Mention of her name conjures up the sound of her hearty laugh. She passed from this world on Sunday, February 20 as the result of a snorkeling accident while on vacation in Hawaii with Mike and friends. Hawaii was a favorite destination of Karen's and I can see her enjoying herself immensely - she died while truly living. For some reason, I can't imagine it being any other way for Karen. Though selfishly I would have liked for it to have been twenty years down the road.
I've been asked for words that describe Karen, here they are: Passionate, Energetic, Motivating, Adventurous, Encouraging, Fun, Creative, Amazing. Karen was an inaugural winner of one of three community Leading Lights awards presented in April 2009. She was currently serving as Chair of the Leading Lights Selection Committee for 2011.
What would Karen want us to do? Everything possible! But first she would want us to know we can all do something, and should. And she would encourage us to all support our local communities first, even though we may also support other communities. She was fervent believer in that - consider all she did just on behalf of her neighborhood community of Eastern Montgomery County. She was the secretary and editor of Project LINC, a bi-monthly 20-24 page newsletter about Eastern Montgomery County. She was a founding member of the Meadowbrook Market and Tomato Festival, and served on the Meadowbrook Community Center committees including the Garden Club (founding member and Garden Day chair); Active Adult Day presenter/partner; founding member; Eastmont Arts Association program chair/founding member; Waldron Family YMCA fundraising team co-chair.
A couple of years ago Karen told me she volunteered about twenty hours a week. I think she was being modest. Karen was currently serving as the local United Way Public Relations Chair, and serving on the Campaign Team as the Team Chair for both Retirees and Non-Profits. Karen was a member of Montgomery County Social Services Board since May, 2003 (Vice Chair since June, 2007); and the Montgomery County League of Women Voters board (VP – Voter Service) since June, 2007.
She served as the United Way of Montgomery, Radford & Floyd Campaign Chair for 3 years - only volunteer to ever serve in that role for three years. Karen was the Communications/Marketing/PR Committee Chair for 10 years and stayed on that committee during mandatory years off the Board, and was also a Community Investment Panel Chair during years “off”. She took on extra duty as a volunteer "workplace campaign consultant" for 2 years.
Even before being elected to the UWMRF Board, Karen served on communications committee for two years - and for many, many years, worked on the campaign at Virginia Tech – first when it was still a United Way Campaign and then after it became the Commonwealth Virginia Campaign.
During her career as a Senior Producer in TV, Radio, and Video at Virginia Tech, Karen served as volunteer sorority adviser (Tri Delta) for 14 years and was awarded Adviser of the Year for student organizations AND Greek organizations in 1996.
It's hard to think of going forward without Karen. Who will be our cheerleader? Who will have those flashes of insight that translated to good new practices? Who will be our true sounding board? Just last week I said to a co-worker, "You'd better run that by Karen first and make sure she's OK with that." Honestly, she's one person who can't be replaced in our world.
Saying I will miss her just glosses over the pain of many who knew her more deeply. Saying our community has suffered a great loss just begins the story of all the wonderful things she did for us while she was with us, and which we are to continue to keep her memory alive and well. Karen expects that from us.
Mike, Karen's Mom, and sister, other family and friends - we grieve for you and with you. May peace come to you. Our thoughts and prayers are with you now and in the coming week and months. May we find ways to honor Karen's life and contributions to our community and our lives.
Sincerely,
Kymn Davidson-Hamley
Executive Director, United Way MRF
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