By Nate Breier, Board Member

My name is Nate Breier and I could not be more proud to be joining the Cocktails & Caregivers foundation as a member of the board of directors. I am a father to three incredible children (Logan 9, Luke 5, and Landry 2) and have an amazing wife, Kelly. She is the glue that holds it all together. As my friends and family know, I love to coach, I love Chicago sports, I love to socialize, and I am a pretty decent bowler. My career has me do things like accounting, commercial development, and data analytics. I hope these skills will enable me to help Cocktails & Caregivers reach more caregivers so they can feel seen and cared for.

My road towards joining the C&C team started 4-5 years ago when I overheard a lesson being taught from an Aunt to her Nephew. It went something like this (edited for length):

Auntie DL: “Logan, did you know everyone has a bucket inside of them… and when they are nice and do good things for others, the bucket fills up. But when you don’t do nice things for others, the bucket gets empty. When the bucket is full you feel happy and when it’s empty you feel sad.”

Logan: “Really? How does a bucket fit in your tummy?”

Auntie DL: “It’s an imaginary bucket. Is your bucket full today?”

Logan: “Well, No… NOT YET!”

This lesson from my sister to my son blew me away. So simple. Everyday we should all try to fill our bucket by doing good things for others and treating them nice and with respect. I took it to heart and started working on how to fill the bucket. I kept things simple:
Make people smile/laugh – Bucket more full
Offer a helping hand when needed – Bucket more full
Work hard to provide for family – Bucket more full
Do the Laundry – Bucket more full
Hold doing the Laundry over my wife’s head the next day – Bucket less full
Don’t call my mom enough – Bucket less full (sorry mom, I’ll try to get better!)
Volunteer time to youth sports – Bucket more full
Work hard so I can donate to a cause – Bucket more full

The bucket was filling but far from full, especially as I see people all around us experiencing the incredible challenge of cancer and other serious health ailments. To name just a few: The Riveras (we are inspired by you), The Nemetz’s (following your story from a distance has been moving), Tony Peters (you are not a hugger but if you were, you’d get one), Gail Pirics (I wish I could find better words when we were last together, hopefully these are better), and many others. I see what these friends and family from near and far are battling in their lives and feel inspired.

My friend Alex Umbach (C&C Vice President) and I started talking more in depth about Cocktails & Caregivers a little more than a year ago–joining the board and dedicating time to this incredible foundation came down to a very simple question. Is my bucket full today? Well, No… Not Yet. But I am certainly well on the way!

If you are looking for ways to fill your bucket, I encourage you to join the Martini Club member by clicking this link https://donate.onecause.com/martiniclub, donating your time to something you care about, or heck just make someone smile/laugh today.