Kathryn "Katie" STAUFFER Tributes, Condolences & Bereavement

In Loving Memory, a lasting tribute / Linda Staufer (Mother)
"I had to do something to keep her alive in some way." Arts center is also a memorial By Valerie Reed Inquirer Suburban Staff Linda Stauffer, her eyes filling with tears, gently smooths the clay that shapes her daughter's face. "I'm touching her. This will always be here," whispered the Haycock Township artist, whose 19-year-old daughter died in a car accident two years ago. Behind her in the brightly lighted ceramics studio, a white vinyl sign hangs over the double windows: Katie Stauffer Arts & Cultural Center. This, too, Stauffer hopes, will endure as a tribute to the daughter who loved to paint and swim and read. "I had to do something to keep her alive in some way. The people in this community helped make Katie who she was, and I feel I have to give back to them," Stauffer said. The studio, built last summer, is steps away from the home filled with Katie Stauffer's paintings and awards for academics and athletics. Katie, who graduated as valedictorian from Quakertown Community High School, was a sophomore at Swarthmore College when she died while traveling with friends to Florida. Battling depression after her daughter's death, Stauffer said that she could envision her daughter telling her, "Don't be a slacker." "She had no patience for slackers," said Stauffer, 52, who wears her daughter's high school ring on her pinky and carries a snippet of her daughter's hair in a locket around her neck. After nearly a year of planning, Stauffer, who had taught art in the Easton Area School District, established the memorial, earmarking $200,000 of the insurance settlement from Katie's death to the center. The first classes were offered in October. Through an agreement with the Upper Bucks YMCA, classes are also conducted at the organization's Quakertown site. Pat Edwards, executive director of the Upper Bucks YMCA, said she watched Katie grow up on the Y swim team, first as a member and then as assistant coach. "She always had a smile on her face, was always enthusiastic," Edwards said of the young woman, who later won medals for Swarthmore's swim team. Edwards and Stauffer agreed that the biggest challenge facing the center is exposure. The YMCA lists the Web site www.katiestauffer.org in its brochure, and publicizes the classes at local schools. Stauffer has placed newspaper ads and put up signs to promote the center. "I admire her," Edwards said. "She is turning her grief into something that will be so good for the upper Bucks community, and she is sharing Katie with this small part of the world." Stauffer gets emotional support from her husband, Carl, 63, a retired steelworker, and daughter, Christine, 24, who recently moved to Easton. "I'm glad she's doing this," said Carl Stauffer, tending to the antique wood stove in the studio. "It's a slow beginning, but it will catch on." In the first eight-week session, four classes were formed for children, teens and adults. In the current session, the center attracted students for five of the 30 classes offered. The next session is scheduled to begin Feb. 27, again with offerings in painting, drawing, cartooning, sculpture, jewelry and ceramics. Stauffer is looking for a building in Quakertown to house all the classes. The space will determine the direction the center will take. She said she would like to provide studio space for artists, who in turn would teach classes. In addition, the center plans to hold summer arts camps and maybe performing arts classes. Stauffer's background is in the visual arts. She taught art in the Easton schools for nearly 30 years, retiring after her daughter died. During that period, she also sold pottery and drew portraits. About five years ago, she began making ocarinas, clay whistles sculpted into whimsical animal shapes. More recently, Stauffer illustrated a book about a dog sleuth by an 11-year-old girl from Downingtown. She plans to illustrate a book on grief, also featuring dogs as the main characters. Nothing, however, distracts her from her primary goal - creating a viable arts center. She has assembled a board of directors and hired someone to write a detailed business plan. "Katie always said she wanted to do something that would make a difference," Stauffer said of the daughter who wanted to be a molecular neurologist. "She always gave 100 percent, and I have to do this right for her." Christine Stauffer said the center was a fitting tribute to her sister. "She would have liked it. She was a good artist," she said. A colorful painting by Katie Stauffer of a butterfly serves as the center's logo. Linda Stauffer said she selected the butterfly as a symbol of rebirth. Katie Stauffer's memory is alive in the ceramics studio - her swim goggles hang over a frame, a collage of photographs is propped up on a table. "I used to say when people die, they are not really dead until everyone who knew of them dies," Linda Stauffer said. "As long as they're alive in someone's memory, a part of them is alive. I can't let Katie die again."