Rich Krajniak, pictured with his wife, Jan, partners with a local charity to drive cancer patients to their appointments. This has created an opportunity for the church to receive wider recognition in the community.
For about 40 years, Rich served in personal ministry at his church and reached the conclusion that as Christians, we not only need to be active in our church but in our community as well.
Not quite sure exactly what to do, he started checking volunteer opportunities in Alpena. One day, something caught his eye in Alpena News. It was an opportunity to drive cancer patients from their homes to treatment.
A support group for local cancer patients was started in Alpena by Judy Burns 27 years ago; Judy’s daughter had been diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. Feeling very scared and alone, Judy turned to the community for support and found none. She then turned to state health boards and found no help there. She promised her daughter Dawn, who did pass away, that no one in Alpena would ever again have to deal with cancer alone. Along with some others, Judy formed Friends Together.
Rich started to drive for Friends Together approximately 10 years ago, transporting cancer patients from their homes to the MyMichigan Cancer Center. This task provided Rich an opportunity to encourage and even to befriend some of those individuals. After several years of driving, he gained a deep appreciation of how sensitive and unpredictable life is and how suddenly it can change. In December 2023, Rich himself was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The uncertainty of going through testing, consultations to identify the certain type of cancer, and discussing treatment options, can be overwhelming.
Friends Together provides transportation and support groups to those dealing with cancer. One of the support groups, called Men Like Us, gets together once a week to encourage and support one another. Rich is planning on being in that group himself for support and hoping to be in a position where he might be supportive to others.
Friends Together relies on fundraising efforts and donations to support their work. To recognize and appreciate the support they get in the community, they place a logo of the individual support group on the back of their vans and their banner billboard for at least a month.
Rich is proud to be part of a volunteer group helping people when life is difficult and uncertain. He recognizes that Friends Together is identified as a support group but he sees it as a ministry and an answer to what Jesus said in Matthew 25:40, “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”
The Alpena Seventh-day Adventist Church is pleased to financially and physically support an outreach group that serves the community in a time of need.
Jan Krajniak is a member of the Alpena Church.
