| Charitable Funds
The Ken and Dean Kirn Scholarship Fund
In 1996, as a senior at Columbia River High School, Lacey Edmonds nurtured soaring dreams that opened up a world of possibility far away from the community she knew and loved. She wanted to be a pilot. She envisioned a future of working internationally. And her heart yearned to be of service in humanitarian work.
Twelve years later, at the still young age of 30, Lacey Edmonds Pittman has already realized many of these dreams, thanks to support she received for her college years from the Ken and Dean Kirn Scholarship Fund held at the Community Foundation.
“I will never forget that help,” she remembers fondly. “The scholarship was exactly what I needed to start me on my path.”
Generously endowed by Ken and Dean Kirn in 1997, the Scholarship Fund enabled Lacey to attend Trinity Western University in British Columbia – one of the few schools on the continent that allowed her to pursue her twin passions: international studies and aviation.
Soon after graduation, Lacey joined Air Serve International, a humanitarian organization that flies people around the world to assist with both man-made and natural disasters.
Stationed for three years in the tiny West African country of Guinea, this courageous young woman flew a 13-seat twin turbo prop plane in and out of refugee camps in the four conflict-torn countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, and Liberia. Part of her assignment was to transport refugee camp personnel to and from these far-flung camps. But mostly she flew injured war victims, many of whom bore critical wounds, to receive urgent medical care. Without these humanitarian flights, these medical evacuations would require a two-day trip by truck that could be the difference between life and death.
It was during her time in Guinea that Lacey met her husband, a marine stationed at the U.S. Embassy, and together they returned to southwest Washington five years ago. Now the proud mother of a baby girl, Sahara, and Assistant Chief Pilot at Horizon Air, Lacey has not stopped dreaming.
She currently serves on the Board of Air Serve International, bringing her high-altitude vision and leadership to this worthy organization and cherishing the opportunity it provides her to stay involved with Africa: “A place where I left part of my heart,” says Lacey.
Dean Kirn looks on Lacey’s accomplishments with particular joy.
“She is a remarkable young woman, and it has been inspiring for me and so many others to watch her follow her aspirations and contribute so much to the world. We are delighted that this scholarship could be of service in this way,” says Dean Kirn.
For Lacey, the future is just beginning. She dreams of returning to Africa, and hopes that one day Sahara will apply for the same Ken and Dean Kirn Scholarship to pursue her own dreams.
Charitable Funds
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