What Glen Arbor Taught Us About Community
•Jason Pohlonski, Founder & Executive Director

What Glen Arbor Taught Us About Community

There are donations.

And then there are people who decide to become part of the story.

This past weekend, One More Moment had the privilege of bringing Kaycee, a 26-year-old Michigan mother living with metastatic breast cancer, to the Glen Arbor area for a weekend with some of the people she loves most.

We had spent weeks putting together the details. A beautiful place to stay. Meals. Shopping. Time on the water. Mini golf. A sunset at the beach. Little surprises along the way.

What we couldn’t have planned was how an entire community would respond when she arrived.

That may be what we’ll remember most.

They Didn’t Just Donate. They Cared.

Businesses throughout Glen Arbor and the surrounding area generously offered pieces of Kaycee’s weekend.

But calling them “donations” doesn’t really explain what happened.

People knew she was coming.

Employees knew why she was there.

People who had never met Kaycee were genuinely excited to be part of making her weekend special.

And everywhere we went, it seemed like we met someone else who had decided this wasn’t simply something their business was doing. It was something they were doing.

At The Mill, Megan and the team welcomed Kaycee and her group for dinner on their very first night in Glen Arbor. It was one of our first opportunities to see what this weekend was going to become. The generosity was wonderful, but what stayed with us was the warmth behind it. Megan wasn’t simply helping fulfill an itinerary. She cared about the people sitting at that table.

The next day, that feeling continued at River Club.

Steve could not have been more gracious. Again, there was a difference between someone agreeing to donate an experience and someone genuinely wanting the people receiving it to have a great time. Steve was the latter.

That distinction may sound small.

After this weekend, it doesn’t feel small at all.

At The District and M22, Kaycee and her group were treated to wine flights and time to enjoy downtown Glen Arbor. The excitement surrounding her visit extended beyond an owner or manager. Employees knew she was coming. People were excited to see her and meet her.

L’Chayim Delicatessen helped provide lunch for the group on Saturday, another piece of a weekend that had been assembled almost entirely through the generosity of people and businesses who simply wanted to help.

Then there was On the Narrows Marina.

A boat ride had been planned for Saturday afternoon, but Kaycee was tired and Northern Michigan weather had other ideas. The rain came, and the boat trip ultimately didn’t happen.

That could have been the end of their part of the weekend.

Instead, members of the marina crew went out and bought Kaycee flowers.

One of the young employees was texting coworkers while choosing them, asking what they thought and wanting to make sure they picked the right ones.

That story has stuck with us.

This wasn’t a business owner making a charitable contribution.

This was a young person working a summer job who had never met Kaycee before this weekend and somehow had become personally invested in making her happy.

He cared.

And he wasn’t the only one.

At Trattoria Funistrada, we experienced that same generosity and personal investment. The people behind the restaurant didn’t simply provide dinner. They became another group of people rooting for this young woman and wanting her weekend to be extraordinary.

And on Sunday morning, Good Harbor Grill helped give Kaycee and her group one final Glen Arbor experience before they headed home.

By then, something had become incredibly clear to us.

This community hadn’t simply donated a weekend.

They had adopted it.

Maybe That’s What Community Actually Means

We talk a lot about community.

Sometimes it becomes one of those words we use so often that we forget what it’s actually supposed to mean.

This weekend, we got to watch it happen.

Community was a manager making sure employees knew why a guest was special.

It was a restaurant welcoming people like old friends.

It was someone working a summer job asking coworkers which flowers he should buy for a woman he had only just met.

It was people remembering her name.

It was employees watching for her arrival.

It was business owners giving something from their companies and then giving something even more valuable themselves.

Their attention.

Their enthusiasm.

Their compassion.

And perhaps what struck us most was how many young people were part of it.

These are people working summer jobs during one of the busiest times of the year in one of Michigan’s busiest summer communities. They could easily have viewed Kaycee and her group as another table, another customer or another group passing through town.

They didn’t.

They knew why she was there.

They wanted to be part of it.

For a weekend, Kaycee became theirs too.

More Than an Itinerary

Looking back at the itinerary now almost seems funny.

On paper, it’s a schedule.

Check into the house.

Wine flights.

Dinner at The Mill.

Sunset at the beach.

Lunch from L’Chayim.

Shopping downtown.

Mini golf at River Club.

A boat ride.

Dinner at Funistrada.

Breakfast at Good Harbor Grill.

But that’s not what Kaycee’s weekend became.

It became conversations.

Flowers.

Laughing.

People introducing themselves.

Employees asking how she was doing.

Plans changing.

People adjusting.

Friends spending time together.

And an entire collection of strangers quietly doing whatever they could to make one young woman’s weekend a little more special.

Those things don’t fit very neatly onto an itinerary.

They’re also the things we’ll probably remember forever.

Thank You, Glen Arbor

One More Moment exists to create experiences for adults living with cancer.

We can organize them.

We can raise money.

We can make phone calls.

We can put together itineraries.

But weekends like this don’t happen because of us.

They happen because people say yes.

And then, occasionally, you find a community where people decide that simply saying yes isn’t enough.

To Megan at The Mill.

To Steve at River Club.

To the teams at The District and M22.

To L’Chayim Delicatessen.

To the crew at On the Narrows Marina.

To everyone at Trattoria Funistrada.

To Good Harbor Grill.

To every business owner, manager, employee, donor and volunteer who helped create this weekend.

And especially to the young people we met who reminded us that kindness doesn’t require a title, a big donation or your name on a sponsorship banner.

Thank you.

You reminded us that there is still an extraordinary amount of kindness in the world.

More importantly, you gave Kaycee and the people who love her memories they will be able to carry with them long after they left Glen Arbor.

We came north hoping to give one young woman an unforgettable weekend.

We came home realizing that Glen Arbor had given all of us something too.

A reminder of what community can look like when people choose to care.

Kaycee received the Moment.

Glen Arbor created it.

And we will never forget it.

Details from this Moment are shared with care and permission. One More Moment respects the privacy and dignity of every warrior and family we serve. Some Moments are shared publicly only when permission is given, while many remain private.

Community Support Behind This Moment

This Moment was made possible through the generosity of Glen Arbor businesses, employees, community members, donors and volunteers who helped create a meaningful weekend for Kaycee and the people she loves.

About the Author

Jason Pohlonski is the Founder and Executive Director of One More Moment, a Michigan nonprofit organization helping adults facing Stage IV, advanced, or metastatic cancer create meaningful Moments with the people they love.

About One More Moment

One More Moment is a Michigan nonprofit organization helping adults in Michigan facing Stage IV, advanced, or metastatic cancer create meaningful Moments with loved ones.

To learn more about adult cancer wishes in Michigan, visit the One More Moment website. Families, caregivers and referral partners can also request a Moment, review who qualifies for a One More Moment wish, or donate to help create future Moments.