Help Save My Foster Parents Sight & Heart

Help My Foster Parents: Urgent Medical Care for Carla & David

They've Spent Their Lives Helping Others—Now They Need Us

I will never forget the day David and Carla welcomed me into their home. As a struggling teenager, I wasn’t just given shelter—I found love, kindness, and the guidance that changed my life. Over the years, they did the same for more than two dozen foster children. Now, they need our help.

A Medical Crisis in Nicaragua

David and Carla retired to a small village in Nicaragua, where they volunteer as English teachers and rescue street dogs. But medical care there requires upfront cash payments, and their savings were wiped out after Carla’s hospitalization and David’s heart attack.

They have insurance in the U.S., but they urgently need funds for airfare, transportation, and housing during their treatment.

Who They Are: A Lifetime of Service

David and Carla have dedicated their lives to justice, advocacy, and helping others:

✔️ Founded a rape survivor support center and worked with violent offenders on rehabilitation.

✔️ Led union reforms to protect workers' rights.

✔️ Fought for peace, justice, and human rights, including living at a women’s peace camp to oppose nuclear weapons.

✔️ Worked as an immigration attorney and paralegal, helping asylum seekers escape persecution.

They've spent decades making the world a better place. Now, we can give back.

How You Can Help

Your donation will help cover:

✅ Emergency flights to Washington for treatment

✅ Eye surgery to save Carla’s vision

✅ Medical care for Carla’s tumor and David’s heart

✅ A safe place to stay during recovery

Every dollar, every share, every bit of support makes a difference.

David and Carla never sought recognition for their work—they simply did what was right. Now, for the first time, they need help. Please consider donating or sharing their story.

Thank you for your kindness,

Andrea

Carla and David's full story...

In the 1970s Carla and two friends established the first rape survivors’ support and advocacy center in their city. She obtained funding enabling operation for many years, helping many women, and men as well.

Later on, David and Carla tackled the other side of the problem. Through Seattle Men Against Rape they led weekly meetings for two years at Monroe State Penitentiary for violent offenders. They confronted issues of sexism, violence, self-knowledge and self-esteem, developing compassion, and exercising self-control.

They were active in opposing nuclear weapons. Carla spent 9 months living in a tent at the Puget Sound Women’s Peace Camp outside a cruise missile plant. They organized educational and protest events, hosting thousands of participants from all over the world, raising awareness of the need for sane defense and a rational world.

David was an active member of the Men’s Auxiliary, a group of guys supporting the peace camp events.

As a public employee David was a member of the Teamsters Union. as a county employee.

When the US Department of Justice stepped in to clean up the notorious corruption in the union, he joined an independent group called Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). His local union was well-known for overpaying leadership but neglecting the members. Inspired by TDU David ran for the top job and won. He cut the bloated leadership pay in half, then hired strong staff. With more than 4000 members, he set a standard of working for good contracts and fighting unfair discipline.

Sadly, he had only one term. In his last year he was diagnosed with cancer and fought that battle for the next several months, finally winning. He’s been cancer free for years now.

Meanwhile, Carla went back to finish her degree and went on to law school.

At Seattle University Law School she won a grant to spend a summer giving legal aid to workers in the Washington state apple industry. The reformed Teamsters union had paired up with the United Farm Workers to bring unions to the workers, Farmworkers in the orchards and Teamsters in the packing houses. This was a historic partnership. Many of the workers were immigrants.

The campaign was long-term, to elect a union there. Company opposition was fierce, using illegal tactics to mislead and intimidate workers. Union supporters were harassed, unfairly disciplined, some lost their jobs, and threatened with deportation. This is against the law, and the union won their jobs back by legal action.

Carla spent the summer documenting illegal company scare tactics. Her grant was finished but she postponed returning to law school for a year. She was the only legal worker on site and her work was unfinished.

When the union elections came, the companies won. But the union went to court with the evidence that the workers were so intimidated by threats over months of the campaign that a fair election was impossible. The Judges agreed and ordered a new election at one company and finding that the behavior of the other company was so clearly illegal another election was unnecessary. They ordered the company to start contract bargaining with the union immediately.

David and Carla participated in many other actions and events in support of a kinder world. They have walked picket lines and joined marches for peace and justice all their lives.

After the apple campaign Carla went into practice as an immigration lawyer, specializing in political asylum for immigrants who had survived torture and terrible abuse. David took paralegal training in order to help.

They came to know incredibly courageous and resilient human beings, people from Somalia, India, Kenya, Russia, Moldova, Sudan, Haiti, Mongolia and others, people who were saved by the compassion and generosity of the United States.

David finished his career as an information officer at the Washington State Ferries, a proud member of the Inland Boatman’s Union. Carla wrapped up her low and pro bono (worked for no pay) practice serving low income immigrants. Then they moved to a pretty third world country with friendly people where you can live on social security but can’t use Medicare.