Kathy Beal, left, with former NEW Executive Director, Mary Popit at a NEW fundraiser.
We at NEW were saddened this week by the passing of long-time NEW supporter Kathy Beal. Kathy came to know NEW in 1996 when her daughter, Amy, introduced her to then - Executive Director, Mary Popit. Kathy was already very involved with serving the homeless through her church, the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament but she was drawn to NEW’s New Expectations (NEXT) program for pregnant homeless women with addictions.
“Kathy and I used to talk about the importance of family and the security of knowing where you come from,” said NEW Executive Director, Wanda Steptoe. “I think that’s why Kathy was so drawn to the NEXT program. Many of the women in the program didn’t have that stable family to prop them up. Kathy really wanted to help the women feel at least a semblance of that, and at least for a time.”
In 1996, the NEXT program received new funding from HUD and Mary was in need of a place to house 10 women. She asked Kathy, an interior designer, for help finding a new residence. “One day on a car ride from downtown to her home, Kathy copied down the addresses of all the places she passed on 13th Street that had ‘For Rent’ signs posted. One of them proved to be the home for NEXT for 15 years.”
The property needed a face-lift and Mary again turned to Kathy for help. Kathy got to work transforming the space, painting one room red (Mary said that Kathy believed that every home should have one red room), and adding paintings to the wall, including one from a close artist friend. “NEXT”S new home was really beautiful,” Mary said. “Kathy was all about actions not words.”
Mary, right, awarded Kathy the Mary Popit Partner in Caring Award in 2011.
After that, Kathy, with her husband Ted, became NEW mainstays, loyally attending the yearly galas and encouraging their friends to support NEW, too. In 2011, Mary awarded Kathy, by then, her good friend, the very first Mary Popit Partner in Caring Award at the annual gala. “Kathy did so much for NEW and for people experiencing homelessness in general,” Mary said. “She walked in the Help the Homeless Walk; she had a fundraiser at her house; she saw that NEW needed new curtains or drapes on some windows, so she made them, there are so many hidden things that she did that we will never know about.”
Mary remained friends with Kathy long after Mary resigned and Wanda, came to NEW.
“Kathy was a very easy person to get to know,” Wanda said. “She was just warm and compassionate with a welcoming spirit. She had an aura about her.” Wanda and Kathy, two women of different generations and ethnic backgrounds, formed an unlikely close friendship, Wanda said. “But Kathy was so kind and authentic; we could talk about anything from religion to family to the ups and downs in life.” Kathy brought flowers to Wanda every year at the gala, she would invite Wanda to lunch at her house with her family, and Kathy would never hang up the phone without telling Wanda she loved her.
“I don’t know NEW without Kathy, so this will be a hard time for me,” Wanda said. “But personally I have lost a good friend, who invited me into her life in unexpected ways. She was so kind and so willing to use whatever gifts she was given to help others. I am so grateful I got to know her so deeply. I know her spirit will live on in NEW, in her family, the countless people whose lives she touched and in me, too. ”
We love you Kathy!