ADULT PROGRAM UPDATES

Educational Seminars Continue to Address
Critical Needs

In moving our seminars online, we thank the following presenters for their time:

• Lyndsey Griffin, LCSW-C (Patient Navigator at Anne Arundel Medical Center), who lead our Finding Financial Help round-table and Q&A discussion of resources available to help with the financial challenges of life with cancer.
• Patti McMillan (Director of Medical Practice Management at Hospice of the Chesapeake) who lead our Understanding the Difference Between Supportive (Palliative) Care and Hospice Care seminar with resources for members.
• Alexandra Hill, PT (Physical Therapist and pelvic floor specialist at Anne Arundel Medical Center), who lead our Returning to Intimacy for Women seminar, supporting members navigating the challenges around sexual health and body image after cancer treatment.

These seminars provided professional insights, tools, and resources for our members to help on their journeys through cancer survivorship. We are fortunate to have the support of our professional connections.

Coming soon, is our Creating Your Healing Music Playlist with Certified Therapeutic Musician Terri Fevang, who will teach how certain music affects the mind, body and spirit, and help members create a playlist to help manage some of the side effects of dealing with serious illness.

Wellness & Support Offerings Continue to Grow

Our incredibly generous team of volunteers and staff are adeptly adapting our online programs to this "new normal" of socially distant support:

• Our Living with Cancer and Drop-In Cancer Loss Bereavement Support Groups now meet weekly thanks to licensed counselors Virginia Ricketts and Sally Sellman.
• Piloted earlier this spring, our Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program has been adapted to a weekly meditation and discussion with instructor Phebe Duff.
• Tea Time at (Y)Our House and newly added in April Care to Share weekly gatherings provide much needed spaces for connection and friendship for members old and new during this difficult time.
• Yoga instructors Terry Conroy, Stacee Johnson, and Julia Simmons keep our yoga classes going strong, while Dawn Schulman and Christalene Karaikakis continue our therapeutic art offerings with Zentangle®, Meditative Art and Therapeutic Art classes (respectively).

CHILD & FAMILY PROGRAM UPDATES

Our child and family programs have been an excellent space for kids, teens, and parents to develop coping tools that work for them individually, and together as a family.

April's Kidz Coping and My Viewpoint (formerly Teen Viewpoints) groups guided parents in working with their children to articulate what resilience - "the capacity or ability to recover quickly from difficult situations in life" - means, and to have a healthy conversation on what that looks like for their family. For May's Follow Your Rainbow online gathering, families built birdhouses kindly delivered by Betsy and Paula! We even hosted a special bonus gathering for Mother's Day, where child members showcased their artistic talents for their moms.

These fun and engaging activities are a helpful emotional outlet as families juggle homeschooling with the stresses of living with cancer and the coronavirus pandemic. As we continue to adapt our child and family programs, we look forward to sharing our plans for our summer activities. Stay tuned!

A SPECIAL THANK YOU at this time! We are grateful for all who have given their support making our quality offerings to the community possible. Especially: