Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season. How is it almost 2024?! We had a fantastic time attending the RF-LAMBDA Holiday Open House in San Diego. We are so grateful for this company’s generous support, not only with this event, but throughout the year. They are truly making a difference in the lives of our families. Thank you also to our friends from the San Diego USO and Hiring Our Heroes for your support and time at this event. 

This year flew by and our team is busy preparing for 2024 and all that we want to provide for our families. Spouses, please be on the lookout for some fantasic new workshops, programs, and in-person events. In San Diego, our spouses will be able to take part in our new Growth Group headed up by our amazing Coach, Susan Hannifin-MacNab. These get-togethers will provide social, emotional, and professional support.

In North Carolina, we will continue with our Lunch and Learn offerings (the next will be Tuesday, January 23rd) in Raleigh. These events provide spouses, guardians, and providers with more information about our programs, to get registered with us, and to meet some of our team. Additionally, we will be offering more workshops focused on employment, personal finances, and emotional healing. 

I know the holidays can be a difficult season for our families, especially those who are new to the Survivor Community. The Sugar Bear Foundation has lost a dear friend, Colonel Ken “Kid” Gardiner, and we are praying for his family and will be sharing more about his life and service in the coming months. For any of our spouses, whether you are a few months or years out, if you are feeling lost and not sure what is next… want to focus on your physical, and emotional health… looking for parenting support… need help finding a job, or not sure how to relaunch a career, please reach out to us (Admin@TheSugarBearFoundation.org) as we are here to help! A new year can mean a new you and we have the Team to help you get started, create some new goals, and sustain them. With our robust and holistic approach, we have all areas covered, from your physical health to your financial stability. Take that first step with us! So reach out to us to get started or learn more. 

I also invite our families to check out our Resources as we have some excellent partners and supporting organizations that you might not know about and can provide assistance. We add to this list often and have included some new wonderful employment links that are focused on remote positions that are perfect for our families.

We are very excited to launch our new partnership with Cummins and offer our college-age students and spouses (who are attending school, and/or are looking to return to work) our Career Mentoring Program. For those interested in receiving mentoring please complete the application. This will be a process as we try to make the best matches between mentees and mentors, and might take some time, but we are thrilled to help families get started. 

Thank you to our friends from the Patriot Military Family Foundation for their recent grant. We are most grateful for their support as it helps us sustain and grow our impact. We hope our friends will consider making a donation to the Sugar Bear Foundation for their end-of-year giving. We rely on your support as we continue to grow and provide for the spouses and children who have given their all! As always, if you have an idea to help, want to get involved, or host a fundraiser, I encourage you to reach out to us.

Thank you in advance for helping us continue Sugar Bear’s legacy of service as we assist Gold Star/Surviving Spouses and children with career, educational, financial, and wellness support.

Happy New Year! 

Jennifer Carazo 
Gold Star wife/President 

November Updates

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and is off to a great holiday season. When someone experiences a profound loss in their life, the holidays can be absolutely tortuous. I am especially mindful of these feelings with all of the recent losses within the military community. That knock at the door can profoundly change the trajectory of one’s life plans, and dreams are gone in an instant. The ability to move forward can be blocked with immense fear and anxiety. 

I know in the first few years after losing Sugar Bear I was a mess. I struggled with making the holidays festive and happy for our children (they had been through enough with losing their dad), but I could barely muster the strength to find the holiday spirit. I wondered if I would ever feel that sense of happiness much less gratitude for all that we had. It took time and the eventual realization that the very person I was mourning would want me to embrace the season, count my blessings, and find a sense of peace with his loss. So inevitably that is what I did. I began to focus on all that I had especially my time with Sugar Bear and the fruits of our marriage (our two beautiful children). I also cherished all of the people in my life like our many, many friends from the Marine Corps and military community who were by our side and are still there today. It was at that time that I made a very serious shift in my thinking and also began to focus on life, rather than loss.

Sugar Bear and I had a wonderful life together. I was able to see him achieve so many of his dreams and he died doing what he loved. In my heart, I knew he would be the first to say he had had everything and he actually always made it a point to tell me so. Over the years my level of gratitude has grown exponentially and goes beyond my children, family, and friends. The opportunity to form the foundation and continue Sugar Bear’s legacy of service has been an absolute gift! Yes, his loss has changed my life. It did not go as planned, but through the grace of God, incredible friends, and my parents, I have been able to carve out a new life - one that I know would make Sugar Bear very happy too.

This holiday season and throughout the whole year, I am so grateful for the work we are doing. First off for our incredible board and team. They are the best and I greatly appreciate their guidance, insight, time, and talents which continue to help us grow. And we are growing! We are now serving hundreds of families throughout the United States with various forms and levels of support and the number increases daily.

