Wellbeing

Wellbeing

Subscribe

Tease photo

Light the Night Walk on Oct. 5

Fundraiser for 4-year-old girl named 'Ava B,' a leukemia survivor.

“Ava B” of Fairfax Corner was a typical 2-year-old when she fell ill with leukemia on Dec. 9, 2011. After having a fever for four days, her mom “Jeannie B” took to a doctor and ran a few tests. A hematologist then confirmed that she had Pre-B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. (The family asked that their last name not be used.)

Tease photo

Teaching English By Eye

Volunteers sought to work with videos.

A Mount Vernon woman has found a way to teach the English language simultaneously to deaf and hearing students.

Senior Volunteers Stay Active

Fifty percent of Mount Vernon RECenter’s volunteers are senior citizens.

The Mount Vernon RECenter is known for its ice skating rink, massive indoor swimming pool and fitness center with spa and sauna. It has 46 volunteers who help greet guests, clean up the fitness room, landscape the grounds and assist people with adapted swimming and ice-skating. Exactly half of them are retired senior citizens over 50 who want to stay active while giving back to the community.

Tease photo

Choosing a Home for the Golden Years

Many options for retirement communities in the region.

Jim Harkin, 81, and his wife, Phyllis, 80, have little free time these days. Jim spends his days protecting and photographing wildlife on the 60-acre campus at The Fairfax, a Sunrise Senior Living Community, in Fort Belvoir. He helped build, refurbish and maintain more than 20 birdhouses on the grounds, including homes for tree swallows and purple martins.

Tease photo

Active Seniors Compete for Glory

fter 11 days of more than 50 events held Sept. 7-19, the Northern Virginia Senior Olympics finished with a golf event at Forest Greens Golf Course in Triangle, Va. Other events ranged from cycling, swimming and pickle ball to Mexican train dominos and Scrabble.

Tease photo

Diverse Needs, Desires Drive Mobility Solutions

Seniors increasingly seek innovative plans that embrace both the present and the future.

Russ Glickman was a traditional full-service remodeler until the late 1990s when he abruptly added a host of accessibility certifications to a long list of building industry credentials. The service extension was less about opportunity than a personal call to apply what he’d learned from personal experience in helping his son, Michael, who was born with cerebral palsy.

Documentary Highlights Wounded Warriors Program

Documentary Highlights Wounded Warriors Program

Wounded Warrior J.D. Hartley credits a horse for changing his life. “I was scared at first, but I haven’t had a nightmare since I met Peanut, my horse.

Help Cure Ocular Melanoma on Sunday

This is a personal fight for Harvey Levine of Potomac, coordinator of the concert. His sister Sheila is fighting ocular melanoma – and he is doing everything in his power to raise funds for research.

Column: “Mor-Tality” or Less

Meaning, in my head anyway, the future and what there is left of it. More specifically, I mean life expectancy. When you’re given a “13-month to two-year” prognosis—at age 54 and a half, by a cancer doctor, your cancer doctor—the timeline between where you are and where you thought you’d be when becomes as clear as mud.

Tease photo

Walking to End Alzheimer’s

Reston Town Center Walk draws 1,200-plus participants.

Reston Town Center looked like it was being wrapped in a rainbow as the 1,200-plus participants in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s wound their way through the streets, dressed in a variety of colorful team t-shirts and carrying whirly-wind paper flowers with the names of afflicted loved ones written on the petals. Some 600 communities across the country have joined in the national effort to raise funds and awareness of this devastating disease, and the Alzheimer’s Association’s local National Capital Area Chapter President Susan Kudla Finn reported that more than 112 walks were held just this weekend alone, in addition to the Reston walk Sunday, Sept. 29.

Light the Night at Reston Town Center

Friends, families and co-workers will gather over three Saturday nights in October to raise funds and awareness for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). The 2013 Light The Night Walks will take place on Oct. 5 at the Reston Town Center, Oct. 12 in Rockville, Md. at the Rockville Town Square, and Oct. 19 in Washington, D.C. at Freedom Plaza.

The Taste of Fall

Local chefs and nutritionists offer healthy recipes for tasty fall dishes using seasonal ingredients.

When the temperature starts to drop and leaves begin to turn red and orange, you can often find chef Susan Limb meandering through local farmers markets, sorting through rough-textured, knotty sweet potatoes; tough, waxy butternut squash; and dusty, rose-colored apples.

Tease photo

Reston Sport & Health Renovates

Location kicks off new features after $1.5 million renovation.

Sport & Health Clubs celebrated a $1.5 million renovation to their Reston location with a ribbon cutting and casino night Thursday, Sept. 26. The renovation of the club, located at Isaac Newton Sqaure, stretched to almost every aspect of the facility.

Flourishing After 55

Senior Activities

Column: A Study in Contrasts

The decision for yours truly to participate in a Phase 1 Study at N.I.H. or Johns Hopkins (depending upon availability and qualifications) discussed in last week’s column has been put on hold, temporarily. It seems that my oncologist was thinking about me over the holiday weekend and called me on Wednesday following Labor Day to say he had a diagnostic idea concerning me: a 24-hour urine collection (a “Creatinine Clearance Study”) which would provide a more accurate reading (than the regular lab work I have; from blood) of my kidney function.