Long before she became our Route Representative Manager in the Mills Parts Center, Kelly Peterson had been a part-time receptionist/cashier for about two and a half years at Mills Ford Chrysler in Willmar, when she was interviewed for a position at Mills Parts Center. The interviewer said, "Tell us one thing that we should know about you."

"I am fun!" she said.

Yes, indeed. Kelly is the fun, high-energy, smiling and laughing, hard-driving, encouraging, supportive, bigger-than-life personality roaming the MPC warehouse that covers two football fields. The interviewer asked, "How did you get to be such a fun person?"

"Just lucky I guess," Kelly said, laughing. "Life is short. Grab it by the horns and cram as many adventures and fun into it as you can. I don’t want to look back with regrets." She started at MPC as an administrative assistant. Soon she was Warehouse Manager, leading the 40 Team Members in the trenches who pick, pack, load, and unload thousands of automotive parts every day. Today, Kelly is the Route Representative Manager. She oversees MPC Team Members who drive some 25 truck routes and make about 700 deliveries daily to customers within 300 miles of Willmar in Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Kelly is originally from Springfield, a community of about 2,500 in Brown County just 65 miles almost directly south of Willmar. She is a graduate of Springfield High School and has an accounting degree from Ridgewater Technical College. Kelly had grown up as the oldest of four children. It was in about 2012 that Kelly’s story took a twist.

Fast forward to when Kelly learned she was really the second of nine children: The youngest sister she had grown up with, Kasi, lived in Baxter with her three children. Two months after her 30th birthday, Kasi committed suicide. About 10 months after Kasi died, Kelly learned that her biological father had passed away. She hadn’t seen him since she was about three years old. Kelly later received a Facebook message from another of her father's daughters.

"She reached out to me and we talked about Dad. She wanted to connect, and we did. We are now very close," Kelly said. "That is how I found out I also had four other younger siblings!" Her late grandparents, Norbert and Florence Platz, who were farmers near Springfield, are Kelly’s inspiration. Norbert died in 1995 at the age of 82 and Florence died in 2007 at 94.

"Hard work always pays off," Kelly said was their message. "Be yourself, be happy, love with all your heart, and never give up. If you fall down and get hurt, pick yourself up and keep going. You will be okay."

Kelly's professional career includes stops at FSMC in Lake Lillian, and American Welding in Willmar, where she met her husband, Steve. They have three children: Marcus, 20; McKena, 16, a sophomore at Willmar HighSchool; and Marisa, 13, an eighth-grader at Willmar Middle School. Kelly was also a daycare provider for ten years in neighboring Blomkest, where her family lives today on a five-acre site. She cared for children of all ages, from six weeks to eleven years old.  

“Even though they are kids and you are the adult, there is a lot you can learn from them,” she said.

Kelly’s Favorites!

Music – "I pretty much listen to anything, depends on my mood."

Movies – "Chick flicks, the Jason Bourne series, you can never go wrong with comedy, but not horror!"

Food – "Not fussy! I will at least try anything once."

Clothes – "The comfy ones I change into after a long workday."

First car – 1994 Ford Escort

Dream car – Most likely a truck or SUV so she can sit higher.