Happy Fall!

For many of us, kids are back to school, sports seasons have started and life is busier than ever. I know this is true for me and our team at the Sugar Bear Foundation. We have so much going on that I am going to keep this note short and focus on all of our updates.  However, with that said I would be remiss if I did not offer my appreciation and highlight some special acknowledgements.

First off, thank you to all who participated in Sugar Bear’s Virtual Memorial Run.  Your support not only impacts our programs but also feature the many heroes who have given their lives in service to our country and the families they left behind. I am also grateful for the Marine Corps Association & Foundation. It is a privilege for us to work with them and we appreciate their ongoing dedication to this event. Thank you also to the Marine Corps Aviation Association. I was honored to once again attend their Symposium this past May and share more about our work with my fellow Gold Star Families. The grant they provide us is a blessing and goes directly towards our programs. It is also nice for me to see so many friends.

And finally thank you to RF-LAMBDA for their educational support. We could not offer any of these programs without them and are incredibly grateful for their unwavering commitment. In our next newsletter, we will recognize this year’s RF-LAMBDA Memorial Scholarship Recipient.

I would invite our friends and families to check out all of our sponsors who generously give in honor of our mission and families. Next month I will attend a very special military fundraiser being held for us and look forward to sharing Mario’s story and the impact our work is having on our families. As always, if any of our friends would like to get involved with our mission, or fundraising, or have an idea, please reach out to us at Admin@thesugarbearfoundation.org.

For our families, please review all of our updates including our Virtual Library, Growth Group, and Mentoring Program (thank you Cummins for this special support). We will have our College Planning recording and packet available within a few weeks along with some new offerings through our Health Coach Sarah. In the meantime thank you for the opportunity to give back in Sugar Bear’s name and support my fellow Surviving Families. 

Jennifer Carazo 
President/Gold Star Wife 

Gratitude!

I am feeling so much gratitude for all of our Partners, Sponsors, Supporters, Board Members, and Team. We have received some wonderful opportunities to share our work, support our mission, and the ability to expand our programs. We also have a lot of programming updates that we are continuing to work on and cannot wait to share with our families.

If you have not already, please register for the upcoming Sugar Bear Virtual Memorial Run as we are only a few weeks away from this special event. We hope you will not only take part but select a hero from our Honor Wall and participate on behalf of their service and the family they leave behind. Your support goes directly toward our programming that assists these families in creating a new path in life. So please register and share this event with your family, friends, and coworkers. Thank you.

For our families, check out all of our latest program updates, events, and offerings. We have a lot and there is more to come. I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer. As always, please reach out to us if you have an idea to support our programs, would like to get involved, or assist our families. We cannot do this alone and seek your partnership. 
Thank you,

Jennifer Carazo 
President/Gold Star Wife 

Our Special Month

May is a special month for us as it would be Sugar Bear’s birthday, the anniversary of the foundation, and Memorial Day. It is always a hectic time for me with a lot of travel and attending events which I will share more next month. However, as I always say, it is a good busy and I feel so blessed!  Eight years ago I had the opportunity and given the gift of forming the Sugar Bear Foundation. Words will never be able to express the joy our work has given me as it is needed, but it also helps continue Sugar Bear’s legacy of service.

When we lost Sugar Bear, part of my sadness stemmed from knowing how much more he wanted to do with his life (outside of watching our children grow up and us growing old together). Life did not go as planned! However, I made a very conscious decision to stay positive for our children and say yes to any invitations we received. It was important to me to keep our family connected to our military community and to show gratitude when possible. It also helped me focus on all that we had instead of what we had lost… A mindset I knew Sugar Bear would want me to have. These simple steps truly changed the trajectory of my life and have given me a new direction and purpose. I now feel an incredible sense of fulfillment and have found that life has become much more than the sadness that once consumed my days in those early years. This is my hope for our families and what our Team (many of whom are widowed too) is working towards. We deserve it and I honestly believe it is what our spouses would want for us.

This month we know can be more difficult than usual with Memorial Day right around the corner and we hope our friends will make some time to check out our Honor Wall. Please keep these heroes and their families in your prayers, not just this month, but in the years to come. Their lives are forever changed! 

