Obituary of Sarah Ashley Kulm

Sarah "Bear" Kulm passed away Saturday, May 17, 2014. She was 17. Sarah was loved by many including parents Tina and Joe Winters of Aptos and Glenn Kulm and Heidi Andersen of Soquel, younger brother Mitchell Kulm, grandmothers DiAne Kulm and Jackie Winters of Live Oak, special friends Shae Whitely, Liz Peterson and Kass Cooney, and Ripper, her dog. She was preceded in death by her grandparents Art and Elaine Gallant and special friends Samantha Getts and Nathan Phillips. The three of them are clowning around in Heaven together now, hopefully not causing too much trouble. Sarah was a lifelong resident of Aptos, attending Orchard School, Aptos Junior High, Aptos High and recently completing her studies at Oasis. She had many friends at each and planned on continuing her education at Cabrillo College. Sarah was successful in many endeavors including playing the guitar and drums, being a actress in many Orchard plays including her favorite part of Jack Skellington in the Nightmare Before Christmas, spending summers in the State Junior Lifeguard program at Manressa (the toughest beach) where she won many awards, skateboarding and snowboarding, an accomplished videographer, interning at Community TV in many roles including behind the camera and in the production booth, and was a budding photographer. She loved sports, attending baseball, hockey and auto races with her family. Sarah had an extensive collection of backpacks, and had jackets of all her favorite teams. She had just finished a project of folding 1,000 origami cranes, installing them on the rails at Seacliff's cement ship in memory of Nathan. A story of her efforts was printed in the Santa Cruz Sentinel the morning of her passing. Sarah had a wanderlust to travel. She had already been to 33 States and Canada, and had an extensive list of places still to visit, including the rest of the States along with many foreign lands. She was planning a trip to Australia in January 2015 with her father, brother and Shae, including scuba diving the great reef and partying until the early hours of the morning. Sarah wanted to buy a truck and small trailer and continue the family tradition of long road trips. Sarah's life was brief, but it was filled with laughter and love. She will be missed immensely. A celebration of her life will be held at Pacific Gardens Chapel, 1050 Cayuga St., Santa Cruz on Wednesday, May 28, 2014 at 4 pm. In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory to Orchard School, 2288 Trout Gulch Rd., Aptos, CA 95003 are preferred.