Jonathan P. Bernardi Memorial Fund

On December 14, 33-year-old Jon Bernardi passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack. Jon leaves behind his wife Jenna, their 2 year-old daughter Olivia and a baby girl on the way, due to arrive March 1st.

As a 30-year-old prospective father, Jon was unsure about kids. But since Olivia's birth, we've all had the pleasure of seeing Jon's "little peanut" become his best little buddy.

Jon and Olivia did everything together.


They had a standing date at the car wash on Sundays to wash and fill up mommy’s car. When Jon did the grocery shopping and ran other errands, Olivia faithfully tagged along.

Around the house, Olivia and Jon were attached at the hip. She helped him carry firewood and build fires in the fireplace. When Jon vacuumed, Olivia swiffered the wood floors.

And all throughout, their laughter, made-up songs and dancing echoed in the house.

To everyone who knew him, Jon was the best father imaginable. And when Jenna and Jon found out they were having another girl, Jon joked that two girls were "his karma".


It breaks all of our hearts that Jon's daughters have lost such a great father, and that Jenna has lost her loving husband and partner.

Of course, Jon’s legacy will live forever through pictures, stories and the memories of his friends and family. His girls will know him well and learn through those memories what it means to be a good father and husband.

Jon always made sure that his family was taken care of, and now it's our community's turn to carry on that tradition.

Here is a link to Jon's obituary.

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We humbly and with all of our hearts ask you to please support Jon and Jenna's GoFundMe campaign in whatever way you can.

Funds raised will be put into a special fund for the girls' educational expenses and the story of your help will go down forever in Bernardi family history.

Keep in mind that even a tiny donation is a huge help. This is a true opportunity for the community to rise to a terrible challenge for the Bernardi family and show them how unconditional our support is.

We thank you so much—there really are no words.

Thank you.

***UPDATE 12/29/16***

We have had a tremendously successful campaign to date. $22,142 OVER 9 DAYS (!!!) "ain't bad".

This has been a life-affirming effort, and just a complete and total joy to see especially over the holidays.

On the eve of the new year, I am setting a new goal of $47,000. Here's how it breaks down.

Based on research at collegetuitioncompare.com , the average cost of in-state tuition at a public university in Michigan is $11,754.50.

Therefore, total tuition for four years (NOT adjusted for inflation, NOT including additional costs such as room and board, books, transportation, etc.)
will run Jenna $47,034.

Since we're nearly 1/2 of the way there, let's see what we can do about sending one of Jenna's girls to school for four years!

It's the new year—it's a great time to give. And it is with full heart that I say, thank you for everything you've already done, and thank you for your support going forward!

***UPDATE 1/26/16***

We have decided to close this campaign in a week, on Thursday, Feb 2 (Groundhog Day).

Please make any final contributions to our goal, or please send this listing to your friends and family if you haven't already.

Any help counts. We are just over $16,000 away from the $47,000 four years of tuition goal.

$16,000 is not crazy to expect given how far we've come. See you at the finish line on Groundhog Day, and thanks for everything!