{"id":3321,"date":"2015-09-18T14:43:19","date_gmt":"2015-09-18T21:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/?p=3321"},"modified":"2025-03-03T14:50:50","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T22:50:50","slug":"a-cougar-legacy-david-and-sandi-bielski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/2015\/09\/18\/a-cougar-legacy-david-and-sandi-bielski\/","title":{"rendered":"A Cougar Legacy: David and Sandi Bielski"},"content":{"rendered":"

Web Extra<\/span><\/p>\n

by Marcia Hill Gossard \u201999, \u201904 Ph.D.<\/em><\/p>\n

What does one business, two Cougar veterinarians, three WSU degrees, and an adopted Cougar make? A Cougar legacy.<\/p>\n

Looking back, the Cougar legacy created by David and Sandi Bielski seems almost inevitable. And listening to their story, there was a Cougar thread linking their lives along the way.<\/p>\n

Their friendship with the WSU College of Veterinary Medicine started after a chance meeting between David and now director of development, Lynne Haley<\/a> at an alumni function in 2002. David and Sandi knew they wanted to find a way to support veterinary students and also honor her dad WSU graduate, J.R. Fuller (\u201950 DVM). The result was the Dr. J.R. Fuller Memorial Scholarship.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would have been embarrassed by it, but then quickly pleased because he enjoyed his profession and was serious about how he worked with his clients,\u201d says Sandi. \u201cHe thought about pets as well as people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing her father, Sandi says he was an old fashioned country doctor who would know all the pets\u2019 names\u2014sometimes before the people\u2019s names. He was also a very compassionate man, says David. Dr. Fuller passed in 1998 before the scholarship was created, but Sandi and David know the scholarship would have meant a lot to him because it is helping future Cougar veterinarians and by extension, their patients. From 2005 to 2014, the scholarship had been awarded to 27 WSU veterinary students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is amazing to us how many students we\u2019ve been able to help,\u201d says Sandi. \u201cWe\u2019ve also been fortunate to meet about three-quarters of them in person.”<\/p>\n

When the scholarship was originally established, the Bielski\u2019s pledged $1 for every private cremation done at their business, Petland Cemetery, in Aberdeen, Wash. That seemingly small amount has added up to more than $6000 each year since. Petland was started in 1973 by David\u2019s dad, along with cougar alumnus Glenn Hilliard (\u201954 DVM) and another local businessman. David and Sandi took over the business in 1983. \u201cWe\u2019ve been building the business ever since,\u201d says David.<\/p>\n

Providing services to over 120 clinics in Washington and Oregon, Petland\u2019s services help veterinarians humanely dispose of animals that have died, says Sandi. And private cremations and burials offer pet owners comfort. They also work with local humane societies and zoos such as Woodland Park in Seattle and Port Defiance in Tacoma. As policy, they don\u2019t charge for service animals or for military or police K9s. \u201cWe go wherever the need is,\u201d says David.<\/p>\n

But their connections to WSU run even deeper. David is a WSU graduate (\u201970 Comm.) and so are two of their three children. They are Platinum lifetime members of the WSU Alumni Association<\/a>. Their business is even their business is listed on the \u201cCougar First Business Network<\/a>,” a free service offered by the WSU Alumni Association. So when Lynne learned Sandi had not gone to WSU, she was understandably surprised. \u201cShe [Lynne] told us that they would like to adopt her,\u201d says David.<\/p>\n

Sandi was formally adopted as a Cougar<\/a> in 2013. \u201cThat was the only surprise in 37 years of marriage that David was able to pull off,\u201d says Sandi. \u201cIt was nice to be honored in that way and asked to be part of the family.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Bielskis, helping WSU veterinary students is a priority. As life-long pet lovers they appreciate veterinarians who ensure good health. They also know how expensive a veterinary education can be. Through the scholarship, they pay it forward to future veterinarians and animal patients. Over 12 years, they have generously given more than $80,000 to the college to support veterinary student education.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are glad to be able to help in some little way so someone can follow their dream,\u201d says Sandi.<\/p>\n

\n

The Dr. J.R. Fuller Memorial Scholarship<\/a> is given to second or third year veterinary students at the college who are in the top three-quarters of their class, have a commitment to small or mixed companion animal practice, and have a financial need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What does one business, two Cougar veterinarians, three WSU degrees, and an adopted Cougar make? A Cougar legacy.<\/p>\n

Looking back, the Cougar legacy created by David and Sandi Bielski seems almost inevitable. And listening to their story, there was a Cougar thread linking their lives along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1015,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wsuwp_accessibility_report":null},"categories":[514],"tags":[619,540,614,617],"wsuwp_university_location":[332],"wsuwp_university_org":[425],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1015"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3321"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4077,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3321\/revisions\/4077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3321"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=3321"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=3321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}