BOARD MEMBER INTROSPECTIVE:

SYLVIA KRESEVICH PROVENZA

by Scott C. Tips

Editor of Health Freedom News
Board Member and Legal Counsel for NHF

July 2005

The word at the National Health Federation amongst our Board members is “If you want something done, ask Sylvia.”  A powerhouse from the word go, NHF Board of Governors member Sylvia Kresevich Provenza makes things happen; and when they happen, it doesn’t cost us an arm or a leg either.  Perhaps it comes from her upbringing or from her strong character – or, more likely, from both.  Regardless, as NHF president Maureen Salaman said recently of Sylvia, “She’s not a talker, she’s a doer.  And she never let’s go until it’s done.”

Proudly Slovenian-American

A first-generation Slovenian-American, our Board member Sylvia Provenza was born in Pennsylvania to Slovenian parents who had immigrated to Pennsylvania while in their mid-20s.  Both hard workers and proud of their origins, mother and father insisted that Sylvia learn to speak Slovenian, which she did and still does to this day.

In fact, Sylvia serves as a vice president of the American Slovene Radio Hour radio program and assistant announcer for the American Slovene Radio Hour.  She then spent nine years serving as the president of the Slovene Speaking Federation of Pittsburgh as well as holding a position on the Heritage Room Committee of the Slovene National Benefit Society.  And as if that were not enough, she also has served ten years as the secretary of the Slovene National Benefit Society’s Lodge No. 216.  Over those ten years Sylvia has been involved in numerous charitable activities on behalf of the Lodge, activities she continues to this day.

A Life of Work and Happiness

Graduating from Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a degree in business, Sylvia worked first for Ingalls Steel Construction in that same city and then later with the Pittsburgh National Bank.  She was known for her hard and competent work at both places and was very much missed when she left the Bank so that she could be a full-time mother to her soon-to-be-born child.

Her husband Joe Provenza and she were extremely proud, then, when their son was born.  Just celebrating their 45^th wedding anniversary, Joe and Sylvia found their son Joey a delight to rear and now, many years later, he himself is married to Kim and the proud father of Sylvia’s granddaughter, Jennifer.  As Sylvia says, “All four are truly the loves of my life!”

She juggles those four loves with her other personal passions in life: reading and daily exercise such as walking, biking, and tennis.  Family involved because she grew up with it, Sylvia is not shy about including her family members in her activities.  Although her husband Joe serves as the chairman of the Zoning Hearing Board for the Borough of Verona, Pennsylvania (about 15 miles NE of Pittsburgh), he finds the time to stay involved too and the Provenza family is happily close and snug.

She Becomes A Health Advocate

In the early 1970s, Sylvia’s sister Dottie had been medically poisoned when her doctors gave her a multitude of drugs with one reacting against the others.  Not surprisingly, she became extremely ill.  During a trip to a local health-food store to find something that might help Dottie, Sylvia and her father were told by one of the employees that fresh-squeezed juices could help restore her health.  The juicing (primarily carrot juice) that Sylvia started Dottie on probably saved her life.  Today, Dottie is still alive and healthy.

Later, when they were elderly, both Sylvia and Dottie’s two parents became ill.  Having had no success in seeking their treatment with allopathic medicine, Sylvia and her sister Dottie adopted the approach that had earlier helped Dottie. They started with juicing and helped their parents get better with a regime of fresh-squeezed juices, which the two sisters made sure they drank every day.  The parents did very well on this regimen and it turned around a lot of health problems that they had.  Of course, Sylvia and Dottie included organic foods and supplements in their diet too.

In fact, their health was so robust with their new diet (with which they continued the rest of their lives) that Sylvia and Dottie’s father was over 95 when he died – and even then it was only after an accident precipitated a serious health condition.  At the age of 95, he looked to everyone as if he were 60 with the most gorgeous skin and a mind that was brilliant.  Their mother was 88 years old when she died and certainly did not look her age.  In neither case did their parents suffer from any prolonged illnesses.

Quite understandably, Sylvia changed her own diet because of the benefits that she witnessed in her parents’ and sister’s improved lives.  With her diet of whole and organic foods and juiced fruits and vegetables, she has enjoyed an immensely better state of health with more energy and drive than ever before.

And Then A Health-Freedom Fighter

One evening in the late 1980s, a friend invited Sylvia to attend a “fluoridation” meeting in Pittsburgh.  As it turned out, though, the meeting was not really about fluoridation at all but was more about the National Health Federation.  The persons there wanted to form an NHF chapter in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania to pursue health freedom and they sought a leader for the group.  Sylvia’s husband promptly volunteered Sylvia to be the president of the NHF Chapter, and she was quickly and unanimously elected as its president.  She has held that position ever since.  As its president, Sylvia was also intimately involved in the fight that took place in the early 1990s to pass the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), helping to rally our forces in the area to pepper their legislators with letters, faxes, and telephone calls in favor of passing DSHEA.

Impressively, at every NHF event is Sylvia’s supportive husband, Joe, also carrying the NHF banner and contributing his time for the Federation's health-freedom causes.  Together, they make a formidable team and Joe’s efforts should not be forgotten either.

Sylvia has also brought two major NHF health shows to the Pittsburgh area.  Because she has not only enjoyed attending numerous health shows but organizing them as well, she has become an established expert at putting them together inexpensively and efficiently.  Sylvia also greatly enjoys teaching health seminars.

But Sylvia’s passion for alternative healthcare and for health freedom is perhaps best shown by her absolutely incredible ability to sign up new members for NHF.  No one at NHF even comes close to Sylvia in her remarkable ability to convince others to join NHF.

NHF member Rose Jevnikar expressed this view best when she recently wrote Ms. Salaman about Sylvia Provenza:

“I was in attendance at a health fair in Cleveland, Ohio the weekend of April 16, 2005 and a one-day seminar sponsored by local alternative doctors in the Pittsburgh, PA area on April 23.  To observe Sylvia at work soliciting new members for the NHF with such enthusiasm and dedication was a heart-warming experience.

It was obvious according to the line of attendees signing up for membership at the NHF booth at both events, that Sylvia’s efforts proved very productive, considering that the attendance was only fair.  I believe she did a remarkable job!”

Routinely, Sylvia will sign up 50 to 60 new NHF members at these events.  And more importantly, she then motivates them to take action to further health freedom.  As Ms. Salaman remarked after getting this letter, “With 100 more people like Sylvia, we would win this fight for health freedom all over the world.”  With such energy and considerable real-world experience, Sylvia contributes importantly to the NHF Board of Governors as well as the NHF itself.

Current Plans and Actions    

Never content to rest on her laurels, Sylvia is working towards her herbalist degree with the Dr. John R. Christopher School of Natural Healing in Springville, Utah.  With this degree in hand, she will be able to help people in many additional ways.

However, as she studies, Sylvia is also mindful of the looming dangers of the Codex Alimentarius Commission guidelines and what they could do to health freedoms in the United States.  She is therefore very active in making others aware of the dangers that harshly-restrictive Codex “standards” would pose to our domestic health freedoms.  There is no question but that the level of awareness on this issue has been greatly increased in the Pittsburgh area, thanks to Sylvia.

But always positive, Sylvia sees the future of health freedom as ultimately being bright and steady.  And given her intensely high level of activism, it would be very difficult for anyone to disagree with her.  For with a friendly wave of her hand and a crisp nasvidenje! (Slovenian for “until we meet again!”), Sylvia is quickly out the door and off again to save us and the world.   And, knowing her, she will do it too.