Cathy Wieland has been a quiet, selfless, and effective Madera leader for 48 years… at home, on the job, and through her volunteer service.
She was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. During her first weekend in college, she was on a date when she struck up a conversation with another guy that has lasted 54 years. They moved to Madera in 1978 from Roswell, New Mexico, leaving behind aliens who had crash-landed in 1947. Allegedly.
The Madera County Probation Department hired Cathy to investigate the care provided to court-appointed conservatees through the Madera County Public Guardian. She earned her master’s degree in marriage and family counseling at Fresno State to become Madera County’s first Family Court Services mediator in child custody court disputes. She loves people.
Cathy raised two Madera-born sons, Ian and Dylan. She coached soccer, served as a Cub Scouts volunteer, and supported their participation in academic decathlons. She is still Mom four decades later. Cathy now grandmothers two young boys, including valiantly striving to balance the questionable example set by their Madera grandfather.
Cathy’s lineage includes Choctaw and Cheyenne Indians. Her relatives fought for America during the American Revolutionary War, the Civil War, both World Wars, Korea, and in Vietnam.
She loved working with kids as a Madera Unified School District high school counselor. Some of them, now parents themselves, stop her in town to catch-up.
Cathy has served as the president of four local nonprofit, volunteer organizations. She volunteers through the 145-year-old American Association of University Women (AAUW). The local chapter raises money to help fund college scholarships for Madera County girls. Cathy has led the local chapter of California Retired Teachers, CalRTA, advocating for and protecting educators’ pensions and benefits and the local PEO Sisterhood chapter (Philanthropic Educational Organization), serving its 100-plus year mission to help women achieve their educational goals. And she was president of the Madera County Child Abuse Prevention Council.
Cathy’s reputation is one of kindness. She puts others before herself. She does not seek attention. Serving has been more important than merely joining. But she repeatedly is placed in positions of leadership in our community because she works hard, enables decisions by consensus, and gets things done.
She is an avid supporter of local arts through the Madera County Arts Council, high school plays, and the Madera Theatre Project. She enjoys the San Joaquin Valley Town Hall lecture series. Cathy especially loves watching musicals with family through the Fresno Broadway series. She’s seen more than 250 concerts including Led Zeppelin, Ray Charles, Santana, Adele, Reba McIntyre, U2, Chris Stapleton, the Rolling Stones, Kenny Chesney, Bruce Springsteen, Gladys Knight, the Doobie Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Van Halen, Brooks & Dunn, The Who, Johnny Cash, and the Eagles.
Cathy has photographed Yosemite Valley, walked on the Great Wall of China, wrestled a lobster off the coast of Maine, ridden camels in Egypt and Morocco, watched the Lion King on Broadway, and river-rafted in Costa Rica.
Cathy Wieland ‘s life is a well-lived American story as she has enriched the lives of others in our community.