2018 September COLONY Magazine

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