Carlton Complex consumed home

CASHMERE – Accounts have been established on GoFundMe and at Cashmere Valley Bank for an 18-year-old former Brewster school student who recently underwent surgery for cancer.

Samantha Himmelhaver, whose family relocated to Cashmere after losing their Indian Dan Canyon home in the 2014 Carlton Complex wildfire, was diagnosed earlier this month with ovarian cancer and a few days later was undergoing surgery at University of Washington Hospital in Seattle.

“The surgeon removed a 12-centimeter tumor, about the size of a Nerf football,” said Samantha’s mother, Judy Himmelhaver.

Himmelhaver spoke with the Quad City Herald last Monday, Nov. 19, after her daughter was released to return home where she will begin six months of chemotherapy as part of her recovery process.

Samantha attended Brewster schools from Kindergarten through eighth grade before the fire struck that summer.

Ironically, Samantha was out of the country traveling when the family home was lost.

“That’s the family joke,” said Judy. “She leaves the house and we move.”

But when Samantha returned home, “she only had what was left in her suitcase,” Judy said.

Samantha was a 12-year-old seventh grader at Brewster when she was selected by school staff to participate in the People to People International Foundation program created by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.

“That summer, she went to Scotland, Wales, North Ireland, and England,” said Judy, “and while on that trip she met a girl from Cashmere.”

The following summer, Samantha, then 13, toured Italy, Greece and France as part of the 10-month program. On that second trip, she met a second Cashmere girl.

When the family relocated to Cashmere following the loss of their home, Samantha ended up going to school with the girls she met while traveling.

Samantha is enrolled in the Running Start program and “wants to do something involved with travel,” Judy said. For now, she’s taking cosmetology and welding classes.

Even though their insurance company denied coverage for their fire loss, the family has been able to rebuild a 1,300 square foot, two-story house on a 79 x 79-foot half-lot with help from a VA loan and builder John Port of Real Homes in Wenatchee.

As of this writing the online GoFundMe account has raised almost $3,700 toward a goal of $10,000 as the Himmelhaver family faces some steep expenses ahead. An account has also been established at Cashmere Valley Bank c/o Samantha Himmelhaver.

The family has a medical policy with a $5,000 deductible and the $5K must be paid again in 2019, “then it covers 80 percent,” Judy said.
In preparation for her upcoming chemo, Samantha had her hair cut off last Tuesday.