Our Story

The Kiblers

Kibler Cares is a family based nonprofit created at the request of Margia Kibler.  Margia (Marge) was born during the height of the Depression and understood what it was like for a family to struggle.  When a sharecropper's wife taught her to sew, she saw her world become immersed with beauty and color and became a professional seamstress, owning her own shop when few women owned their own business.  Marge filled her life with things she found to be beautiful such as books, music and art, and continued to sew until her early 90's.  Along with the beautiful things, however, Marge struggled with many of life's challenges, and never recovered from the death of her niece Jennifer or her daughter Melissa.  Jennifer and Melissa both passed after lengthy battles with cancer, and at that point Marge made a promise to donate any of her remaining estate to putting some joy into the lives of those under  hospice care.  This care also stretched to include the lives of animals, who with proper medical care could be placed in the homes of loving families.  Marge lived most of her adult life in Virginia and Arizona.  Our logo symbolizes the Arizona mesas that Marge loved so much, as well as the turquoise and purple hues of the southwest.

The Kibler family has long been associated with their devotion to faith, family and service, and as such is  honored to carry out Marge's vision.

Jennifer Kibler, Marge’s great niece, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer primarily affecting children when she was eight years old. Determined not to lose her leg, she underwent an innovative surgery which allowed her to keep her leg and live the life she wanted. Despite additional surgeries and multiple rounds of chemotherapy over the years, she kept her fighting spirit, her bright smile, and her sense of adventure. She loved Broadway plays, family get-togethers, and her puppies. The cancer was relentless, however, and Jennifer passed away just a week shy of her 18th birthday.