Turning Passion into Purpose

Jeff and Debbie lived in Sandpoint and had three school-age children attending public
schools when Bill Berg first approached Jeff in 2002 about his vision for enhancing the quality
of public education in our community. Jeff was the Sandpoint City Attorney at the time, and
Debbie was in her 17 th year as a Bonner County Magistrate Judge. They both fully endorsed
Bill’s efforts and those of his wife Mindy Camerson in their founding of the Panhandle Alliance
of Education. Although Jeff and Debbie were both passionate in their support for public
education, Debbie laughs remembering ‘Jeff thought I might have more time to devote and joked
about my outsized passion. I checked with the Idaho Judicial Council, and they advised no
violation of the judicial code of conduct for me to serve on the Board. So, we sort of flipped a
coin, and I won. I was honored to be invited to membership on the original PAFE Board.’
Sadly, Jeff passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack a year later in April of 2003. As
his surviving spouse, Debbie inherited his IRA which is the source of her 2026 donation to the
PAFE Founders’ Fund, and which she feels would please Jeff immensely, as he credited support
from the public school system in which he was educated to encourage him to pursue a college
degree and navigate the hurdles to in also achieving his master’s and law degrees. To Jeff and
Debbie’s delight and satisfaction, among many successful undertakings, PAFE coordinated with
our school district to develop a program to assist public school students transition into post-
secondary training and education programs.
Bill Berg and Mindy Cameron launched the Founders Fund in 2015, managed by the
Idaho Community Foundation. The Founders Fund grows the endowment and generates interest,
which is applied to overhead and expenses, allowing PAFE to focus its efforts on programs and

teacher grants. Debbie shares, ‘having served on the PAFE Board for many years, and now
serving on the Emeritus Board, I can attest to the outstanding quality of PAFE administrators and
staff, the strength of PAFE’s partnership with our school district and its superintendent, and last
but not least, to the enormity of the positive impact PAFE has had on our public schools. The
benefits derived by our community, its public-school educators, and most importantly the