Placerville resident Karen Carter originally thought she’d apply her bachelor’s degree in liberal studies to a career in elementary education. After college, however, she ended up working for Snowline Hospice, and the experience proved life-changing. She spent the better part of the following 15 years with the company and took many life lessons away from the experience. “The biggest thing I learned was that death is natural. In our society, it’s feared and often has a negative connotation, but in reality death is simply part of our life’s cycle. It can be calm and peaceful,” Carter shares. She also gained an appreciation for how big an impact non-profit organizations can make on a community.  

These days, she and her husband co-own Carter’s Carpet Restoration in Placerville, but Carter continues to give back whenever she can. The business often donates free carpet cleaning to area nonprofits (including Snowline), and when she isn’t running the business or raising her two children—ages 11 and 14—she’s serving on the El Dorado Community Foundation, an organization that invests and administers charitable funds, and Women’s Fund El Dorado, a group of donors who band together to make significant grants to area nonprofits. “I really do try to think on a community level,” Carter explains. “The more we can support each other as a community, the stronger it becomes as a whole.”   

 —Amber Foster // Photos by Dante Fontana © Style Media Group

Karen with husband Dean and children Baine and Kamin