Shortly before Memorial Day, what started as a cocktail of heart palpitations, screaming shoulder pain, and breathing difficulty led to an emergency room visit that revealed a large tumor sitting squarely on Kate’s heart, sticking to her lung.

After weeks of uncertainty, tests, appointments, and a not-all-according-to-plan thoracic surgery, Kate received a tidal wave of a diagnosis: Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma, PMBCL: an aggressive and rare cancer.

Kate has described herself as a “very lucky unlucky person.” She and Sam are incredibly grateful that the cancer was caught before significant progression, but they also know that the road ahead will not be easy.

According to her oncologist, Kate’s aggressive chemotherapy is going to hit “hard and fast,” requiring in-patient hospitalization for five consecutive days, every 21 days, for several months. Kate remains optimistic and ready to ride the wave.

About Kate:

I first met Kate in December 2014 when she agreed to be my student teaching mentor at Poudre Global Academy. I was 21 and nervous and second-guessing if I had it in me to be a teacher. I’d decided that if I didn’t get placed anywhere, I would take it as a sign from the universe and walk away from the profession entirely. Who in their right mind, I figured, would take on an enormous, full-time mentorship role with so little lead time?

Kate Stevens, as it turned out. My first impression of Kate was that she was unwaveringly professional. Over that blur of a semester, I learned her professionalism was rooted in her belief that in order to work a community focused job that affects the lives of children, the only way to show up is to show up.

In the months that followed, she taught me how to lesson plan, how to hold a room, how to sit down with a struggling young person, recommended that I get a haircut, and, in class after class and in meeting after meeting with students and parents and colleagues, I watched a person who is preternaturally gifted at giving a shit change and improve the lives of the people in her community. She changed mine, too: Kate and I would go on to teach together as collaborators and as partners-in-crime for the next four years.

I share this not because this experience with Kate was singular, but rather because it is indicative of Kate’s personal and professional ethos across so many different areas of her life:

Whether she’s teaching high school students, demoing bokashi composting, photographing a client, or building an immediately-lived-in-rapport at the farmer’s market, Kate interacts with strangers and familiar faces alike with a warm intentionality predicated upon a deep awareness that every person she meets is exactly that: a person.

She has always believed that small acts of kindness and stewardship can create meaningful ripples in her community, and the myriad of friends, colleagues, students, and customers who have passed through her orbit can attest to the veracity of this philosophy.

While Kate has been teaching part time in recent years, she and Sam have built a small business from the ground-up. As is true across Kate and Sam’s professional lives, these ventures have been community initiatives. And now it is time for us, their community, to support them.

Your Help:

Kate’s diagnosis presents a major detour for Kate and Sam’s day to day lives and finances. Throughout chemo, Kate will be managing significant side effects and risk of serious secondary infection.

Kate’s diagnosis has changed pretty much, well, everything. From their day to day lives, ability to work, run their business, and Sam’s plans to sit for the Bar Exam. Instead of preparing for the exam, she has postponed taking the bar until February so she can be fully present for Kate through surgery, chemotherapy, appointments, and recovery. There will be another opportunity to take the exam, but, in Sam’s words, “there is only one opportunity to walk with the amazing person you love through one of the hardest seasons of her life.”

Kate and Sam’s household finances are deeply tied to their business, and, while Kate focuses on healing, their ability to generate income will be significantly reduced at the exact moment that their expenses and medical needs are increasing.

Your generosity will help them to:

Looking beyond treatment, Kate and Sam remain committed to their work in the Colorado grain chain: upcycling, milling, and sharing Colorado goods.

We promise to keep everyone updated throughout Kate’s treatment and recovery. She and Sam are already looking forward to the day that they can continue to give back to the community that has given them so much.

Much love, f*ck cancer, and thank you for your support during this difficult time.

With gratitude,

Chris Vanjonack