Our team is also growing and I am very excited to welcome our new health coach - Sarah! Sarah and I met years ago when she was working with another nonprofit and we instantly bonded. She is a perfect fit for us as she has worked within the military community and more importantly with survivors. She is also a busy mom. We are excited to not only offer her programs, but she will greatly add to our approach of serving our families in a holistic manner. Spouses can meet Sarah virtually and our other amazing coaches during our upcoming webinar this week on Thursday, November 30th.

We are also getting ready to launch a new career mentoring program for our spouses and college-age teens and have an incredible new partner. We look forward to sharing this new opportunity very soon.

For our San Diego families, we can’t wait to see you all at the RF-LAMBDA Holiday Open House on Sunday, December 10th. We are incredibly grateful for this company and their ongoing support of our educational programs and the impact they are helping us make.

Thank you to all of our sponsors as your support enables us to both sustain and grow all of our programs. As such I hope all of our friends will consider the Sugar Bear Foundation this Giving Tuesday as we focus on assisting our families find a new path after losing their service member. To gain a mere glimpse of the sacrifice they are making, I invite you to visit our Honor Wall and learn about their incredible loved ones and the commitment these heroes made to preserving our freedom.

I hope my story will serve as a reminder of all that can be and the many possibilities for our Surviving Spouses and children when there is support, continuity, and programs that can provide transition and opportunities for growth. For our spouses, please reach out if you have questions, want to register for an event, or would like to take one of our surveys as we are constantly working to provide the best means of support.

As always thank you to our friends who are helping us continue Sugar Bear’s legacy of service by giving back to the families who have given their all! Your support is needed and greatly appreciated. Happy Holidays! 

Thank you,

Jennifer Carazo 
President/Gold Star Wife

October Updates!

Fall is upon us and we have a lot of news to share since our last update. We have been busy gearing up for our latest events and opportunities for our families. Thanks to the incredible work of our team.

First off I want to say Congratulations to Kent Wilder this year's RF-LAMBDA Memorial Scholarship recipient. Kent is an amazing young man and Gold Star son who is very focused on his future, achieving success, caring for his family, and offering hope to other surviving families as he plans to work toward a career in medicine.  We hope you will take some time to read about Kent.

We have had many new families register for our programs, so your support is needed more than ever. That being said, I would encourage all of our friends to visit our Honor Wall to read the names of our heroes and consider helping the families they have left behind, in particular spouses and children who are restructuring their lives after loss. Our work is focused on making this transition easier with our program offerings. I always encourage our families to take a look and see what we provide. Even if you came to us for one service you may see another area of support that could benefit you or your family. Our program offerings are meant to provide a holistic approach to transition and healing.

Our Coaching Program is particularly directed toward our spouses as it covers a wide range of services from career support to understanding grief. Both of our coaches Sarah and Susan have a vast array of experience and resources for survivors. So reach out to our Admin@thesugarbearfoundation.org to inquire or set up an appointment with Erica Brophy (Gold Star Wife) who is our Financial and Resource Counselor.

We hope our families will check out our upcoming Virtual College Planning Workshop and for those in San Diego the RF-LAMBDA Holiday Open House. Please reach out to our Admin if you would like to take part in either.

I would be remiss if I did not thank the Bergelectric Foundation and our friends from the Knights of Columbus Santa Maria Assembly 0782. I am personally grateful for their recent contributions to our work, especially as the holiday season draws closer and we launch our Holiday Gift Card and Giving Tuesday campaigns. 

Thank you for taking the time to read about our work, our families and supporting our mission to give back to the families who have given their all. Please reach out to us if you would like to get involved or help provide support.

Thank you,

Jennifer Carazo
Gold Star wife/President

Remembering 9/11

Our team would be remised if we did not share some words about this very somber day. I will never forget what I was doing twenty years ago.  Mario went into work early while I was engaged in the morning routine with our son who was only a few months old. I was in the kitchen cleaning up when the phone rang. Mario called me yelling to put on the news.  I could hear the horror and rage in his voice. Something I had never experienced. Suddenly, I understood his shock while I watched the nightmare unfolded in front of my eyes. I had no idea what was happening or what either of us said after that. I could not comprehend what was happening nor the impact all of this would have on the individuals that lost their lives that day, their families, nor the first responders. However, I do know in the days that followed our nation came together. So many men and women responded to the call to serve. Not because we called on them but because they felt an intrinsic desire to protect our way of life and as a way of honoring all that died that day. 

For me, since losing Mario, I have found my own call to service. Quite simply, I was blessed to have an opportunity to continue his legacy. Through this gift of the Sugar Bear Foundation, I have found immense purpose and healing. There is a need for the work we are doing because of the incredible men and women who have answered the call and given their lives in service to our country... Today I ask you to continue that service even if for only one day. Call someone who may need to hear a friendly voice, check on an elderly neighbor or volunteer. Give back in honor of all those who were taken from on this day or felt inspired to give back as a result.  Thank you for helping us continue Sugar Bear’s legacy of service while giving back to the families who have given their all. 

Jennifer Carazo 
Gold Star wife/Chairman