Meet Cathy Shaffer, a CCS retiree and our November Sasquatch Celebrity

Cathy graduated from SCC in 1981 and attended Whitworth College for her bachelor’s degree. After deciding she wanted to be in Counseling at SCC, she attended Gonzaga University for her Master’s in Counseling Psychology and graduated in 1988. She started at SCC as a part-time Counselor in the Fall of 1988. She started as the Single Parent Counselor and after a few years became the Technical Education liaison Counselor. In 2005 she became the Director of Transfer and the main liaison Counselor for transfer students. She helped establish the University Transfer Center and built relationships across the state and nation. In 2012 SCC’s University Transfer Center was named Best Practice for Transfer. After thirty-five years, Cathy retired on June 21, 2023, and will have served over 200,000 students in her tenure at SCC. She feels blessed to have worked with her students. She now plans to play as hard as she has worked! 
 
What CCS Foundation program or scholarship do you support and why? 
My first contribution was to SCC’s Food bank in 1990. On the farm, I was raised to believe we show our love and support by feeding people and I wanted to extend that to the SCC students. For 18 years I have been contributing twice a month to the CCS Foundation. The first 15 years I contributed to the general fund to help students in need. As a first-generation college student and a college counselor, I know there are many factors that help students be successful. The added stress and worry of how to pay for school/living expenses affects students’ ability to be successful and I wanted to help alleviate some of that stress and worry.  
 
In 2020, my husband of 34 years passed away from complications of Covid. He was a graduate of SCC and taught Physics, Biology, and Math in District 81. In honor of him, my son and I set up a scholarship in his name, The Tracy Shaffer Scholarship Fund. Many kind SCC people donated funds to this scholarship. For the last three years I have been contributing twice a month to his fund to help students pursuing degrees in Physics, Astronomy, and Biology. 
 
Why do you choose to donate to the Foundation?
I am an SCC graduate myself and attended GU’s graduate program specifically to work at SCC as a college counselor. As a student at SCC, I worked full time and attended school full time. I knew first-hand what it was like to struggle with money while trying to balance work, school, and family life. Many of our students work full time, go to school full time, and have the added responsibilities of having a spouse and/or children and that is why I choose to donate to the Foundation. I want to help make their journeys a little easier.
 
What is something people don’t know about you? Hobby?
Something many people may not know about me is that I love to give back for all the blessings I have received. I believe we are all in this together and should care about one another and be there to support and make life better for each other. (Thank you, Whitworth University, for this wonderful philosophy and example of how to live life!)
 
Ways in which I have given back by creating art and sharing it with others: 

• My husband and I built a 4’-in-diameter stained glass window for Hamblen Park Presbyterian Church on Spokane’s south hill by Ferris HS. We donated our design and labor for the project. 

• I have handmade and donated quilts to the Blanket Brigade at GU to benefit foster kids, so they would have a blanket of their own when placed in a new foster home. 

• I created and co-lead the making of a Celebration of Women’s Right to Vote Quilt that currently hangs in the SCC Library. It represents the US flag, the multi colors represent our America, a country that embraces everyone: all cultures, colors, beliefs, and genders. 

• My final example is that I am the ridiculous cake lady. In the past three years, I have bought at least 20 cakes at SCC’s amazing bakery! I just buy them and give them to people to spread the love and show off our incredible baking students’ skill and artistry. They are amazing, both the cakes and the students! (I don’t create this art; I just share it. Yum!)