The Organ Lady Story.

How it all began!

Kathy Ketchum was a young student at Lake Stevens Middle School many years ago. She had been spending some of her free time out behind the school smoking when Dr. Batara, a local doctor, came to her classroom with a couple of sets of lungs.

One was healthy and the other belonged to a smoker. He did not tell the kids what to do. He just held up the lungs and gave them the real inside story.

Kathy quit smoking, became a nurse, and started her own organ program for youth in schools at Providence Everett Medical Center in 1989.

Colleen Williams flunked out of high school, started college at 33 years old and became a psychiatric nurse in 1991. She worked for many years with kids on in-patient psychiatric units.

She began to realize that her patients had numerous reasons for being on her unit and wanted to catch the kids young, before they got in to trouble. She didn’t know what to do.

Kathy and Colleen met in 2000 and hit it off. By then, Colleen was the Health Promotion Coordinator at Naval Station Everett and had Kathy coming out to the base and on to ships to teach military members.

Kathy’s program was serving mainly Snohomish County. In 2002 Colleen, co-founded Choice & Consequence™ to take the program statewide and beyond.

The Board of Directors set CC up as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charity in Washington State. On January 1, 2004 Providence Everett Medical Center donated their organ program, “The Real Inside Story™” to Choice & Consequence™.

TRIS has been experienced by over 325,000 kids since 1989 in schools across Washington, Oregon and Montana.

Marylou Hoidal

Marylou’s Biography

Marylou Hoidal was born July 2, 1930 and graduated from the Marysville High School class of 1948.

She worked for the Marysville globe, was a checker for the old B & M grocery store, and worked for the Volunteers of America until she retired.

Married in 1951, Marylou raised five children and divorced in 1983. She has 10 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren.

“Raising children was a most gratifying project, followed only by working with Choice & Consequence as an assistant to my daughter".

Retirement has not slowed her down. This former Strawberry Festival Queen travels as an assistant to Colleen Williams and loves working with young people.

Kathy Ketchum RN, CRNI

Kathy’s Biography

Kathy has been a registered nurse in Everett since 1976, with sixteen of those years as a head nurse / nurse manager. An adventurous sort, she drives race cars so watch out for her at the Evergreen Speedway! Kathy also teaches IV therapy at the Everett Community College School of Nursing and has won many awards for excellence in nursing.

Kathy was a Nurseweek Magazine "Nursing Excellence in Community Service Award" finalist in 2002 & 2006, for her efforts in educating youth about the consequences of their lifestyle choices. Inspired to make healthy choices in her younger years by a pathologist who brought lungs damaged by tobacco smoke in to her school, Kathy quit smoking. She founded and developed the innovative reality-based signature teaching method used today and started the Links Organ Program at Providence Everett Medical Center in 1989.

That program evolved in to the program used today, The Real Inside Story (TRIS)™. Kathy has been very active in the Puget Sound Chapter Intravenous Nurses Society and contributes to the community as a volunteer in many arenas. She is the Senior Program Director and joined the Choice & Consequence organization in September of 2003 to expand her efforts to a statewide level. Her vision and sincere desire to educate youth make her a sought after public speaker. Kathy lives in Arlington with her husband and sons.

Colleen Williams, RN, MS

Colleen’s Biography

Colleen grew up in Edmonds, Washington, attending both Edmonds Junior and Senior High Schools. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of Alaska, Anchorage in 1991, exactly 20 years after she flunked out of Edmonds High School. Low self-esteem coupled with drug and alcohol abuse led to some difficult times in her teen life. She got word that she had passed her nurse's licensing examination the day before she flew to attend her 20 year Edmonds High School reunion! At 42 years old, when most people were retiring from the military, Colleen was sworn in to the United States Air Force. She served her four years as a psychiatric nurse at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas.

Her last year in service was spent earning her Master of Science in Community Health Administration and Health Promotion. She held National Board Certification as a Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse for 10 years and is certified as a Health Promotion Director by the Cooper Institute of Dallas, TX. Colleen returned to live in the Seattle area in 1999. She worked as the Health Promotion Coordinator for Naval Station Everett until quitting to found this organization after she was diagnosed with lung disease in October of 2002. She started smoking in the 5th grade and quit in 1995.

She serves as the Executive Director for Choice & Consequence™, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation. Colleen has a husband, four children and two grandchildren along with a host of other family members that live in the area. A strong belief in using her past indiscretions to help others illustrates the 'silver lining in every cloud' theme reflected in the company logo she created. Her unusual life experiences and sense of humor make her a sought after motivational speaker and health educator.