DETERMINED: AN ENTREPRENEUR’S STORY OF BRAND-BUILDING AND ACTIVISM BY Casey Kaplan
PHOTOGRAPHY: FRANCES ISAAC
This summer, on an unseasonably cool day, I stopped by Cathy Kangas’ New Canaan English Manor home to get to know the woman behind PRAI Beauty. Cathy is widely known for her seemingly magical neck cream - with a cult following for its ability to firm and tighten the appearance of an aging neck. Women really swear by it! But in addition to her phenomenal business success, Cathy is also a noted philanthropist and animal rights advocate and activist, which is a job unto itself. Cathy is warm and inviting, and answered the door on that summer day with a massive smile, and singing out a ‘hello’ in her charming English accent - as if she was greeting a lifelong friend instead of it being our first
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acquaintance. She was wearing an adorable outfit and had perfectly quaffed hair, so I was surprised to learn she had just finished hauling buckets of food down to the pond behind her house, in order to feed about 200 ducks and geese who live there...and that she personally luggs about fifty pounds of food down a grassy hill each and every morning, with her gaggle of dogs in tow. Cathy has two Beagles that she rescued from their former lives as testers in a lab, and two large mutts (rottweiler, pitbull and Beagle mixes) - whom she lovingly calls her ‘killers’. “They’re afraid of men, really. They had come from some kind of abusive situation. But they are just so loveable!” Cathy explained as the pups followed her around.
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