2018 September COLONY Magazine
COLONY Magazine — Your Hometown Magazine. A collection of events, activities, news, business, and culture for the Atascadero area.
COLONY Magazine — Your Hometown Magazine. A collection of events, activities, news, business, and culture for the Atascadero area.
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<strong>COLONY</strong> PEOPLE<br />
KAREN MCNAMARA Realtor, business owner, community advocate<br />
By Heather Young<br />
Karen McNamara has not<br />
lived in Atascadero all her<br />
life but she loves Atascadero<br />
as though she had. She moved<br />
here with her late husband,<br />
Mike McNamara, who died<br />
in June 2015.<br />
Since moving to Atascadero, she<br />
started the Printery Foundation<br />
with Nic Mattson, who had started<br />
discussing the fate of the historic<br />
building with Mike, but Mike died<br />
before anything could be done.<br />
“He didn’t like to complain,”<br />
Karen said. “If he didn’t like<br />
something, he did something<br />
about it. He was just a really good<br />
man… Mike and Nic both grew<br />
up here, it’s a building they both<br />
care about.”<br />
The foundation was officially<br />
formed in October 2015. Since<br />
that time, it has gained control of<br />
the building and raised enough<br />
money to buy it from the county<br />
when it went to auction.<br />
The Atascadero Printery Building<br />
has been red-tagged and<br />
boarded up since the San Simeon<br />
Earthquake hit the county in 2003.<br />
It had remained relatively untouched<br />
since, leaving most of the<br />
windows broken and the building<br />
quickly deteriorating, according to<br />
McNamara, president of the Printery<br />
Foundation.<br />
The foundation’s mission is to<br />
reclaim, rehabilitate and repurpose<br />
the Printery building. It's estimated<br />
that the foundation will need<br />
$8.5 million to make the building<br />
fit for the public. The foundation<br />
has currently raised $140,000 of<br />
“Community<br />
rabble-rouser<br />
should be my<br />
title. I don’t<br />
believe in just<br />
griping about<br />
stuff but<br />
getting involved."<br />
that amount. McNamara speculates<br />
that the majority of the<br />
funds will come from grants and<br />
possibly very large donors. Of the<br />
total, $2.5 million will be used to<br />
retrofit the building. That amount,<br />
she said, is the committee’s first<br />
goal now that the foundation has<br />
ownership of the building.<br />
Anyone who wants to get involved<br />
in any way can contact Karen<br />
at 805-459-5113 or mcrealtor@<br />
rocketmail.com.<br />
Even before she undertook<br />
saving the Printery, Karen joined<br />
the Optimist Club about six years<br />
ago, which led her to join the Colony<br />
Days Committee on which<br />
she is serving her second of two<br />
terms as chair.<br />
“Community rabble-rouser<br />
should be my title,” McNamara<br />
said, adding that when her family<br />
attended the parade their<br />
first year back in Atascadero she<br />
felt that she should get involved<br />
in the event. “I don’t believe<br />
in just griping about stuff but<br />
getting involved.”<br />
Karen McNamara mans her store, Hope Chest Emporium.<br />
Photo by Heather Young<br />
She started out working with<br />
vendors and figuring out logistics<br />
and then served as secretary before<br />
moving up to chairperson.<br />
“I’ll stay on the committee,<br />
but probably won’t have a lot of<br />
responsibilities because I have a<br />
lot going on with the Printery,”<br />
she said.<br />
With progress heating up with<br />
the Printery, McNamara said<br />
she’s often in meetings related to<br />
the building.<br />
In addition to her community<br />
involvement, she is also a real estate<br />
agent and owns Hope Chest<br />
Emporium, which is located next<br />
to Bru Coffeehouse at 5800 El<br />
Camino Real. The home goods<br />
store has a unique blend of locally-made,<br />
restored or repurposed<br />
furniture, decor, candles, garden<br />
items and more. The store features<br />
goods from a variety of sellers.<br />
“I call it my lemonade stand,”<br />
McNamara said. “Life handed<br />
me lemons and I made a lemonade<br />
stand. I miss Mike terribly<br />
but I’m not going to dwell on it.<br />
I’m going to be a help in the community.<br />
That’s the way I’m going<br />
to honor him.”<br />
McNamara has four children:<br />
Jaime, 37; April, 36; Ryan, 23, and<br />
Kody, 20. All of her children except<br />
Jaime are local residents.<br />
14 | colonymagazine.com <strong>COLONY</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>, <strong>September</strong> <strong>2018</strong>