2024 marked 70 years since Dr. Kate’s memorable appearance on "This Is Your Life," which aired on March 17, 1954. It all started when Mr. Otto Burich and his geometry students at AV-W High School began the Million Penny drive, shining a national spotlight on Dr. Kate’s work. The show told the story of a caring and determined doctor who crossed snowy trails, paddled rivers, and walked miles to help patients across 300 square miles of Wisconsin’s Northwoods, a region that had no hospital at the time.

On Memorial Day in 1953, the town of Woodruff buzzed with excitement as more than 10,000 people packed the AV-W school gym to see the mountain of pennies collected. Dr. Kate, Otto Burich, AV-W student Eva Lou Clauson, and others shared their dream of building a hospital. Their story moved Ralph Edwards, host of "This Is Your Life," to ask viewers to send their own pennies. Soon, over $105,000 arrived in ten tons of mail, much of it delivered by train. Community volunteers sorted and counted every heartfelt letter and coin in the gym.