Nikki Pauline

Nikki Pauline's Fundraiser

Keeping Charlie Wink's Memory Alive image

Keeping Charlie Wink's Memory Alive

Join me in honoring Charlie's dream, not just for CJ, but so many other amazing kiddos too!

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$450 towards $4,000

My Dad was an avid fisherman. The one thing he enjoyed more than fishing itself was teaching us kids to fish. From the time I was a little girl, and we made our homemade secret bait for the first day of trout, through my adult years when he would coach me on which lure to use to catch the biggest bass, this time spent together was our favorite.


In July of 2021, I found out I was pregnant, and he was the most excited to be a Grandpa! We were devastated when at my first ultrasound, I was told something was seriously wrong with the baby. The ultrasound showed a cystic hygroma, and they informed me the baby likely wouldn’t survive past 24 weeks; a less than 10% chance of surviving.
We prepared for the worst. After genetic counseling and extensive testing, we found that the cause of the cystic hygroma was that the baby had Down Syndrome. And we were so relieved to know that’s all it was!
Month after month, we faced many hurdles, but the baby continued to grow, and the cystic hygroma slowly faded away. And with an entire army of people praying, we welcomed a perfect baby boy, Charles Joe, into this world. Yup! He was named after his Grandpa, and his Grandpa couldn’t wait to take him fishing!

It breaks my heart to say Grandpa never got to take CJ fishing. Six months later, we suddenly lost my Dad. I was in total shock. Left completely heartbroken, not sure how to handle this loss, I knew there was one thing I needed to do, and that was keep his memory alive. When I found CAST for Kids, I knew it was a perfect fit.