Helene Joyce Soren Kaplan

There's no one else like her. Helene Joyce Soren Kaplan my mother and my hero has engulfed me with the love encouragement and guidance that instills character the capacity for passion and the groundwork for numerous achievements and possibilities. Her example has been essential to my life and is one I plan on sharing with my children. She has had many roles in life each of which she has worn with elegance. A mother wife sister and daughter Helene Joyce Soren Kaplan born in 1942 in New York City consistently has made family of paramount importance through good times and bad. Her warmth and love also can reach across great distances. I now live more than 1000 miles away from my mother and simply thinking of her is like wrapping myself in my favorite comforter. My mother also an artist and an art administrator has made the world a more beautiful and welcome place. Her creativity supplied hours of fun for me as a child and made my surroundings more stimulating. I was always very proud to tell visiting friends that all the paintings and ceramics in our home were her work. Now the director of The Octagon Center for the Arts in Ames my mother subtly taught me throughout my life that we cannot have a world without art. She also has set the example that women can have careers in addition to close functional families. I grew up with the feeling that I could choose any career even those traditionally closed to women. Her talents and interests also have helped those outside her family. Just one example is her involvement in the Very Special ArtsIowa program which brings dance painting and other aspects of the arts to the disabled the elderly and other special populations. The world is a better place because of my mother Helene Joyce Soren Kaplan. And as I stated there's no one else like her.

6/2/94