4TH PATH : BRIAN FRANK STRONG

💚 MORE INFO BELOW FLYER! 💚   Saturday, November 9th - Brookfield Zoo Lights | 10a-4:30p Brookfield Zoo:  8400 31st St, Brookfield, IL 60513 Tree Location #429 We invite you & your family to come out to kick off Holiday Magic, at Brookfield Zoo, to decorate the Got Your 6 Foundation tree, honoring Brian, our friends lost in the line of duty, gold star families, and local departments. This is an OPEN INVITE to ALL DEPARTMENTS …ALL gold star families to represent your department and our friends lost in service. We made aviator ornaments, photos of Brian, and GY6 logo ornaments & Brian's badge as the tree topper. Please feel free to come hang ours or make ornaments out of your department patches. Make sure they are hang-able. Once holiday magic is over we can add them to Brian Frank’s collection.  Saturday, November 16th - GY6 Blue Brew 3  |  6pm LOCATION:  Alter Brewing: 2300 Wisconsin Ave Ste 213, Downers Grove IL Join us to remember those lost in...

Saturday, November 16th - GY6 Blue Brew 3  |  6pm Buy tickets here: https://got-your-6-foundation.myshopify.com/ Alter Brewing: 2300 Wisconsin Ave Ste 213, Downers Grove IL https://www.facebook.com/events/474319964940612 GOFUNDME: https://www.gofundme.com/f/brians-journey-to-neurosolutions-in-austin-tx   Thursday, July 25th - Kendra Scott Give Back Event | 5pm - 8pm  20% of all sales donated to Brian's recovery fund. Food, drink, game, raffles! https://kendragivesbacktobrianfrank.splashthat.com/ Oak Brook Mall IL Location Austin TX Flagship Location on S. Congress FUNDS RAISED FROM EVENT = $2400 Tuesday, August 6th - National Night Out Oak Forest  |  6p - 8p https://www.oak-forest.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=636&fbclid=IwY2xjawEWYVRleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHS7gUlwvAHiarWAAYbaXjqgaYcoTtzmcADaSp6Qjzm-2NaGM4cvpWBfAdw_aem_cGw_PYUZxv304wS6kFaoFQ 5800 S. Long Avenue – behind Culvers on 159 th  Street – from 6 to 8 p.m. The festivities will include a DJ, free child ...

We have been home from Texas for about a month now. We are doing our best to continue the 4+ daily hours of therapies that we learned at NeuroSolutions 3-5x a week. Brian continues to improve and make gains. His wakefulness throughout the day is longer, he's getting physically stronger, his head control & tracking is excellent, he has new responses to commands, and stem cells will continue to regenerate for up to 6 months. Dr Crawford would like to have us back by end of year for round 2! I had the great honor of sitting and podasting with Dr Brandon Crawford while we were there. You can watch and/or listen here: WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFF-3RYJXG0 LISTEN:   https://www.drbrandoncrawford.com/podcast/episodes/strength-in-silence-the-unspoken-journey-of-tbi-caregiving I have zero regrets about getting Brian to Austin for the treatments. But I would like to talk about the hard stuff that really attempts (and sometimes succeeds) at weighing me down. It is impor...

Big news! Brian has been accepted into Dr. Brandon Crawford's clinic, NeuroSolutions, in Austin, Texas. He wants Brian for a minimum of two weeks to begin treatment, so we will be making the trip down this spring (late March). We have appreciated all of the continued financial support that has helped us to make Brian's recovery as comfortable and as efficient as possible. I've used funds to purchase and renovate a beautiful, ADA / accessible home, obtain state of the art equipment to make his care easier and functional, bio-hacking devices to aid in his day-to-day healing, insurance on the handicap van, and to 'keep the lights on' since I am still unable to work or be reliable enough to obtain a job. Arguably the greatest gift of all is the opportunity to stay by Brian's side and continue to search for solutions to help him heal and emerge so we can have him back fully. Thank you *all* for making it possible. I don't think I will ever had adequate words of g...

 A few things in the works for Brian's birthday month if you're looking to support his recovery fund, or get out of the house for an outing or two. See below for details: Blue Line Roasting is donating 50% of net proceeds from ALL purchases site wide for the month of October to Brian's recovery fund. Stock up on your coffee stash (and maybe get a few extras for holiday gifting)!  https://bluelineroasting.com/product-category/coffee/ Saturday, October 14th: Got Your Six Foundation hosting the 4th Path Trail Run/Hike in Lemont. 10:30am meeting at Pollyanna to walk to trail head together Pollyanna Brewing is donating proceeds from beer sales after the walk to Brian's recovery. If you can't come to hike, come to raise a glass to Brian for his birthday! More info at link below:  https://www.facebook.com/events/975623716879860d Sunday, November 12th: 2nd Annual Bowling for Brian Fundraiser @ Lisle Lanes. See event flier below to reserve your tickets today! If you or som...

