Judy Bakken

About two years ago, the foundation was contacted by Judy and her husband Jimmy. They lived in North Dakota where Jimmy was a member of Local 1091 of the Carpenters union in Bismarck, where he worked as a millwright. They traveled together to many of the states across the upper Midwest for construction projects Jimmy’s firm worked on. On many of these projects, Jimmy was the foreman. Jimmy suffered a stroke which brought with it many ancillary medical issues. The foundation helped them remodel their bathroom for accessibility in 2020.

Years of hard work on the family dairy farm resulted in mobility issues for Judy. She struggles with degeneration of her vertebrae, severe osteoarthritis of her knee which will require surgery, heart issues and other medical complications. She was declared disabled shortly after Jimmy’s passing. The winter of 2021/22 has been difficult for Judy, and she reached back out to the foundation for one additional request for assistance after the first couple of major snowfalls. She sought heated mats for a ramp and deck area by her door.

After the mats were installed Judy wrote, “Thank you again for your help. It has been difficult since Jimmy’s passing, we get a lot of snow here in North Dakota and we are very rural. If I were to fall shoveling snow, I could be outside a long time before an ambulance could make it. My mother is old and brittle, a cancer survivor who relies on me. We are now two widows living alone in rural North Dakota on the farm we both grew up on. Thank you again for all your assistance!