North Bay Woman

S P R I N G | S U M M E R 2 0 2 2 NORTH BAY WOMAN 33 Heidi Kuhn at China Camp on a January morning. – Photo by Trevor Henley | Desire to Inspire Studios Foundation From an initiative to replace land mines with grape vines, its mission has evolved to include planting orchards and supporting farmers in those countries to sustainably raise cash crops. Clockwise from left: Heidi Kuhn and daughter Kyleigh Kuhn in Marin, 2014; Heidi and Kyleigh Kuhn in Afghanistan, 2008; Bam Saray, Afghanistan— Opening of a girls school with "pennies" raised by Roots of Peace; Kyleigh and Heidi Kuhn at the Nobel Peace Summit in Bogota, Colombia, 2017; Kuhn in protective gear March 3, 2022 in Karabakh, Azerbaijan; Kuhn with husband Gary Kuhn in Huambo, Angola, 2004; Photo over Kuhn's fireplace mantel is of her 25th wedding anniversary Feb. 14, 2006 with Tucker, Heidi, Gary, Brooks, Christian and Kyleigh; Robert Thomas, father, at Kuhn's home in Marin; Kuhn with daughter Kyleigh Kuhn at UN Landmine-Free 2020 event at Kensington Palace, London; Kuhn with Kyleigh in Croatia in May 2000 at Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina planting a grapevine with an elder at the reported site of a Virgin Mary appearance; Center: Heidi Kuhn with grandson Forest and daughter Kleigh Kuhn, Antigua, Guatemala, 2022. – Photos by or courtesy of Heidi Kuhn and Roots of Peace, Lori Pearce family's home overlooking McNears Island. Marin's early autumn weather cooperated. It was stunningly sunny. The bay outside the windows sparkled more vividly than the jewelry on many of the guests. I covered the announcement for the IJ's then-Social Scene column. The mood in the living room was somber, however, because Princess Diana, one of the first major celebrity figures to call attention to the horrors of land mines around the world and to do something about it, had been killed three weeks before. A Princess Diana-focused event on de-mining that was to have taken place at the Common- wealth Club in San Francisco, was canceled. Kuhn became inspired. "Diana's work was a role model for me," she said. "I saw footage of the princess walking the minefields in Angola in January 1997; then in August she went to Bosnia/Herzegovi- na three weeks before her death. I saw her extraordinary sense of compassion. I started thinking about how terrible land mines are. They are a cancer in the earth. I thought of the beautiful children who have a right to step on this life-giving earth, being destroyed by stepping on mines in ground that itself had been destroyed. I had an epiphany — I could do this work and help bring back to life, to health, land that could then nurture future genera- tions." That Kuhn so vividly linked the parallels between the cancer of minefield-riddled territories and the human body, makes perfect sense. At the age of 30, raising three young children, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She underwent surgery and treatment and survived. She went on to have a fourth child, which she calls an "absolute miracle." "I consider my life a miracle. And that I can walk, is a mira- cle," said Kuhn, 64, who is a recent severe COVID-19 survivor. Her zeal for peace began long before 1997. She told me how, as a young girl in Catholic school, she'd had a dream following President Robert Kennedy's assassination in which Mother Mary came to her and said how essential it was for her to work to bring about world peace. To do something that would help change the world, shape it into a better place to be. Kuhn's own roots helped her further define that sense of purpose. Her ancestors hail from Dumbarton, Scotland and became pioneers in a fledgling America. In 1701, a McNear sea captain sailed to Wiscasset, Maine, settled there and as Kuhn put it, "helped build the Eastern Seaboard." Born in 1838, John McNear, her several times great grandfather, joined the Gold Rush, heading to early California in the 1850s across the dangerous Isthmus of Panama and marrying the woman whose father had opened the American Hotel in Petaluma in 1852. Kuhn is very proud of the fact that her forebearers had a powerful work ethic and were such avid builders. John McNear bought thousands of acres of land in Marin and Sonoma counties, started one of Northern California's first banks, founded the Steamer Gold on the Petaluma River and launched a shipping industry. He was also instrumental in creating Petaluma's poultry

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