A Family Shows They Care

By Nancy K. Crevier

“Family Cares” is the theme that surrounded the family of Bruce Goulart and Jan Brown all winter long, and once again, this past Sunday, June 3.

Taking their cue from the annual AmeriCares HomeFront one-day “blast out” of providing free upkeep assistance to qualified homeowners, the large extended family of Mr Goulart and Ms Brown decided last winter to create their own “Familycares” program.

Mr Goulart and Ms Brown own Goulart Construction, Inc and family members are also employees. Like the shoemaker’s children who go without shoes, the family has found that they are so tired after hard days of building and remodeling other people’s homes, or other jobs, that their own properties are neglected. So from January to April, their four adult children, Ms Brown’s sister, and Mr Goulart’s brother banded together to help each other out.

“Everybody went to one person’s home for a daylong effort to do yard work, home repairs, and all those kinds of things that needed doing,” said Ms Brown. The program was highly successful, she said, but as usual, Mr Goulart’s love of his family meant that he put in extra hours after each one-day “blast out.”

“All of the kids decided that since Bruce put in more than anyone else, that they wanted to do something special,” she said. So they came up with an idea to show him how much they appreciate him, incorporating Mr Goulart’s love of running.

His grandson, Stephen Walker, called Mr Goulart and told him he wanted to enter a 5K race at Wolf Park in Monroe on June 3, and wanted his grandfather to run with him. It was fairly easy to talk the triathlete into joining his grandson, said Ms Brown.

His daughter, Donna, and Ms Brown also agreed to take part in the run — or so they told Mr Goulart. What he did not expect to see this past Sunday when he arrived for the race was the rest of his large family — all 22 of them — holding up a giant thank you sign, and all set to run the course with him.

“He was so surprised to see us all, and very choked up,” said Ms Brown.

As a seasoned runner, Mr Goulart could have knocked off the race in about 21 minutes, Ms Brown said, “but with the support of his family he got it ‘down’ to close to an hour,” she joked.

A family breakfast feast followed the special thank you race — an early Father’s Day present — Ms Brown said, “Just to extend the fun.”