asked what advice she'd give to young people today, Theresa's response reflects both her practical nature and her deep appreciation for the influences that shaped her path: "Choose your influences wisely and harvest the lessons they have to share."

For Vandalia, Theresa Knebel represents something essential about small-town life—the way quiet dedication builds lasting community bonds. Through decades of caring for people's health, raising a child, and simply being present for her neighbors, she's proven that you don't need to seek the spotlight to make a meaningful difference.

"To me, Vandalia is comfortable and safe," she says. "A friendly environment, great place to raise a family. It just feels like everybody's got your back."

And for over four decades, Theresa has been part of that support system, one gentle smile and caring gesture at a time.