Shots of espresso: Calendar of coffee huts raises money for cancer research

December is a coffee pot, 12 feet tall. August is a lighthouse; March is a windmill; and July is a squat little tugboat.

Look at the pages of the 2006 calendar by Susan McKeeth of Renton and you'll see drive-through espresso stands, not women with ovarian disease.

But understanding the connection between the two explains how this fundraising project came about, and why McKeeth has dedicated it "to all the souls healing from cancer."

Two thousand copies of McKeeth's calendar have been printed and are on sale at bookstores and coffeehouses despite the fact that she has no background in photography or publishing.

"I've definitely been learning as I go along," she admits.

McKeeth, 47, travels all over the Puget Sound area as a research interviewer for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington Cardiovascular Health Research Unit.

When she interviews women in an ovarian-cancer study, she asks about everything from their menstrual cycles and pregnancies to their diet, exercise, sleeping habits and exposure to the sun.

And she comes away from these 90-minute sessions not just with facts, but a refreshed perspective on life.

"My long-term goal is to see both of my sons hold their grandchildren," said McKeeth, whose sons are 12 and 14. "But I'm interviewing women my age and younger whose long-term goal is just to be able to see their kids graduate from high school. ... Listening to them, I sit there and I just think how precious life is. Every breath matters."

McKeeth decided she wants to do more to help those facing cancer. That's where the espresso joints fit in.

McKeeth drives about 35,000 miles a year on her job, and she breaks up long days on the road with stops at cutesy, kitschy or imaginative drive-by espresso outlets. Even though she avoids caffeine because it keeps her awake at night, she's a longtime coffee lover who recites her usual order as if it were a mantra: "A 16-ounce decaf Americano with sugar-free hazelnut and lots of nonfat, two straws and a sleeve, thank you."

In May of last year, she was struck by the charm of The Espresso Garden along Highway 101 near Sequim, a small wooden cabin with a view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

"I asked them if they had a postcard of it, had it been photographed for a postcard?"

When the owner told her no, she started compiling a list of espresso stands she thought she might try to photograph for a coffee-table book, but she ended up with a dozen that were particularly charming — just enough for a calendar.

But it wasn't until last summer, after attending a seminar on being of service to others, that she decided to go ahead with the project and give the proceeds to the Hutchinson Center.

"When I decided to donate the money, that's when it took off, because it was the right thing to do," she said.

Espresso-stand operators were enthusiastic. "She is totally energetic. She has a good aura," said Michael Berg, owner of Hotspot Coffee in Arlington, the aluminum-clad giant coffee pot. "I felt assured she was doing something for the good it could do. It wasn't to make her rich."

By coincidence, Berg, who lost both his parents and other relatives to cancer, is a participant in a Hutchinson Center study in which he is contacted annually for a one-hour phone interview.

McKeeth's inexperience with photography led to plenty of learning moments, like having to reshoot a stand when all her photos came out with a bluish tint.

She learned to try various angles for her shots, lying on the ground to get the best view of one stand. She started paying more attention to extraneous details such as utility poles and wires that tended to clutter up some of her early shots.

She made up to three trips to the same stand, taking as many as 112 shots to get one she wanted, and she started bringing her laptop along with her so she could load the digital images into it while she was still out at a scene, to see how they would look enlarged.

"I got a greater respect for people who do photography for a living," she said.

And then there was the small matter of having 1,000 calendars printed before she realized she had put 31 days in November instead of December. "If you don't like New Year's Eve, you can skip it," she laughs, noting that the flawed calendars have been selling briskly as a half-price "collectors' edition."

If all the calendars sell, McKeeth hopes to contribute more than $10,000 to the Hutchinson Center.

Besides helping people with cancer, McKeeth views the project as a lesson for her sons, Hayden and Frazier Krall, who accompanied her on a couple of shoots and hauled boxes of calendars for her. "I want to be able to show them how to do something from beginning to end and how to do something for others."

She looks at the calendar as just a beginning, envisioning images of espresso stands on coasters, mugs or mouse pads. She hopes to start a nonprofit organization which, among its missions, will help children in the world's coffee-growing regions.

And she's already planning a 2007 calendar, one that will expand its focus to the Northwest, including stands she heard about at a recent "Coffee Fest" industry show in Seattle.

"There's one in Idaho I want to get. The woman who runs it said, 'Our place isn't much on the outside, but inside we've got a mural of the hand of God coming down and handing Moses a cup of coffee,' and I said. 'You're in.' "

Jack Broom: 206-464-2222 or jbroom@seattletimes.com