Deb’s Day has always been a small, personal tradition for our family.

For the last four years, we’ve quietly spent Debi’s birthday making bouquets from love, memory, and grief and handing them out in the community.

This is the first year we are opening that tradition to others through sponsorships, donations, and nominations.

It is still small. Still personal. Still rooted in love.

If you sponsor a bouquet, your person’s name and memory will be with us that day.

5th Annual Deb’s Day- August 22, 2026 (Rain Date August 23) on The Lawn, Port Jefferson

Deb’s Day brings together community support, bouquet sponsorships, and local partners to help single moms in two ways:

• Direct financial assistance for local moms

• Small experiences that give moms and kids moments of joy and relief

100% of bouquet sponsorships go directly toward supporting local single moms.

When you sponsor a bouquet, you’re honoring someone you love and that bouquet becomes part of Debi’s birthday tradition.

Their names and memories are carried with us that day.

What started as something we did for her has slowly become something we now share.

Because I was raised by one.

I watched my mom do everything she could to make sure I had what I needed. I also watched the quiet weight she carried, the financial gymnastics, the constant figuring it out, the never letting me see how heavy it really was.

But what I felt, always, was love.

That never wavered. That was the constant.

Usually, when money gets tight, the “extra” things disappear first the outings, the memories, the breathing room.

No mom should have to choose between paying a bill and making memories with her kids.

As a social worker, I spent years helping families through systems filled with paperwork, waiting lists, and red tape.

This is different.

This is simple.

This is care, directly from community to mom.

After my mom passed away, our family was surrounded by funeral flowers.

It was overwhelming in the most beautiful and painful way. And when it was over, we didn’t know what to do with them.

They were too beautiful to throw away, and too heavy to keep.

My husband, Steve, suggested we turn them into bouquets and bring them into the community.

So we did.

We handed them out days after the funeral.

It was simple, but it helped us breathe again.

So every August, on Debi’s birthday, we continue that tradition.

We make bouquets together as a family now with our two daughters helping too and take them out into the world in her honor.

What started as grief became something else:

A way to give love forward.

After she passed, we didn’t know how she’d still show up in our lives.

At the funeral home, Elton John’s “The B*tch Is Back” started playing just as a massive RV pulled into the parking lot.

My mom and her husband Jerry loved camping, and it felt like something we couldn’t ignore.

Since then, RVs have kept appearing in the most unexpected ways.

When I made the RV the symbol of Deb’s Day, two RVs passed me immediately afterward.

That’s Deb.

Still here.

Still loud.

Still making us laugh.

• Sponsor a bouquet in honor of someone you love

• Donate directly to support local single moms

• Nominate a mom who could use support

• Become a community partner

• Share Deb’s Day with someone who might need it

Because life is short.

Because love doesn’t stop here.

Because this is how we keep her going.