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 ...

Make a donation in honor of dan cramer The Story Behind The Jean Accius II Caregiver Award: The Caregiver Cup Award was established in 2016 by Jack’s Caregiver Coalition and ever since it has been awarded annually to the caregiver in our community who most consistently demonstrates our core values ...

Spotlight on Dustin Cesarek: A Jack Story Presented by AARP A Jack's Founding Story, Part 3 It seems like cancer has always been a part of his life. When he was 11, his 25-year-old sister, April, was diagnosed with leukemia. She was living in Minnesota at the time, so his family moved from Las ...

Spotlight on Justin Nicolay: A Jack Story Presented by AARP A Jack's Founding Story, Part 2 September, 2013 - he was 8 months into it. Michelle, his wife, had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of Stage IV melanoma in February. They had an infant son. Treatment options were limited and would be ...

How A Caregiver Can Help A Loved One Apply For Social Security Disability Benefits If you are a caregiver to someone that has a medical condition that prevents them from working you can help them file a claim for Social Security disability benefits. Social Security disability benefits can help them ...

Allan Hammell has always liked to fix things. He’s good at it. It’s a trait that has served him well, in his personal life and in his career as an engineer and project manager. “When I encounter a problem, that’s when I go into ‘problem-solving’ mode,” says Allan. And that’s usually the end of the ...

In the cancer world the saying no one fights alone is commonly used, that is a true statement as your caregiver is right next to you. Going through each treatment, scan and scare. They go through the same emotions as a cancer patient whether they show it or not. For example, my last scan Eric asked ...

Jack’s has partnered with Jasper to offer a unique experience to you, caregivers, as well as those you care for. It’s an interactive website to help you track patient symptoms, mood, health, appointments, and access educational materials as well as live weekday chat support. You can track your own ...

A Jack's Caregiver Coalition Founding Story, Part 1 From Left to Right: His sisters Liz and Tressa, his mom Doris, his dad Anthony, his sister Allison It started many years ago in Houston Texas, where he grew up. He was the oldest in the family, with 3 younger sisters. His mom was a mother of 4 by ...

A Little Light in Heavy [It started slowly as we caught up to where we had left off the last time we talked.] [Just] Mike: The last time we talked, we were talking about the fact that guys, in general, don’t like to ask for help; they basically don’t reach out, even when they need help. One of your ...

What my caregiver means to me: I can’t say enough good things about my caregiver. We started out on this journey with 5 broken bones in my spine. I’ve been in a wheelchair, a walker, or cane and he absolutely did everything for me and our two children. He does so much with and for our kids. I know ...

Help Us Reach Our Goal Ashley's gratitude story was told in support of our MN Springs 4 Caregivers campaign. With your help we'll meet our goal and make 14 more stories of gratitude like Ashley's possible. Donations are being matched up to $5,000 thanks to a generous challenge grant from an ...

What my caregiver means to me: When asked: What does my caregiver mean to me? I froze. I didn’t know what to write. I was overwhelmed by emotions and thoughts and memories. Can I tell you something? Before Chris and I were even married. I got really sick.

What my caregiver means to me: Everything. I can’t imagine going through life, let alone life with a terminal diagnosis, without Dan. His love, support and commitment has been unwavering since my Stage IV breast cancer diagnosis in 2018. He shows up everyday with his caregiver hat on. He brings ...

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 ...