With a very heavy heart, my dearest and best friend, Nickie Hager, was diagnosed with breast cancer last week. We are still waiting on the complete prognosis and treatment plan. It will be an uphill journey, but the only outlook we have is for her to be cancer-free! We all know Nickie is one of the strongest people, and with her family and friends by her side, we will walk with her EVERY STEP OF THE WAY!

Nickie is a hustling and bustling mother to 3 beautiful kids - Karlie, Kiera, and Kalvin. She is a caring partner to Chuck, a revered special education teacher and mentor at Eden Prairie High School, and the best friend anyone could ask for! She is absolutely the last person to ever ask for help (mostly because she truly IS a wonder woman), but also simply because she is a strong, capable, and independent force of a human being.

While this is obviously devastating news, it comes just weeks after Nickie and Chuck received news that Chuck's dad died in a tragic plane crash so they have been working through the grief and estate process with the sudden loss of his dad, Charles Finck.

Donations raised will go to cover medical expenses, easy meals for the family that can be delivered, extra care for the kids, and overall support and care so any financial burden will be one less thing to have to worry about.

Some things that might help out if you’re in any of her circles might be: helping with rides for her kids to and from games and practices, maybe their dog, Nokie, might need a sleepover or walk some days. Anything to just lighten her load I think would be beneficial.

Nickie has said more important than any donation, is that she hopes to just get AWARENESS out there to women in hopes that it could help others. It is ironically October, which is breast cancer awareness month. Women: please go get checked and have routine exams. Men: please encourage the women in your lives to get checked as well! Early detection is key!

We will update this as we know more about the treatment plan, care, and most of all, recovery! Please feel free to reach out to Kirsten Evavold (who is Nickie's work wife) or me (Leane Slominski). We’re here to help facilitate and make things as easy for Nickie and her family as we can.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!