2021 Board of Directors
As a founder of our organization, Justin has been around since before we even sent the paperwork into the IRS 7 years ago. "In January 2021 he handed over his seat as the chair of our board and treasurer, the official roles he's been playing for us since December of 2014. His agenda for handing ...
As a founder of our organization, Dustin has been around since before we even sent the paperwork into the IRS 7 years ago. "In those days there was just three of us: Dustin, Justin Nicolay, and me. We all had a slightly different vision of what Jack's should be known as, what its purpose was, and ...
Our 2020 Volunteer of the Year, Mike McGarry! A caregiver himself, Mike took the lead on Jack's blog in March of 2019. Since then he's published over 40 blog posts. As a testament to the power of his stories they have raised over $20,000 for our mission! If you have an idea for a story please email ...
I remember meeting Dan over the phone in the summer of 2018. He called us right away after learning about his wife Cassie's metastatic breast cancer diagnosis. Soon after, he showed up at our Caregiver Klatch and became a regular. And soon after that, Dan was volunteering to help us expand the ...
To try and list all of Alan's volunteer contributions would be impossible! It's less one big thing he does and more lots and lots and lots of smaller things. Lots of less flashy things in the background that we often take for granted. "Bottom line is we can count on Alan. For honest and well ...
"I love this picture of Rylie. She's "in the zone" at our first ever in-person gathering last year during the pandemic. To put this in perspective Rylie has led the marketing efforts for our annual fall fundraiser for years (formerly known as JCBC and now known as Cold Ones 4 Caregivers). The ...
Randy has spent much of the 3+ years since his wife Brenda’s death from bile duct cancer figuring out what life should look like now. A former corporate IT drone, Randy splits his time these days grieving, grief mentoring, amateur photography, cooking 101, retiring, and providing tech help to ...
I remember the first volunteer gig Pat did for us in 2016 at our big fall fundraiser. She was posted up at an elevator at CHS Field with a key to operate it in case anyone needed it. I'm pretty sure she sat there the whole day bored to tears while everyone else was having a ball. I felt terrible ...
Kathy joined us on our mission in 2020 and she is so much fun to work with! She came to us with a passion for serving caregivers and a desire to put to work the hard won wisdom she's earned about the complexities of our healthcare system. She almost single handedly created the Care Navigator ...
I'll never forget the first time I met PattiJo. The primary thing that stood out to me after hearing her story was that she had more jobs at one time than anyone I had ever met in my entire life. And before long, there she was, asking me about how she could volunteer for Jack's! Honestly I was ...
One of the most terrifying things for us last year during the whole COVID-19 ordeal was how in the heck are we going to raise the funds our mission requires without the ability to gather our supporters in person? Everyone is saying do it virtually but how in the heck do you that?! Enter Chris ...
I first met Mark at our Stupid Fast Go-Karting program on July 14th 2019. He had come to us as he and his three kids were facing the end stages of his wife Teri's metastatic breast cancer. They went on to experience that unspeakable loss on October 1st, 2019. Since then, Mark has gone on to become ...
Rachel is a social services advocate that works in the mental health and substance abuse world. She has a master’s degree in social work and a health educational specialist certification. In 2011 when Rachel was 28, her husband Grayson was diagnosed with leukemia. Rachel was a caregiver, advocate, ...
I first met Logan in January 2020. He had just learned about his loved one's diagnosis and engaged with us right away. That quickness to reach out, unfortunately, is a rare thing for us as an organization to experience. More often than not, guys have been doing the caregiver thing for years before ...
On April 1st of 2021, Jack's Caregiver Coalition made our Jack's Only Facebook group findable by the public. We made it so guys from around the world can find our group and request to join after we review their answers to a short questionnaire. Anyone who's been a caregiver for a loved one with a ...
What Does a Great Caregiver Do? When I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2012, I had never heard of the disease. Learning that I had cancer was terrifying, and it didn’t help that my first husband had died of cancer. My primary care doctor tried to reassure me: “Multiple myeloma is treatable. ...
The Path to Angel Celebrating 20 years of Angel Foundation. A tribute to perseverance, passion, and one so loved, who was lost so many years ago.
The first time he met her, she laughed in his face. It was a cold, January morning in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, in 1992. Dan Cramer was working for a political campaign at a Democratic meeting at the local Holiday Inn, and between presentations, he spotted what he describes as a ‘really beautiful ...
If you’ve ever experienced a catastrophic life event like cancer, death of a loved one, divorce or an accident, it is so important to deal with the emotional trauma that comes along with these events. The way that I've learned to deal with this is through my writing.
“I remember being in the doctor’s office,” Eric begins. “The oncologist and healthcare coordinator came in, and I knew it wasn't good by the look on their faces. Ashley was holding Madelyn when we got the full cancer diagnosis. They gave us the news, started talking about survivorship, and asking ...
It wasn’t a big thing. Many people may not have even noticed it. They might have just turned their heads, stared through the dusty, bus windows and gotten lost in the Peruvian mountainside and the music playing in the one earbud. To Andrés, though, it was a lasting, meaningful impression that would ...
The Meysembourgs came into 2018 on a high note. Their daughter, Mila, was born 3 months earlier, in October, and Nick just became partner in a sales company he’d worked at for over 11 years. They were on a roll.
Sarah DeBord Sarah DeBord lived with stage IV colon cancer since November of 2011, when she was diagnosed at the age of 34. She knew early on that there was no way out of this disease and that it would probably take her life. It wasn’t a young person’s cancer, and she was young. It was ...
Tom Scott: Giving all he had and finding all that matters most. Dani, Tom, Emmett, and Mia A lot has changed for Tom in the past 3 years. Three years ago, his wife, Dani, was diagnosed with breast cancer and given 3 years to put her ‘affairs in order.' Early in the spring of this year, two and a ...
Logan Greene: Talking a lot and saying more. In a year of monumental, global upheaval, where COVID-19 grips the world, and calls for social justice tear at the fabric of our society, people want to get out, but they’re told to stay in. They want to speak, but they’re told to cover their mouths. The ...
