Kären Siwek

Submitted by: Jake Siwek (age 10)

My mom was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota. She has an identical twin sister named Sara and an older brother named Dane. My Pop Pop was in the car business so the family quickly outgrew their little house and moved to Fargo, ND; then Huron, SD, and finally settled in Willmar, MN where my mom grew up and went to high school. The car business was a lot of fun and the whole family worked together so they could spend time together.

Each summer, my mom and her family went to Loons Reach which is my Mom Mom and Pop Pop’s home in Park Rapids, MN. She would swim, waterski, sail and jet ski every day and had so much fun being on the lake. Now Loons Reach is our retreat and where we go when we need a vacation and some good cooking from my Mom Mom!My mom played a lot of sports and worked very hard in high school and had very good grades. She received a Congressional Award when she was in high school and has a fancy medal and a lot of stories about what a great experience that program was. She ended up going to college at Arizona State University where she earned a degree in Accounting and went to work for Arthur Andersen. She passed her CPA exam but said it was a pain because she had to study really hard. She was an audit manager and loved that job but my Dad became a partner at Arthur Andersen and she had to leave.

At 27, she became a CFO for part of the WPP Group which is the world’s largest marketing and advertising company based in London. She traveled all over the world and loved her job. But her life changed when I was born in 1999. She always says it was the best day of her life as she always wanted a son. She bought a lot of companies for her bosses which made the company a lot of money. In 2002, my mom and dad decided to be friends but not stay married and that it was best for me and my mom to move to Fort Collins so I could grow up in a small town. She bought a company here called Center Partners for her bosses and it was a fun job.

We were scared moving to Fort Collins on our own not knowing anyone but have now lived here for 8 years and love it! In 2003, she started her own company called Private Escapes and we traveled the world for six years. It was very fun and my passport is nearly full. My favorite place that we traveled was a tie: Turks and Caicos and a private yacht in the BVI’s called La Buscadora.

As the world changed and business became very tough, she was laid off. At first, we were scared but realized we had each other and would do what we needed to do to start over. My mom took six months off and we had the best summer ever. We went to Minnesota a few times to visit Mom Mom and Pop Pop and spent a lot of time with our two dogs, Hershey and Maya, and made plans for our future.

My mom can make anything fun and she never sits still. She has taught me that the main things in life that are important are: faith, family and friends. I am a boy scout and my goal is to get my Eagle scout. My mom and I do a lot of fun things with scouts although when we go camping, she doesn’t like to shower at the boy scout camp.

We go to Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church where I will start confirmation next year and I will join their boy scout troop this spring. My mom has also been a P.E.O. for 25 years which is a group which helps raise money for women to go to college. It is secret what P.E.O. stands for and I ask her all the time but she won’t tell me.

Now my mom works at Brown & Brown insurance. One of our best friends in Phoenix wanted her to come and work for his company and luckily, they have an office here in Fort Collins. It is a new career for her but she loves it and must be doing well as her boss just gave her a wad of cash for winning a sales contest!

My mom uses a lot of words like respect, love, loyalty, patience, etc. She has a lot of great role models in her life and has many friends. I watch her help so many others all the time and have found that it makes me feel good to help others as well.

My mom is excited about Rotary and I look forward to meeting all of you. Thank you for sharing in our life and for listening to my story – I love my mom very much and hope she can touch your lives as she has my own.

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