There is no sentence or judgment that can be made that will change where we are today or what we have been through. The judgment today will not bring Brian back. So - I’d like for you [Angel]  to listen to how your actions have impacted our lives. Today is a day I’ve dreaded the most because it is forcing me to look back. To grieve what once was, and to relive the most painful and scary moments of our lives. It pains me to have to do this today, without Brian whole, when deep in my heart I hoped and believed he would be the one to speak today.  Before I share how the crash has affected us, I just want to say to Brian, that caring for you and speaking for you has been my greatest honor. You are not a burden to me or to any of us who care about you. The things I'm going to share are difficult to communicate but important for the court to hear today. The things I share are to help convince the court that you receive some measure of justice for the joy stolen from you in your role...

If you want to watch Brian's precession home, here are the locations for Saturday morning. We are departing Marianjoy around 10:30. 

 

See below for information for April's fundraising efforts from my very lovely and amazing personal trainer (and friend), Jodie Needham: ------- "Coach Jodie here with a new challenge!  Plank 4 Frank - April Challenge. Let's Help Lauren Get Brian Home!!   Lauren is coordinating the final logistics to get Brian home safely and seamlessly...securing the van, having the medical equipment installed, home health caregivers trained, and final inspections.  Unfortunate timing of the sentencing hearing surrounding Brian's crash will end up being around the same time as the discharge, so it'll be a full mixed bag of emotions and they will need to  feel the strength of the army now more than ever!! The challenge donation is $30 for 30 days!  Every day in April we will be planking!  The full details are in the flyer.   Please register here:   https://jodie-needham- fitness.square.site/ If you don't already follow me on Instagram, please do...

  Two years ago on 2/14, we had our 'last' date night. Our 'last' valentine's day hot chocolate night cap. On 2/15, I basically clung to Brian's leg begging him not to work the snow storm. I checked my weather app and throughout the morning asked him where he was and how he was doing and when he was coming home. I finally got the text at 11:15am that he was "76 home... my boots are soaked." Relief washed over me. I put my phone down and hopped on a zoom call for work. 30minutes later, I found my phone with almost 20 missed calls from Brian's boss. My heart sunk, my face went numb as I prepared to call him back and get news every first responder's spouse dreads. "Brian's been in an accident. He is in a helicopter to Good Sam. He is alive and breathing. That's all we know." He is alive. And breathing. And that is still all we know. Soon, Feb 15th will be the day that marks 2 years. But really, just another day in this groundh...

 We got some great leads when I shared this on my Facebook & Instagram, so I figured I'd cast a wider net in hopes of finding our dream home care team: Calling all nursing & CNA friends: we will soon be kicking off the process of hiring a home health agency to find nurses and CNAs to assign to Brian's case when we go home (to Lemont/south side of Downers). We will need 1 nurse and 1 CNA for 24/7 care, likely broken up into one 12hr day shift and one 12hr evening shift (still TBD based on applicants' availability). If you or anyone you know might be interested, we would love to find people within our network so that we feel most comfortable bringing people into our day-to-day home life. Please DM me or email me at: brianfrankstrong@gmail.com for more info! We will be an ideal caseload, if I do say so myself, because of how much love and support we have. I'm very trained in Brian's care and we will always have ample amounts of coffee , good smells, cozy rooms...

I have been wanting to post an update for a while now, but something always comes up or my energy dwindles and I've opted to take a step back in order to protect my own energy. As we approach another new year, I've done some reflecting and have debated this: do I share the unending saga of obstacles and annoyances? The perpetual rollercoaster of "good" days and terrible days? Paint a picture of a day in the life of myself or Brian / our family? I could probably write a book about what life looks like now and there would be several scenarios and circumstances that would be hard to believe. And hey - we all love to gripe. A little drama gets a room's attention, right? Maybe one day, I'll sit down and have a cathartic complaining session - but instead, I've opted to paint the picture of goodness shown to us this year ( alongside all of the ugly / hard / sad / frustrating days ). The crazy part is I don't even know where to begin! What a blessing that the...

I updated the GoFundMe page as we re-boot that heading into 2023, but realized I haven't been here in a minute - so see below for my long winded 'thank you' to everyone that continues to follow Brian's recovery. I also wanted to share a few fundraisers/events that will be coming up for Brian's birthday month: Saturday, October 15th: Got Your Six 2nd Annual Blue Brew   @ Alter Brewing in Downers Grove (only 11 tickets left!) :  https://www.facebook.com/events/1315725255497938 Click here to purchase tickets Sunday, October 23rd: Bowling for Brian @ Lisle Lanes (bring the family out!) Envelopes for Brian: Another birthday effort coordinated by Brian's best friends coming soon :) --------------------------pasted from GoFundMe------------------------- Hi everyone. It has been a long 19 months of 'groundhog's' day for us, as we navigate Brian's recovery. Almost all of the time, this reality is surreal. I can't fathom that this happened or that it...