SHARING A LEGACY OF EXERCISE FAMILY OF LOCAL BELOVED DOCTOR DONATES BIKES TO MLB YOUTH
By Vivian LaMoore, Inaajimowin Editor
“She loved the Mille Lacs Band!” George Donovan, the late Dr. Cathy Donovan’s dad, said. After the passing of his daughter, the Donovan family chose to donate the doctor’s seven bicycles to Mille Lacs Band youth.
She loved this community, the people, her work, her friends, and the lake, her family said. Every day, twice a day, Dr. Cathy Donovan crossed Hwy. 169 to get to Twilight Road and back again to walk or run with her dogs. But on November 13, she was struck and killed by a moving vehicle. The vehicle didn’t stop. It has been classified by law enforcement as a hit and run. The driver has not yet been identified.
Just like many families with active children, the toys, sporting equipment, and bikes, just keep accumulating throughout the children’s growing years. Then the kids grow up into young adults; maybe go to college; maybe move out on their own; maybe both. And no matter where the grown child goes, the toys, sporting goods equipment, and bikes seem to stay at home where the kids grew up. The kids may promise to return and fetch their prized possessions someday, but more often than not, the stuff just stays where it is. This was the case with Dr. Cathy Donovan’s home.
“They accumulate,” Joy, Cathy’s daughter, said with a soft, sad chuckle.
“When she had company over, she always wanted everyone to go for a bike ride,” George added with a small smile. “She always wanted everyone to stay active,” Joy recalled. “She would always tell us, ‘Move your feet!’”
Brief smiles and muted laughs were woven through the family’s grief as they told stories of many of the bicycles.
The blue bike: “That was one my mom got me when I graduated from college,” Joy said. “I used to commute on that one with a little basket on the front.”
The red bike was Cathy’s original bike. “When I was a kid, she let me ride it and I totally crashed it going down a hill. So she let me ride it and I totally crashed it going down a hill. So, the handlebars are a little croocked,” she added with a chuckle.
Each bike had a history with a story and a memory of happier days.
“They have all been ridden by whoever needed one,” Joy said. “And now it’s time for others who need them to have them.”
Shan had recently graduated from NDSU and was working his shift as an EMT for an ambulance service in Fargo when he received the call from the Sheriff’s Office informing him of his mother’s accident. “As an EMT, I have been at accident scenes. But being on the other end, that sucks,” Shan said. His life was suddenly turned upside down and he immediately quit his job and rushed back to Onamia.
Shan moved back to his childhood home to a life without his mother. After the funeral, other family members stayed and helped to sort through the memories, photographs, family heirlooms, silly items, and bikes.
“We had been taking things to the thrift store in Garrison, and started asking around for other ideas. We wanted the bikes to have a new home,” George said.
“It’s also nice that we can put all of this back to use the way Mom would like by helping the community. Giving back to the community is all she did,” Shan said. George connected with the Ge-Niigaanizijig Youth Program. There are 70 kids in the youth program and there were seven bikes.
The youth mentors held a drawing with all of the kids who wanted a bike. Some of the bikes are in need of minor repairs such as replace a chain, fix some brakes, adjust the seats, and fine-tune the croocked handlebars. Some of the recipients of the bikes may have even been patients of Dr. Donovan’s. “She would like them to be active,” Joy added with a little laugh. “That was always something Mom always wanted for us.”
The students who won the drawing all stood by their new-to-them bike. Shan began to show the kids how to switch the gears and squeeze the brake controls. “I used to ride this one in college,” Shan told the new owner.
The kids suddenly opened up and started asking Shan all kinds of questions — the kind of questions kids ask in all of their innocence. “I might have to grow into this one,” one of the boys said as he excitedly checked out his new bike. “My butt is not going to get sore with this nice seat! Look how squishy it is! I could ride this for like 700 hours!” “What happened to your arm? How old are you? Did you ever crash your bike?”
Shan candidly answered. “I was born without an arm. I am 23. And yes, I crashed a few times,” he chuckled.
Shan was born in China. He was born with only one arm and was placed in an orphanage when he was one year old, he said. Both Joy and Shan were adopted by Dr. Donovan who brought them both from China to Onamia and raised them with nurturing love and kindness. The family celebrated their adoption days just like birthdays.
The Donovans feel that rehoming the bikes to the youth of the Mille Lacs Band is what Cathy would want as a way to continue to encourage them to stay active and move their feet.
REWARD OFFERED
On December 14, exactly one month after Dr. Donovan was killed, the Donovans, along with the Minnesota State Patrol and the Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Office, gathered at the Department of Public Safety office in St. Paul. In front of cameras from nearly every Twin Cities news outlet, and many others, they announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to positive identification of the vehicle and the person who was operating the vehicle at the time of the accident that took Dr. Donovan’s life.
“My mom was a hero to me in every aspect of my life… She showed me what it was like to be loved and accepted and what a family was. I had the opportunity to grow up with someone who showed me what resilience is. I grew up as a 3-sport athlete, valedictorian, and a role model for others because of her. I had a lot going against me, but Mom supported me. And now she is gone,” Shan said at the press conference.
Law enforcement is actively searching for the driver of the vehicle. They are following up on hundreds of leads, all pieces of the puzzle. “On behalf of the State Patrol, and on the behalf of the Sheriff’s Office and the Mille Lacs Tribal PD, these cases drive us,” Matt Langer, State Patrol Chief said. “I know these officers and this will be with them forever. They will not stop looking for who did this and hold anyone accountable who was connected to this because it is the right thing to do.”
George, Shan, and Cathy’s twin sister gave statements and read a statement from Joy with the message for the driver, or anyone who knows anything, to please come forward.
“Someone out there knows something,” Langer continued. “All we need is one phone call, one email, one anonymous text that gets us to the right place that leads us to the vehicle that was involved because that leads us to the driver of that vehicle.”
Anyone with any information is asked to contact any of the following: Mille Lacs Tribal Police at 320-532-3430, Mille Lacs County Sheriff's Office at 320-983-8250, or Minnesota State Patrol, at 218-316-3026.
“It’s not going to bring her back,” George said. “We may never know why, but maybe knowing who, will bring some closure.”
Dr. Donovan leaves behind her two children, Joy and Shan Donovan; her parents George and Shirley Donovan; her twin sister Dr. Robin Councilman; sister Christy Pemberton; and many family members, friends, and coworkers.
