Kathy Marion retired as a 49-year teacher after the 2023-24 school year and began volunteering at Sound Foundations NW the following October. In February, 2025 she contacted us and asked about hosting a private fundraiser using her own network to raise the cost of five new tiny homes. We sat down with Kathy to find out more about her story and what inspired her to take on such a generous, but ambitious, goal. Q&A’s have been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

“I think for me the most important thing is, I feel like I’m doing something and it’s going to have an impact. And that’s what it’s all about. It’s just wanting to give back.”

• SFNW: You said you recently retired. Have you lived here in Seattle your whole life? What’s your back story?

KM: Well, basically I was born in Seattle and I grew up in North Bend, WA. So I’m a total Seattleite, and I taught mathematics at Joseph’s School for 46 years and in the Seattle archdiocese a total of 49 years.

• SFNW: Did you work with your hands as a kid, learning to build?

KM: Yeah we did, when we moved into our home, even though I was very young. It was a one room cabin and there were six of us kids in North Bend at that time. And so, even when we were really young, we learned different things as we were growing up. The whole sense of volunteer work started when a Jesuit priest dropped by the house and asked my father for a donation. And my dad said sorry, we don’t have enough money to donate, but [now] I have seven kids! And so [after that], every summer we would go out to the mission in Omak and we would lay tile, we would paint, the ones who knew how to wire [would do that]. My father would teach a lot of different things and [volunteering] just became a habit.

And then, when I went on to Seattle University for college, I used my skills as an indoor and outdoor house painter to [help pay] my way.

Now, since it’s my first year in retirement and September is when school usually starts, I decided to take a retreat [this past fall] just to get my mind set on the change. [Afterwards,] I went online and I found The Hope Factory and I said yes, I want to do that!

• SFNW: So, what keeps you coming back every week?  What is it about it that feels good?

KM: Well, the people I’m working with, I enjoy working with the different groups and working with my hands. But I think for me the most important thing is, I feel like I’m doing something and it’s going to have an impact. And that’s what it’s all about. It’s just wanting to give back.

• SFNW: What inspired you to start the fundraiser?

KM: Well first of all, at our school that I just retired from, St. Joseph, they started a school theme called 5 Houses. We spread all of the kids out into five “houses” and once the kids get in their house, they stay there for their entire time [at St. Joseph’s]. I was assigned to a house called Father Tolton’s House. He was [originally] a slave, and so all the trials and tribulations he had to go through to become a Catholic priest in the 1800s was incredible. I was just so connected to him. So, when I started working here and I saw these [homes], I’m thinking . . . I want a Tolton House! I want the Tolton house so badly!

Then I thought, well, since there are five St. Joe’s houses. . . if there’s a miraculous way I can raise money, then it’s almost like I’m taking those people that we have named the school houses for, taking their personalities, the contributions they gave to the world, and kind of pushing that forward [by also naming tiny homes for them].

[In a follow-up email, Kathy explained the other four St. Joe’s Houses are named: 2) Cabrini, after Mother Cabrini the patron saint of immigrants; 3) Durocher, after Sister Marie Rose Durocher who established Holy Names Academy; 4) Loyola, after Ignatius of Loyola the co-founder of the Jesuit Order; and 5) Romero, after St. Oscar Romero the Archbishop of San Salvador and advocate for non-violence and the poor who was assassinated in 1980.]

So for me, I would like to sit back and see the names of those five tiny homes and think, okay, anyone who walks into that tiny home, hopefully they’ll feel the support and the spirit of that person. And hopefully they’ll be embraced by the love that those five people gave to society when they were living here on Earth.

• SFNW: So, your goal is five tiny homes. Do you have a time frame? Are you trying to do it within a year, or by this school year or next school year?

KM: Whenever it happens, it happens. I know we’ve raised enough for one home so far (April, 2025) and to me, I’ve already created Tolton’s house! What I’d like to do is as we earn monies for a home, get a group of teachers who are connected with that St. Joe’s house to come here and help build the named home. So that it’s not just bringing in the money, but also building the [named] home so there’s that [physical] connection.

• SFNW: When you go out and approach your network of folks with this fundraising idea, how do you go about that and what’s one main point that you try to convey to people?

KM: Well, it’s different this year because I’ve retired. Usually, I had my built-in [classroom] parents! But I have always been raising money for a cause, I would say all my life. At school I would always be doing things for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society – marathons, triathlons, and a variety of different things. So, the school was very used to me doing fundraising and I have a core of people, family, friends, who’ve always supported me through that. The most that I’ve ever raised for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society was $22,000.

And so, it’s in my brain that I can find a way to do this. I send out emails, I send out letters, I talk to people and [while] this is a big number, in my mind I’m going to do it regardless. It’s going to happen.

• SFNW: So last question, what would you say to somebody else who’s maybe thinking about doing a fundraiser but who’s nervous about it?

KM: Well, I always told my students when they had to do fundraising – what I would say to them was: Just do it. Because one of two things are going to happen. You’re going to get a yes, or you’re going to get a no, but if you never ask, you will never find out.

So that’s what I do. And if you give it, thanks. I don’t care what the amount is. But if I don’t ask, I’ll never find out. That’s what I always told the kids.

• SFNW: Thanks Kathy!

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If you’d like to help raise money to build warm, safe, dry, and dignified tiny homes for the homeless, please be in touch so we can answer any questions and even set you up with your own private fundraising page: devel.sfnw@gmail.com . And if you’d like to donate to Kathy’s Drive-for-Five, you can do so here.
Thank You!