Helping Kat and Chris rebuild after CA fires
Donation protected
My name is Doug Ide. I live in Arlington, WA. My dear friend and backpacking companion Kat Pierini and her husband Chris just lost their house and are currently fighting hard to save their workshop in the California fires. They were able to grab a few things before having to flee, but not a lot.
Kat is one of those hard scrabble stories we always like hearing about. She was born in Italy, moved to Switzerland as a pre-teen, then emigrated to America in her early 20s. She’s lived here ever since in California.
She has worked her butt off in her adopted country since arriving, first working farm fields with her bare hands and with her baby in a sling. It was not an easy life, but she’s not one to be defeated (probably not unusual for someone who was a top fencer, as in swords, when she was young). She took some classes and continued to work hard, getting better jobs along the way, until she became one of the groundskeepers at a major California university. She went back to school late in life, 25 years after she last took classes, to finish what she started. While still working full time, she was nearly finished with a degree in Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism when COVID hit, (she’s got a natural talent for languages and linguistics). But that’s Kat, always striving to better herself and her situation, and willing to put in the hard work and time to do so.
As a single mom, she raised her child to be much like herself, caring, fiercely independent, deeply concerned about others (both human and animal) with an eye always toward environmental stewardship. She’s always been thoughtful about the subjects of the day, eschewing the easy answers too many grasp and instead seeing the nuance and various sides of issues. She’s really a special person, as is her now-adult daughter, who, unfortunately, also lost pretty much everything in the fires.
Some of you may know Kat from her famous trail cam photos of the animals that lived and roamed just up the hill from her house (truly, she’s known not just in the US but in other countries as well). She captured photos of cougars, foxes, rabbits, and others in their native habitat and gladly shared them with others for free. You can see some of these amazing pictures and videos on her Instagram site at https://www.instagram.com/bergundwald/
Kat and Chris will certainly get through this, they are two of the toughest people I know. I count myself very fortunate to have met Kat and gotten to know her as a friend, and have always enjoyed our backpacking trips together.
I’d like to make it a bit easier for them to get back on their feet, hence this GoFundMe. I hope you’ll join me with whatever you can spare for some very special people. All money raised through this GoFundMe will go directly to Kat and Chris so they can find and afford a new place to live and buy essentials they lost including basic items like food/clothing/household items and the like.
Kat is one of those hard scrabble stories we always like hearing about. She was born in Italy, moved to Switzerland as a pre-teen, then emigrated to America in her early 20s. She’s lived here ever since in California.
She has worked her butt off in her adopted country since arriving, first working farm fields with her bare hands and with her baby in a sling. It was not an easy life, but she’s not one to be defeated (probably not unusual for someone who was a top fencer, as in swords, when she was young). She took some classes and continued to work hard, getting better jobs along the way, until she became one of the groundskeepers at a major California university. She went back to school late in life, 25 years after she last took classes, to finish what she started. While still working full time, she was nearly finished with a degree in Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism when COVID hit, (she’s got a natural talent for languages and linguistics). But that’s Kat, always striving to better herself and her situation, and willing to put in the hard work and time to do so.
As a single mom, she raised her child to be much like herself, caring, fiercely independent, deeply concerned about others (both human and animal) with an eye always toward environmental stewardship. She’s always been thoughtful about the subjects of the day, eschewing the easy answers too many grasp and instead seeing the nuance and various sides of issues. She’s really a special person, as is her now-adult daughter, who, unfortunately, also lost pretty much everything in the fires.
Some of you may know Kat from her famous trail cam photos of the animals that lived and roamed just up the hill from her house (truly, she’s known not just in the US but in other countries as well). She captured photos of cougars, foxes, rabbits, and others in their native habitat and gladly shared them with others for free. You can see some of these amazing pictures and videos on her Instagram site at https://www.instagram.com/bergundwald/
Kat and Chris will certainly get through this, they are two of the toughest people I know. I count myself very fortunate to have met Kat and gotten to know her as a friend, and have always enjoyed our backpacking trips together.
I’d like to make it a bit easier for them to get back on their feet, hence this GoFundMe. I hope you’ll join me with whatever you can spare for some very special people. All money raised through this GoFundMe will go directly to Kat and Chris so they can find and afford a new place to live and buy essentials they lost including basic items like food/clothing/household items and the like.
Organizer and beneficiary
Douglas Ide
Organizer
Arlington, WA
Katharina Pierini
Beneficiary