Karen LaPensee gives thanks to her community
Published: September 21, 2004
Karen LaPensee (53) is known for supporting everyone and everything on Anna Maria island.
Thank-you notes dot the walls of her tidy office at LaPensee Plumbing, which she runs with her husband, Michael, and son, Greg.
“Whenever there’s someone in need, they go to Karen,” said Mary Ann Brockman, executive director of the Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce.
Besides decorating her Holmes Beach office with thanks, Karen carries thanks around in her heart. She is thankful her son, Greg, 22, is still alive.
After working in the family business five years, Greg is ready to take over, a prospect parents Karen, 53, and Michael, 59, welcome.
Greg attended Manatee Community College for four years, earning a state apprenticeship license in plumbing. He bought his own home at 21.
The family playfully nicknames its only son “Sparky.” But the moniker is an emotional and somber reminder that Greg has had several run-ins with death, two of them involving electrical shock.
His first day on the job at age 16, Greg was shocked while digging a ditch in Palmetto. He left in an ambulance, but thankfully survived.
At age 18, Greg broke his jaw with a right-angle drill, losing six teeth. Reconstructive and dental surgery have restored his handsome features.
When he was 19, Greg accidentally drove his yellow Mustang over the Manatee Avenue Bridge and spent a frigid night hanging on to a piling until he was rescued at daylight. He was taken by Bayflite to Tampa General, where he recovered fully.
A second, more severe electrical shock on July 29 sent 7,600 volts of electricity through Greg, throwing him 10 feet. He cut an electrical wire that had been cleared by Florida Power at a work site close to the spot where he drove off the bridge.
Airlifted to Tampa General a second time, Greg said he should be earning frequent flyer miles.
“By rights, he shouldn’t even be here,” said Karen. “He had a guardian angel looking over him, polishing his tarnished halo.”
Michael LaPensee likens his son to a character in the television show, “The Munsters.”
“You know Uncle Fester with the light bulb in his head?” he said. “That’s Greg. We call him ‘Sparky.’ ”
Giving Back
Having her family whole, hearty and alive is partly what drives Karen to keep giving to the community. Loving the community where she lives is another. And the thanks she receives in return is a third.
That thanks translates into more plumbing business.
So she gives. And gives. And gives.
To the tune of $15,000 a year, plus untold hours in volunteer time, her family estimates.
Recipients of her time and money include the Anna Maria Island Community Center, Island Players, the island’s Historical Society, Anna Maria Orchestra, the Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club and all the island churches.
Karen is on the Tour of Homes committee, volunteers for the community center’s annual golf tournament, and is treasurer for the chamber.
Greg coaches soccer at the community center.
“All of them are so important to the community,” Karen said. “They’re the best reflection of where we live. They’re our face. They let people know we exist.”
Small-town charm
The LaPensees consider the island the best possible place to live. It nurtures a small-town feeling that makes meaningful connections possible, they say.
“I don’t know if you lived in a big city that you’d have the tight bond that you need to succeed,” Karen said. “We call it paradise without an attitude.”
Suzi Fox, director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch in Holmes Beach, describes Karen LaPensee’s actions in the community as heart warming.
When Fox experienced plumbing problems soon after opening a retail store, the plumber left a note on the bill saying: “We’ve got to take care of our turtles.”
The balance due was zero.
“I never worry about anything with them,” Fox said. “The whole family. It’s the way they are.”
As the company has grown, the family has been able to donate more. In five years, the LaPensee plumbing fleet has grown from six trucks to 11.
Karen insists that the family’s success is inseparable from the overall success of the community.
“We all shine together,” she said. “We’re all one.”
Greg considers the family’s community involvement an investment.
“My business lets me live,” he said. “I’m going to have to invest in it.”
Greg’s youth, ambition and energy are just what the company needs, Michael said.
“He’s been through a lot for a young man, but achieved a lot too,” he said.
Karen LaPensee moved to the island in 1973 with her parents. She has a nursing degree and worked as a flight nurse with the Air Force Reserve. She was about to enter active duty when she met her husband and decided to stay on the island instead. She worked in critical care at Blake and Manatee Memorial hospitals before going into the family business 19 years ago.
At work, Karen describes her office manager job as “pushing paper and people.” She won’t admit to losing her temper much, but said she “gets firm.”
“She’s a very good boss,” Greg said. “She’s 100 percent role model.”
Karen likens plumbing to the human body.
“You have the water system and the drainage system in the body,” she said. “Just a different application.”
The LaPensees have three children and two grandchildren. Daughter Shawn Lapensee, 18, also has an altruistic streak. She recently donated hair for a second time to Locks of Love, a foundation that makes wigs for cancer patients.
The bonds the LaPensees have created on the island provide Karen with comfort.
Though the family does not attend any of the island churches they donate to, they do plumbing for all of them.
“In our souls, we know there is a higher power,” Karen said. “I truly know that if anything happened to Greg or our family, we would see the same from our community,” she said.
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