For our families, please know we are here for you and always will be, and we are listening to your needs. As such, we are launching some new programs and updating others to best meet the busy lives you all lead. For starters, we are excited to launch our new Growth Group. This will be a new virtual monthly offering for our spouses that will focus on social, emotional, and professional camaraderie. Susan Hannifin-MacNab and I will lead this group and we have some fantastic speakers lined up who will share not only their stories of loss, but expertise in a variety of areas. This group will start in September so we encourage our Registered spouses to get on the interest list.

For our North Carolina spouses, we have another Lunch and Learn next month in Greenville, NC. Please reach out if you are in the area.  

Additionally, we are launching our new Financial Education Employment Program which will include some special career and educational stipends for spouses (application will be available soon). This program will focus greatly on new career opportunities, a financial literacy curriculum, and individualized support.

We are equally excited to share our new Virtual Library where we will house all of our workshops, information sessions, and seminars so families can receive support on their own time. And finally, We will be adding some subscriptions to educational websites so our families with children and teens can obtain more educational support. IXL and Generation Genius are excellent educational resources and very easy to use. They will provide our families with remedial and enrichment educational opportunities in all subject areas.

We are happy to share these updates and hope our families know we are committed to helping them move forward in their lives after loss. In honor of what would be Sugar Bear’s birthday, we are once again asking our friends to support our work through a donation, signing up for the upcoming Sugar Bear Virtual Memorial Run, sponsoring a program, or sharing this newsletter. In doing so you help us continue Sugar Bear’s legacy while giving back to the families who have given their all.  We are always grateful for any support.

Thank you for the opportunity to share our work,  story, and very important mission. 

Jennifer Carazo 
Gold Star Wife/President

Happy Spring

We have had a busy March and there is lots to share. Two weeks ago we kicked off our first Lunch and Learn in a new series we are hosting for our North Carolina families. During the next year, we will be offering these lunches across the state as a means of not only sharing our programming, but also introducing them to a variety of regional resources. We had a great time doing so in Raleigh spending the afternoon with some new and familiar faces. It is important to us not only to host these lunches and provide these connections, but we want to take it a step further by forming social groups so the conversations can continue beyond these events. If you are a spouse in North Carolina be on the lookout for a Lunch and Learn in your area and let us know if you are interested in joining a Social Connection Group. Thank you to all the organizations, (especially Veterans Bridge Home) and spouses who attended this first event. I am also excited to share that we have partnered with Coastal Credit Union Foundation and will be providing new opportunities for our families. We are very grateful for their support of our work and recent grant. We love working with companies and organizations that share our interest in financial literacy. Thank you too to Wegmans for their support of this event and for providing us with a grant. Our next stop in this series will be in Greenville, North Carolina on Wednesday, June 26th. Details are coming soon as we are busy planning with our friends from Survivor Outreach Services.

We are also working on a new virtual group for our spouses that will focus on professional, social, and emotional well-being. We are excited to introduce some fantastic speakers and presenters to our spouses. The “Growth Group” will launch in the fall and we will also be sharing more details soon.

On April 9th in honor of Gold Star Spouses Day, some of our team will be sharing our stories and work with our friends at the Navy's Gold Star Program. This is a virtual event that we hope our families will check out. We are busy working on several new offerings for our spouses and their children as we continue to evolve our programming.

I recently had the honor of attending the Celebration of Life for Colonel Ken “Kid” Gardiner. It was a very special memorial to pay tribute to this amazing Marine, Husband, Father, and Friend. Thank you to all who donated to us on behalf of Kid. We are very grateful and continue to pray for his family. 

For anyone looking for a way to give back, we ask you to check out the Annual Sugar Bear Virtual Memorial Run taking place on July 22nd. This year we would like our friends to select a hero from our Honor Wall and take part on behalf of them and the family they leave behind. Funds raised from this event will be split between our Sugar Bear Foundation and the Marine Corps Association Foundation, and will go directly towards our programs. We hope you will take part in this event, share it within your communities, and help us give back in Sugar Bear’s name. This support helps us not only sustain our mission, but also raises awareness of our Gold Star/Surviving Families and continues Sugar Bear’s legacy of service. If you would like to get more involved please reach out to our Admin@thesugarbearfoundation.org. Thank you for the opportunity to share.

We are grateful for our friends who support our work and the families and heroes who have given their all to our country. 

Thank you,

Jennifer Carazo 
Gold Star Wife/President