I like community events where I can be at a table and talk to the people who most need to know about what we can offer. Being a part of the nonprofit world for the past 15 years has taught me what to expect at these events and how to maximize downtime. Having a table at a community event is ...

Reflecting on The Big GIVE last year, two moments stand out. Moment 1 Standing with Mike McGarry in his driveway in Woodbury, MN on July 6th 2023 after we had mobilized a team of encouragers to show up at his house.

It was the day before Thanksgiving. In Norfolk, Virginia, in 2011, when my wife Sarah was diagnosed with Colon Cancer. She was only 34 years old. We had just celebrated our second son’s first birthday. About a year later, some friends from California traveled across the country to spend a week with ...

Navigating the challenges of caregiving can often feel overwhelming, especially for those just beginning their journey. That’s where Jack’s Caregiver Coalition steps in with its innovative Jack-to-Jack coaching program. At its core, this program connects individuals who have firsthand experience in ...

Mike Dykema joined Jack’s in August 2023. Mike saw that he was heading for heartache and knew he needed the kind of help only someone unfamiliar to him, but with a similar experience could tackle. I remember sitting down with Mike just days after the loss of his wife, Emily. He was heartbroken ...

We are proud to announce that Dr. Jean Accius has officially begun his term as our newest Board Chair. Jean’s connection with our coalition dates back to 2016 when he stumbled upon us while conducting groundbreaking research on male family caregivers at AARP. His work culminated in the publication ...

We are pleased to announce that we have purchased a trailer. In its current form, it’s basically the shell of our future mobile kitchen. Caregiver, Fred Sklenar has created a brilliant and detailed plan to trick out the trailer, giving us all the features we will need to execute Storm Chaser’s ...

On my first day as part of the Jack's team, my first official duty at Jack's was to attend a Caregiver Klatch at (the now, sadly, shuttered) Common Roots in Uptown Minneapolis. It was at the tail end of summer and traffic was thick because we Minnesotan's love our State Fair. I knew it was a ...

Super-Volunteers Mark Mattson and Roger Miller There’s volunteer work and there’s super-volunteer work… We at Jack’s ask a lot of our volunteers and it’s just not the same as a one-and-done afternoon at a food shelf. Not only do our volunteers show up to serve our caregivers and Sequel Makers, but ...

Although Ericis ten years younger than me,he is one month my senior in grief. His wife, Melissa, died on June 1, 2023, from complications caused Fanconi Anemia (FA), a condition she’d lived with her entire life. FA is a bone marrow failing disease and DNA breakage syndrome. People with this ...

Heather began volunteering for Jack’s Caregiver Coalition early on as a Caregiver Klatch facilitator. She was a caregiver for her husband who lived with lung cancer for 7 years. She is a writer and an avid forager of mushrooms and other wild edibles. She has a dog named Molly and a cat named Kitty ...

The Sequel Makers First Pitch Party On August 30th, 2023 (National Grief Awareness Day) The need for Sequel Makers started at our Caregiver Klatches in 2019, when more and more we would hear from Caregivers who had lost their loved ones that they didn't feel like they belonged, that they were on ...

Click here to make a year-end donation in honor of a who's who that we're grateful for Staff that both show up with Starbucks for everyone AND make loud buzzer noises when we’re wrong. Janet (our office puppy) for his “carpet scoots” during our team meetings.

Jeff Myhre I love making stuff happen. So I was particularly excited on a sunny unseasonably warm Monday morning to welcome Heather Erickson into my home to pilot one of the new Sequel Makers initiatives.

The Erickson Family in 2016 On our third anniversary, we learned that my husband, Dan, had stage IV lung cancer and could expect to live another 6 months. Three years later, he was still alive, wounded from non-stop chemo, but walking. At this point, I was exhausted. I was homeschooling our three ...

Mike McGarry and Jeanette Carle hoisting the big check at The Big GIVE on September 28th, 2023. The goal of The Big GIVE this year was to raise $125,000 to fund an entirely new program in 2024 we call Storm Chasers. Our incredible community of donors responded to the challenge, raising over ...

I’ve asked you so many times for your support, in so many ways, over the past 6 years, as we fought Tracy's cancer. And you’ve always responded. I’m asking you once again to support me in supporting Jack's Caregiver Coalition as they launch ‘ Storm Chasers,’ a new program intended to support ...

In 2011 I was living in Virginia and my wife Sarah was diagnosed with colon cancer. Photo taken one month after Sarah's diagnosis. In 2013, we moved from Norfolk, Virginia to Eagan, Minnesota. Our boys Merrick and Lachlan were 6 and 3, and Sarah had stage 4 colon cancer.

This was the second year that Jack's Caregiver Coalition was the recipient of the funds raised at the Swing Back at Cancer annual golf tournament. Over the past 10 years this generous organization has raised over $300,000 and donated all the proceeds to a local cancer organization. The second year ...

The Jack’s staff has been studying a book called Unreasonable Hospitality about the food and drink service industry and are applying it to the work that we do. Our new home for Klatches and newest community partner Jill Pavlak at the Urban Growler in St. Paul seems to have read the book too… or ...

My personal post caregiving journey is deeply tied to the art (yes art) of improv. My wife passed away in July of 1997 a short 9 months after our wedding and I was lost in a sea of pessimism and anger. I was an actor with a day job at the time and was lucky enough to audition for The Brave New ...

Our Sequel Maker team has been busy the first half of this year collaborating, debating, and defining what the Sequel Maker program will become. Most importantly we have defined it's purpose (why it exists!). The purpose of Sequel Makers is: Helping Jack's thrive, helping you thrive as a Sequel ...

A meme I found on the Internet once read “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” I don’t know about you but that is some solid advice that I regularly don’t follow. However, that doesn’t mean you should rest on your laurels either, right?

Courage. “To me the more important courage isn’t the heroic kind. Because we have the opportunity to practice the less flashy ordinary kind of courage every day. Ordinary courage requires us to speak openly and honestly about how we’re feeling and about who we really are deep down inside. Ordinary ...

“Resilience is all about advancing despite the adversity we face. Being a caregiver taught me what it truly means to be resilient and how that allows us to get the most out of our precious time we have with friends and loved ones.” Justin Nicolay, Founder

Compassion. “Compassion is seeing your pain reflected in another person’s circumstances and then choosing to sit with them in the dark so they don’t have to be alone. Compassion recognizes the dignity we all deserve and connects us in our shared humanity. Someone who is compassionate often gives ...

CLICK HERE TO VIEW/DOWNLOAD THE FULL 2022 ANNUAL REPORT The average caregiver who responded to our 2022 survey reported that Jack’s was responsible for 80% of a more than twofold improvement in how equipped they felt in their caregiving role. When we chose the theme of this report – pioneering ...