House Commemoration 8001
Introduced by: Representatives Weisgram, Emery, Greenfield, Healy, Kull, Moore, Mortenson, Muckey, Reimer,
Reisch, Stevens, Venhuizen, and Walburg and Senators Crabtree, Deibert, Duhamel, Perry, Rohl, and Zikmund
A LEGISLATIVE COMMEMORATION, Honoring Donna Leslie of the South Dakota
Retailers Association for outstanding service to the business community.
WHEREAS, Donna Leslie has been a leading staff member of the South Dakota Retailers
Association since being hired as communications director on September 12, 1988; and
WHEREAS, Donna has worked for four executive directors, three dozen board presidents,
and more than one hundred fifty board members during nearly thirty-seven years of service;
and
WHEREAS, Donna has written virtually every article in nearly three hundred issues of the
Retail Prophet magazine, which provides important, timely information to thousands of South
Dakota businesses; and
WHEREAS, Donna has “kept an eye” on thirty -seven legislative sessions for the South
Dakota Retailers Association and produced more than one hundred sixty issues of the
Legislative Bulletin, while compiling each edition of the popular Legislative Lineup guide to
the legislative session; and
WHEREAS, Donna has been the historian and information hub of the South Dakota
Retailers Association, helping guide its growth from two thousand members in 1988 to four
thousand today; and
WHEREAS, Donna has skillfully managed the South Dakota Retailers Association’s
scholarship program, which has awarded two hundred eighty scholarships totaling more than
two hundred fifty thousand dollars; and
WHEREAS, Donna’s incomparable fashion sense has translated into bronze as the guiding
force in dressing the statue of Governor Robert S. Vessey outside the Retailers Association
office; and
WHEREAS, Donna is the longest-serving employee during the one hundred twenty -eight
years the South Dakota Retailers Association has served this state; and
WHEREAS, the press release announcing her hire stated that, “Hiring Donna Leslie is a
positive step that will help us in providing better information to our members and the public
as well,” and she has more than lived up to that billing; and
WHEREAS, after consuming approximately forty -eight thousand two-hundred eighty-five
cups of coffee during her tenure, Donna intends to retire in May 2025;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT COMMEMORATED, by the One Hundredth Legislature of the State
of South Dakota, that Donna Leslie has made a positive difference in the lives of many South
Dakotans by helping make the South Dakota Retailers Association one of the country’s largest
and most effective business organizations.