MADISON – For Danielle Hartung, Madison has no strangers.

“Truly, everyone is so friendly. I look forward to meeting each and every single one of you someday,” Hartung said. “What is so special about Madison? Well, everything.”

“I fell in love with Madison when my father relocated with Boeing’s space program in the mid-1990s. The first time I flew here to visit him, my heart was captured,” Hartung said. “Madison is a stark contrast from where I grew up, Southern California. I knew immediately someday I would move my family here.”

In a military family, “we had to go where we were told, but in early 2014 my dreams came true. We moved here and never looked back,” she said.

For Hartung, Madison “beats our Southern California” with real trees – not cell towers resembling palm trees, open fields, farmland, shaded parks and nature trails. Ironically, Madison has a “big-city feel” with in-town activities and proximity to cultural attractions.

“Madison epitomizes Southern hospitality, love and acceptance,” Hartung said. She’ll always remember her first trip to the grocery store. The cashier asked how her day was going and actually waited for an answer, “something I had never encountered. I chatted with her for over an hour. I was completely floored.”

“Madison has a laid-back atmosphere … everything gets done when it gets done (without) around-the-clock pressure to ‘go-go-go’ and ‘do-do-do,’ prevalent in most big cities,” she said.

Hartung is a Realtor with The Ryan Jones Group at RE/MAX Unlimited in Madison. She also owns a professional organizing business.

“I beat ovarian cancer in 2013 by switching to a whole plant-based, predominantly raw, vegan diet. I like living and not having cancer. My kids nicknamed me ‘Wonder Woman,’” she said.

Her sons, eight-year-old Kaeden and almost-seven-year-old Konnor, “are baseball-obsessed and loving school at Madison elementary,” Hartung said. “My ‘other-half’ (spouse) is a Navy submariner but about to retire.

They own two male orange tabbies and a female golden retriever, all rescues, and are fostering an abandoned hound puppy.

Hartung volunteers with PTA and community HOA, as assistant baseball coach and dugout mom and with MARF. “I also do life coaching for severe cluttering (hoarders) and volunteer to clean out ‘hoarding’ houses,” she said.