Foundation helps families after tragedies

strength came from her own tragedy.

Frazier said in a statement she was honored by Glazer’s recognition and to be a part of an event showcasing women’s accomplishments across many fields.

By Chris Campos Staff Writer

BRENTWOOD Janet Frazier has had to face every parent’s nightmare: the death of a child in a car crash. For the last 19 years, she has reached out to families experiencing health crises and family loss.

When one of her daughters, Stephanie, died in the 2004 collision, her other surviving daughter, Lindsey, struggled to recover in a hospital. Frazier was touched by the caring of the nursing staff aiding her family. She started putting her grief into action helping other families in similar situations.

Frazier was prompted to start a foundation at the bedside of her hospitalized daughter when — weak from not eating — she accepted a sandwich from a kind nurse. That act of kindness inspired her to create The Network of Care to provide meals to families facing similar situations.

Since 2004, Frazier’s group has fed more than 340,000 families of critically ill children in more than 58 hospitals in 15 counties throughout the state, Frazier said.

“I never forgot that feeling,” she said. “For the next few years while Lindsey was recuperating from her injuries, I thought about that and wanted to do something for other families in that situation.”

State Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, recently honored Frazier at the State Capitol in Sacramento as his district’s nominee for “Women Making Herstory.”

Frazier is also a co-founder of Our Healing Hearts, which supports women who have lost children.

“It was a special moment for me to honor Janet at the capitol,” Glazer said in a statement. “She has put her heart and soul into her life projects to offer care and support for women and families who have lost children or are worrying about them as they lay in hospital beds.”

Glazer said Frazier has dedicated years to supporting women and families with children in hospitals, and her

“The ceremony at the state capitol was filled with amazing women, whose passion, dedication and perseverance are making a difference in the lives of others,” Frazier said. “It was so inspiring to be among women with truly unique stories about the impact they are having on so many people.”

A former Oakley resident, Frazier retired from Chevron after 41 years and now lives in Concord.

The Network of Care has also partnered with high schools in Brentwood and Antioch to allow students in special education classes to help with the assembly of the bags as part of their vocational skills program. Janet and all of her staff are volunteers.

Local resident Lil Pierce, founder of the Brentwood Regional Community Chest, has been with Janet from the beginning, organizing Network of Care’s annual crab feed fundraiser. “It’s a very heart-wrenching start to a really wonderful organization,” Pierce told the Press in 2019. “Many people have been in the situation when you’ve had someone in the hospital, and you don’t want to leave the room. her volunteers work hard to organize an event that keeps people coming back each year.

Using the money earned at the crab feed, as well as donations, supplies are purchased to make the meal bags that go all over the state. Special needs students in Brentwood were responsible for packing 80 percent of the bags. Francis Krohn is a special education teacher at the Gateway Program in Brentwood where she supervises her students as they pack meal bags and learn valuable career skills.

“We (get the food), then we pack the bags,” Krohn said. “Each bag gets a meal and a flyer with the story of how the Network of Care got started. I think the program is a wonderful opportunity for our students to learn vocational skills. We teach work ethics, quality control, and teaching that everything is done a specific way.”

Krohn added that many of her students embrace the project because they have had hospital experiences themselves.

“The students are excited because they are doing something good for people and they want to help,” Krohn said. “They learn Janet’s story and are really touched by that.”

Meals aren’t the only thing the Network of Care is sending to hospitals: Fra- zier also donates blankets, craft kits and stuffed animals to the network of hospitals asking for meals. Her hope is that the recipients of her bags will feel comforted, and then pass on the kindness.

“I hope that people will receive a bag and pay it forward,” she said. “That is my hope. That it makes them think about what somebody did for them, and if they give back in some way, at some time, somehow, then I’ve done my job. There is one man who received a bag of food from us, and wanted to pay it forward, and now he paints murals on hospital walls. That’s what I hope to accomplish.”

In a recent interview with the Press, Frazier also encouraged support for another one of her passions, “Vocal for Victims,” which was created by prosecutors and victim advocates “to give true meaning to crime victim’s rights by providing fee-free legal representation to crime victims, the only non-profit organization to do so in Contra Costa County.” The nonprofit group is hosting a fundraiser on Thursday, April 27, from 5-7 p.m. at the Contra Costa Country Club, 801 Golf Club Road, Pleasant Hill.

For more information on The Network of Care, call 925-584-4086, email janetfraz123@gmail.com, or visit their Facebook page for an updated list of events. Donations can be made at www. thenetworkofcare.org

To view video interview with Frazier, visit www.thepress.net.

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ADDING CHILDREN TO BANK ACCOUNTS by Martin C. Johnson, Attorney at Law, MBA,RMA®, EA

When meeting with clients to review their assets, we notice that many parents have already added their children to their bank accounts. Usually, parents do this out of convenience. Parents want their children to be able to easily access funds to pay bills on their behalf as they age, and likewise, pay expenses upon their death. While this approach may appear simple and convenient, it should be considered with caution.

Before adding your child(ren) to a bank account, please consider the following: Do you trust your child? When a child is added to a bank account, they become a joint owner of the account, i.e. they will have full access and control over the funds. The bank will not monitor your child’s activity to ensure the money is being used solely for your care.

Does your child have creditor issues? If your child has any creditor issues, the bank account could be levied by a creditor, especially if the creditor is not able to distinguish whether the funds located in that account are originally yours or your child’s.

Is your child getting divorced? During a divorce proceeding, the entirety of your child’s assets is surveyed -- and could likely include your account. During a divorce proceeding, your account may cause confusion and may require your child to prove the funds in the account are not theirs, but in actuality, yours.

Might this cause conflict among siblings?

Upon your death, banks rely on the legal presumption that the surviving joint account