09/01/2026
It’s officially September, and once again I’ll be running my annual fundraiser for Alzheimer’s awareness month! I will be donating flowers with funds raised to a local nursing home later this month!
I do this every year in remembrance of my favorite person in the world, my dad Charlie, who has been gone for over 6 years now. My dad was a blue collar worker his whole life. When he retired from UPS in his late 50s , rather than enjoy retirement and hit the golf course and go fishing every day he went back to school to become a CNA. He used to visit my grandmother at the nursing home down the road from us and discovered how much he enjoyed helping out and interacting with the dementia patients on her ward. He had finally found his calling.
He was an absolute treasure to the patients and his coworkers at the nursing home. He brought joy and light to everyone who encountered him. He worked there for an additional ten years after retiring, and even wrote and published a book about it afterwards. “A Funny Thing Happened on my Way to the Dementia Ward” can still be purchased on Amazon and at some local book stores. He did book talks all around the state of Wisconsin, and inspired and comforted so many people who were experiencing a loved one living with dementia.
I will be raising funds at the next two Saturday markets, or you can venmo Going Small Farm and put “nursing home” in the subject line. The weekend of September 19th I will be delivering flower arrangements to the Jacobetti Home for Veterans where they will be placed at the entrance for family members and visitors to take at no cost and deliver to a loved one inside.
My dad was and is my biggest role model. So please help me be like my dad and let’s make a stranger smile today!
