News Blog

Burners Without Borders would like to thank and highlight the story of Matt and Karine Maynard. Their story began the same time that Burners Without Borders did; In 2005, when hundreds of Burners left Burning Man to serve the communities of Pearlington and Biloxi affected by Hurricane Katrina. 

Karine and her kids had lost their own family home in New Orleans due to the Hurricane and after Karine had settled her kids out of the state, she came back to the Gulf Coast to volunteer with the BWB efforts. 

Matt, a blacksmith from Kentucky, had met Karine at Burning Man that year and they both fell for each other hard like a hammer hits an anvil. But for the fire to continue, Matt would have to visit Karine in the Gulf Coast, and so he came down and helped with the BWB efforts and assisted with re-roofing the Buddhist Temple that was being repaired by BWB in Biloxi. Months went on and their relationship bloomed and grew amidst the rubble left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Matt eventually had to leave and go back to work at his shop in Kentucky.

Then one weekend in the Spring of 2006, Matt came back down to see Karine. He was pretty insistent to take her out to dinner, even though there were hardly any open restaurants for miles. As the story goes, Karine was actually pretty content to have dinner with Matt in the large blue world shelter that she had called home for months and made cozy and homey. Yet, Matt insisted and so off they drove to the only restaurant open; the Waffle House. 

Karine reluctantly ordered some hash browns, and as they drank their coffees, Matt had difficulty trying to get some words out of his mouth as it seemed he had something important to say. Karine could read what he was trying to do and decided to make it easy on him and said “Are you trying to ask me to marry you?!” to which came a big “Yes!” Matt exclaimed. 

Karine said yes to Matt, and a new life together began with both of them running the Maynard Studio, which creates high-end custom forges and metal works. Almost 12 years later, their love for each other and for Burners Without Borders hasn’t faded and just this past August, as Hurricane Harvey was bringing destruction to Texas, they took a bunch of small-batch furniture they had made to sell to raise thousands for the BWB disaster efforts. 

Big thank you to the Maynards for their help back in the inception of BWB and today as BWB addresses recovery efforts in Aransas Pass, Texas, Florida and Mexico.

 Check out more works by the Maynard Studio

Learn more about BWB Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts, the Hurricane Irma Relief Efforts and how to volunteer with BWB.