Left Hand Laurel - Karen Quinn

Karen Quinn is kind. She is also modest, so she probably will not like being described in this way. A passionate gardener, talented photographer and deeply spiritual long-time resident of Niwot, Quinn also, by giving of herself and her talents, recently raised $1,600 for Ukrainians.

We are sitting outside on a recent warm and sunny day on her patio, overlooking colorful gardens, alive with lupines and peonies and iris. Quinn is sharing her story over cups of tea and tasty homemade pumpkin muffins.

"Thirty years ago when we first moved to Niwot, I planted 5 lupines in this garden," she said, extending her arms forward toward the bright-colored blossoms, "Now there are more than 150 lupines here and I dig them up and give them away."

Her garden is a metaphor for her deeply spiritual life. Suffering as a child from the unexpected death in a plane crash of both her parents, she grew up in Minnesota and lived in Utah before marrying her husband Brad – a pharmaceutical executive –and moving to Colorado where they adopted and raised four children."We adopted our oldest at three months old, our twins when they were 18 hours old," she said,"and our other daughter at eight months old." Although she taught school for seven years, she said, "I knew I wanted to be a mother," and Quinn added that she was fortunate enough to have the financial security to be able to devote herself full-time to raising her family, as well as to skiing and mountain-biking at their second home in Winter Park and to her photography and spiritual pursuits.

A long-time member of Vinelife Church, on 79th Street at the corner of Lookout Road in Gunbarrel, she said that recently, "our pastor gave us a Kingdom Challenge". He passed out $100 bills to members of the church, she explained, and "he told us to use the gifts you've been given. Discover what they are. Use them to bless other people. As Mother Theresa said, 'Do no great things. Only small things with great love.' "

Quinn decided to combine her photography and spirituality. She bought blue and yellow ribbons to highlight Ukrainian relief, safety pins and photo paper and created hundreds of small prayer cards with her nature photography –pictures of sunflowers, butterflies, mountains, birds, streams, flowers, beaches – with captions like: "Today I will choose happiness"; "May Peace Be With You"; "You Are Very Appreciated"; or with Biblical quotations like: "Be Still and Know That I Am God" or "I Give You Thanks,, O Lord, with all my heart," both from the Book of Psalms.

Quinn explained that she simply started passing out the small, beautiful and inspiring cards to people around town with no expectation of raising money for the Ukrainian relief effort.

One the eve of a month-long trip to Norway this summer, where she and her husband will visit relatives and bike and travel back to the country where they honeymooned 42 years ago, she said: "I love to photograph the beauty of the world around us. I thought about doing a business, but I prefer to give away these gifts. God has given me enough money to afford photo paper and printer ink," she said with a laugh. "God is good and God is faithful."

A kindly, fit-looking woman, she hopped up to offer me some more tea as we gazed at bees buzzing above the hundreds of blooms in her garden. Beyond the large property, cows were grazing on adjacent fields at the far horizon.

"I just started giving away these cards I had made," she continued after a pause. "I just started passing out the cards of my nature photographs and inspirational and Biblical messages – to random people around town. In the world we live in today, we need to be kind to everyone even if all you can offer is a smile of encouragement," she said. Then she smiled..

"Passing out these scripture cards is a passion, I guess, a ministry. After the pastor at our church handed us $100 bills, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought the blue and yellow ribbons and photo paper and printer ink and made the cards with my photographs and started passing them out" she said. She paused again, looking out at the garden she tends herself. "I raised $1600."

Quinn said she never asked people directly for money. The money just started flowing back to her. "$1. $5. $20 – the money just started appearing. This was a gift. I hate asking for money. We had all been focused on the Marshall fire victims and then the Ukraine disaster started and our church adopted three families and I realized this is where the money needed to go."

After consulting with some local leaders in the Niwot community about where to donate the money, Quinn decided to follow her instincts about using a personal approach with someone in the Ukraine whom local leaders knew.

Earlier this spring, the Niwot Cultural Arts Association (NCAA) had kicked off a fund-raising effort to raise $25,000 to purchase "Kore That Awakening", a sculpture on loan in the Niwot Sculpture Park by a Ukrainian artist named Egor Zigura. The money Quinn raised, she said, will be donated to that effort.

"I am a believer in God and I have a deep faith," she said. "And I love to photograph the beauty of the world around us. I thought about doing a business but I prefer to give away these gifts God has given me." We both took our final sips of tea. "Distributing these cards and raising the money – it's been a small way to spread love and joy and kindness."