Kara Piganelli is the
17-year-old daughter of Chris Piganelli and Virginia
Prior Piganelli, and the granddaughter of Carl and
Virginia Prior of Chanhassen, Minnesota. Kara's
grandmother, Virginia Prior, grew up as
Virginia Schumacher in Eureka, SD. Kara's great aunt
was the late Annie Roesch Larson of Aberdeen. Kara
has been coming to the Dakotas with her mother and
grandparents since she was a young child. She enjoys
visiting her relatives in the Aberdeen area and
learning about her German Russian heritage. She
lives with her parents and brother in Oakland,
California, and will be a senior at Miramonte High
School in Orinda. Her school activities include
basketball and cheerleading. She is an honor student
at Miramonte HS. Kara received an award for
producing a C-Span StudentCam TV Documentary called
“Proposition 74”. Her PowerPoint essay about the
history of the Germans from Russia and her family
was the first PowerPoint essay ever received in the
GRHS Youth Essay Contest. Kara was present at the
awards ceremony with her mother and grandparents.
She showed her essay at the ‘Voices of the Future”
workshop immediately following the awards ceremony.
