We are CAN | Colleen Packard

Retirement wasn't something Colleen Packard chose — it was something that chose her. After decades as a nurse, her body said enough before her heart was ready. What came next surprised her.

But to understand where Colleen landed, you must start at the beginning — on Shady Lane in Auburn, Michigan, where she grew up, the only girl on a street full of boys. G.I. Joe over Barbies. Camping trips to Roe City State Park. A mom who was the neighborhood Avon lady and dressed, in Colleen's words, so cute. A dad who worked swing shift at Dow Corning, which meant the whole family piling into one car to drop him off. It was a full, warm, active childhood — and she loved every bit of it.

Colleen was voted class clown in high school, which tells you something. So does this: she moved out at 19, earned her medical assistant degree, then went back for her nursing degree, then her bachelor's at Ferris State. She even studied abroad in New Zealand. She is, by every measure, someone who keeps showing up and doing the work.

That work took her to McLaren, where she spent years in a culture she genuinely valued — a team of doctors and staff who operated as equals, where everyone was on the same level. "Show me what you need done and I can do it," she says. Reliable. Hardworking. Someone who gets along with everyone. Her kids would say the same thing.

When her body could no longer keep up with the physical demands of nursing, she stepped away. The timing, though, turned out to be exactly right. Her daughter McKenna is a CASA volunteer, and at McKenna's swearing-in ceremony, Colleen met CAN Council's Community Engagement Coordinator. Something clicked.

"I really needed a purpose and I found it here," she says. She means it practically and personally. Whether she's cutting and gluing signs, cleaning infant simulators, or tackling whatever project the staff needs done, she shows up ready to help and she couldn't be happier doing it.

Since joining as an office volunteer, Colleen has become one of CAN Council's most enthusiastic ambassadors. She didn't know what CAN was before being introduced by her daughter. Now she tells everyone. "I never knew what CAN was," she says, "and now I tell people and advocate for the work."

For anyone on the fence about volunteering, her advice is simple: just get started. "It's been a world of difference for me," she says. "Find the place for you."

For Colleen Packard, CAN Council turned out to be exactly where she needed to be for her and for us.