Kvien lost her battle with cancer earlier this year. After her death, a group
of friends of the Kvien family brainstormed ideas on what could be done to
honor her.

     “We thought a chair would be a fitting tribute,” said Fred Terasa, the
Coordinator of Continuing Education and Conference Center Development at the
UGA Tifton Campus. “We wanted to honor Cathy in a long-term sense. We wanted
to help her family remember her and also maybe give them some additional
peace.”

     The group presented their idea to Mike Brumby, the director of the Tift
County Foundation for Educational Excellence. It was decided that the chair
would be named the Cathy Kvien Chair for Family Reading because of her
involvement with the foundation’s Accelerated Reader program.

     “I know Cathy would love it,” Brumby said. “It’s a perfect fit in the sense
that it’s tied in with what’s going on in Tifton and she was a big part of
that. Cathy’s contributions were endless. She was quite brilliant and a
wonderful writer and doer. She did a lot of things behind the scenes that
made a huge difference with kids ... she wasn’t a headline-grabber.”
Kvien volunteered at Annie Belle Clark Primary School where her daughter
Allison was a student. She worked with migrant students and adults who had
English as a second language, started pilot programs with testing and
statistics to monitor the progress. Along with Tammy Griffin, Brumby
estimates Kvien spent 200 hours in the Tifton Tift County Public Library
checking books that were on the Accelerated Reading List.

     “Cathy was always excited about reading and getting the family involved,”
Griffin said. “At the end of last school year, we were trying to brainstorm
ideas to get families more involved. Her idea was a family challenge, to
have a friendly competition between families to earn points.

     “Her whole focus was on kids and families and trying to educate our children
more,” Griffin said. “She believe the family had a big role in that and that
it wasn’t just the teachers’ responsibility.”

     The memorial chair would be the fifth designated by the foundation. Already,
chairs exist in honor of Virginia Short Lindskog (foreign language), Mikie
Wolff (humanities), Syd Blackmarr (arts), Homer Rankin (journalism), and Dr.
Glenn Burton (science).

     A minimum of $25,000 is needed which becomes the endowment and cannot be
touched. The foundation has an investment committee which manages the money
and it generates at least five percent in interest each year. That money is
awarded to programs in the area of interest on a competitive basis.
Patrick Atwater, the principal at Annie Belle Clark, said Kvien had become
somewhat of an unofficial staff member.

     “So many children knew her ... she had sort of become a figure here,” he
said. “She taught Spanish to our K-2 students and they thoroughly loved to
see her. She was a liaison between our school and the foundation and she was
really on top of things. She actually got a copy of our QCC (Quality Core
Curriculum) and took it home and read it herself. Not many have done that.”
Already, the group has raised around $11,000 on their way to the $25,000.
Anyone wanting to contribute can do so by sending a check to the Tift County
Foundation for Educational Excellence, P.O. Box 714, Tifton, Ga., 31793 or
by calling Brumby at 382-7515 or 382-4328.

     “This is in recognition of how much Cathy’s contributions meant,” said
Terasa, who works with Kvien’s husband Craig, a scientist at NESPAL. “It’s
right in line with what her ambitions were. For me, it was important as a
campus to do something. For the greater community, I think it’s a natural.”

To contact managing editor Chris Beckham, call 382-4321, ext. 203.