Wellbeing

Column: Writing What Four

As far as anniversaries go–and I hope this one “goes” a lot further; acknowledging, dare I say celebrating my four-year survival anniversary from “terminal” stage IV (inoperable, metastasized) non-small cell lung cancer, a diagnosis I initially received on Feb. 27, 2009, along with a “13-month to two-year prognosis” from my oncologist, is certainly column-worthy.

Bicyclists Pedal Onward, Despite Legislative Losses

FABB promotes extended hours on W&OD Trail.

As the weather gets warmer and the days get longer, Northern Virginia bicyclists are back on the roads and trails, despite the Virginia General Assembly’s antipathy for bike safety bills this session.

Father Runs Marathon in His Son’s Honor

Fairfax teen is in remission from leukemia.

This Saturday, March 16, Glen Goold is running in the Rock ‘n’ Roll USA Marathon in Washington, D.C., to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. And fueling his every footstep will be the knowledge that his son Spencer is now in remission from this disease.

Artrageous

City among top arts communities.

The City of Alexandria has been recognized as one of America's Top ArtPlaces, one of only 44 communities to receive the designation in 2013, as a new study revealed a $70.7 million economic impact generated by the local arts industry. In a March 5 event held at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, the City of Alexandria Office of the Arts and the Alexandria Convention and Visitors Association announced the findings from the Arts and Economic Prosperity IV national study conducted by Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit arts advocacy organization.

Saving Virginia’s Ecosystem

Today’s youth are part of Virginia’s rising population, so it seems fitting that they investigate how this increased growth impacts the state’s ecosystem. That was the task given to 47 students of Centreville elementary fourth-grade teachers Mary Ann Settlemyre and Kate Charlton. Last summer, both teachers took the month-long VISTA (Virginia Initiative for Science Teaching and Achievement) program at GMU.

Lions Club Offers Vision Screenings

The eight Lions Clubs serving Loudoun County and Northwestern Fairfax County, with funds raised in their various communities in addition to grants from United Way, Lions of Virginia Foundation and Cardinal Bank, have obtained two PediaVision “Spot” Screening devices for the purpose of screening the vision of children starting at six months of age. The PediaVision “Spot” is a breakthrough vision-screening device that will help identify children with vision issues. Using this innovative new technology “Spot” can assess a child's vision with a very quick capture time of less than one second, which makes eye care screening efficient in a large-scale public environment such as a day care center.

Editorial: Helping to Build a School in Ghana

Reston resident appeals for support in building a school.

My name is Gayle Robinson and I am a Reston resident currently working in Ghana as a health, water and sanitation educator with the Peace Corps. In addition to my primary health projects, I am working with my community to build a new school. I am writing to request support from the Reston Connection in order to spread the word about my project.

Footsteps of Reston is Leaving South Lakes Center

The oldest existing running specialty store in Northern Virginia is leaving South Lakes Shopping Center in Reston to look for a new home. Footsteps owner Paul Zink started the business in 1987, opening his first store in Springfield on April 15, 1988, as a Fleet Feet franchise. In 1995 he started independently owned Footsteps of Reston at South Lakes Center and along with Safeway and CVS, Footsteps has been the longest existing business in the center.

Mental Health Counseling Professors Honored

Cultural sensitivity at the heart of their work.

Fred Bemak and his wife Rita Chi-Ying Chung, who are both professors at George Mason University in Fairfax, recall being in Haiti shortly after the catastrophic earthquake of 2010. They were there to provide mental health counseling to those traumatized by the natural disaster.

Column: E-male

My oncologist is a man. He has e-mail. He works for an HMO that encourages/advertises its connectivity and responsiveness – electronically, to its members. If I want to get medical answers in a reasonable amount of time – save for an emergency, typing, “mousing” and clicking is the recommended methodology. No more phone calls, preferably. Though pressing keys on a keyboard rather than pressing buttons on a phone might have felt counter-intuitive at first as a means of receiving prompt replies, it has proven over these past few years to be a fairly reliable and predictable information loop. Not in minutes necessarily, but more often than not during the same day – and almost always by the very next day. In fact, I’ve received e-mails from my oncologist as late as 9:18 p.m. (time-stamped) after a sometime-during-the-day e-mail had been sent.

Putting a Face on Homelessness

462 homeless interviewed during Registry Week, an intense effort to document Fairfax County’s chronic homeless.

"We have to step up to this question. … Are we going to walk away from this tonight and say, 'That's just the way people live?’ Well, it's not the way people should live." —Supervisor Cathy Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill)

The Connection