Articles about Leaders/Missions

December 19, 2024

Who We Are Grateful For

As the year comes to a close, we find ourselves reflecting on the incredible individuals and organizations who have made a difference at Jack’s Caregiver Coalition. From sharing stories that inspire, ...

January 29, 2024

Announcing Heather Erickson

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 ...

January 16, 2024

Sequel Makers - Firing On All Cylinders

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 ...

December 21, 2023

The Who's Who of Who We're Grateful For

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 ...

August 08, 2023

Community Partner Spotlight: Colon Cancer Coalition

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 ...

An Update From The Sequel Makers Development Team

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 ...

JACK-TO-JACK RENOVATION REFLECTION FROM CHAMPION DUSTIN CESAREK

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 ...

Sarah Manes is Presented The Kyle Woody Courage Award

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 ...

Mike McGarry is Presented The Justin Nicolay Resilience Award

“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 ...

Mark Mattson is Presented The Dustin Cesarek Compassion Award

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 ...

2022 Annual Report Welcome Message

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 ...

February 17, 2023

Dan Cramer Wins The Jean Accius II Caregiver Award

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 ...

Spotlight on Dustin Cesarek: A Jack Story Presented by AARP

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 ...

December 09, 2021

Spotlight on Justin Nicolay: A Jack Story Presented by AARP

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 ...

Spotlight on Kyle Woody. A Jack Story Presented by AARP

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, ...

Spotlight On The Board, Volunteer Appreciation Week 2021

2021 Board of Directors

Spotlight on Justin Nicolay, Volunteer Appreciation Week 2021

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 ...

Spotlight On Dustin Cesarek, Volunteer Appreciation Week 2021

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. ...

Spotlight On Mike McGarry, Volunteer Appreciation Week 2021

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 ...

Spotlight On Dan Cramer, Volunteer Appreciation Week 2021

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 ...

Spotlight On Alan Christensen, Volunteer Appreciation Week 2021

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 ...

Spotlight On Rylie Moore, Volunteer Appreciation Week 2021

"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 ...

Spotlight On Randy Lee, Volunteer Appreciation Week 2021

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 ...

Spotlight On Pat Kline, Volunteer Appreciation Week 2021

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 ...

Spotlight On Kathy Bucher, Volunteer Appreciation Week 2021

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 ...

Spotlight On PattiJo Verdeja, Volunteer Appreciation Week 2021

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 ...

Spotlight On Chris Cloutier, Volunteer Appreciation Week 2021

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 ...