Tragic Past Leads Karls to Habitat

The Fond du Lac Habitat for Humanity has a new executive director who knows what it’s like to see community service from both sides. Katie Karls says a tornado tore through her childhood home and killed her mother when she was just nine years old. But it’s what happened after the storm that she says pushed her to join a non-profit organization, especially Habitat for Humanity, in the first place. 

Karls tells us “I’ll never forget the blood, sweat, and tears that our community came together – our church, friends, neighbors, families – people from all over the state just reaching out. And I slowly want to pay that back to people and that’s why this mission is so special to me and so personal to me that so I want to do anything I can to give that back.”

She says after that experience, “kind of going forward in life, I feel that the trials that God
guides us through really shapes us for who we become as individuals in the
future and everything happens for a reason.”

Habitat for Humanity is working to build a home along Second Street in Fond du Lac that will serve a single mother of seven. The build site and Habitat Re-Store are looking for volunteers to lend a hand.