PITTSBURGH   AREA   BRAIN

INJURY   ALLIANCE

SPRING  2004  ’SHORT’  NEWSLETTER   

ED Crinnion  412-761-9870 or cell ($) 337-6502 or  evc@pabia.org

JOHN Pistorius   412-481-5482  or  jp@pabia.org

  Our next: PITTSBURGH Area BRAIN Injury ALLIANCE

Support Group meetings  will be held on:

at:  Life’s Work, 1323 Forbes Ave., Pgh., PA  15219

with:  Maria Smith   ACHIEVA -Vice-President of Family Trust

and:  Kathy Henderson, Esq.   ACHIEVA - President of Family Trust

and with:  Michael P. Terrick  Mass Mutual, Financial Professional

 

 

 

 

Our  PABIA  Table  is  scheduled  at   3  AREA  HEALTH  FAIRS  /  EXPOS

 

# 1   Tuesday, March 16^th – 10 ^a.m. to 1 ^p.m.

CCAC Disabilities Awareness Week Informational Fair

at the COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY, NORTH CAMPUS

as part of their Disabilities Awareness Week from March 15^th to March 19^th

at the COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY, NORTH CAMPUS.
# 2     Sunday, March 28^th from 1 to 7 ^p.m.

Rejuvenation  of  Body  and  Soul 
            CARNEGIE  MELLON  UNIVERSITY

in the  Highlander  Café  at  Resnick Hall.

            There is free admission to vendor area, stage, and Chinese auction.  To raise funds for the Women's Alumni Clan scholarship fund, there is an.$8 fee for the Duplicate Bridge Tournament for Beginner Classes, Intermediate, & Expert Level with non-cash prizes.  It begins at 2:30 ^p.m. with snacks all day and a cold dinner buffet.

            I get in free for being picked as the event photographer from the CMU Alumni Clan.  Also having a PABIA vendor table with other companies and organizations to augment the scheduled speakers gives me another reason to feast and undo my latest diet.

Escape the winter blues: come join us for an all day fair.

Featured venders and speakers include:

Basic computer skills for seniors  - Sign up for e-mail and learn how to use it.

Make greeting cards.

            Reflexology.

            Healthy Foods made easy.

            Getting Peak Performance From Your Body at Any Age.

            The Alexander Technique.

            Highmark's Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease.

            Essential Oils.

            Psychic Intuitive Reader. 

            Self-Protection.

            Getting Peak Performance From Your Body at Any Age.

            Fraud Alert - Some of the newest telemarketing, e-mail, and mail fraud scams. 

            Pain Management the Homeopathic Way. 
            White Elephant Auction.  

For Tournament sign up at: http://pittsburgh.alumni.cmu.edu
# 3     Please HELP:  Friday, May 14^th   from 9 ^a.m. to 2:30 ^p.m.  8^TH ANNUAL SENIOR EXPO

Senator Jane Orie will be having her EXPO at the

COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY, NORTH CAMPUS.

    Our PITTSBURGH Area BRAIN Injury ALLIANCE is scheduled to have a booth again this year. 

            The problem is I am scheduled to be the photographer for a wedding that Friday at 3 ^p.m..  So bride pre-shots, wedding and reception afterwards – HELP!    I also have the rehearsal Brunch on Thursday to ‘shoot’.  So I will need a setup crew for Thursday TOO. 

            So I need some bodies, male or female, to ‘man’ our booth that Friday, and do the teardown afterwards of folders and sheets and maybe a NEW ‘backdrop’.  If we have electric, we may also have the large cart with a TV and VCR to show our background videos:

‘WHAT IF… A PLEA FOR HELMET USE’ and

Garth Brooks ‘STANDING OUTSIDE THE FIRE’.

            has been rescheduled for Thursday, March 18 at the INDIANA BRAIN Injury Support Group at  the Indian Haven Community Home      (Contact: BECKY  Myers at 724-349-5934)

            Monday, March 22 the class will be given in the evening at Duquesne University for their classes Special Education - Persons With Disabilities with Carol Webb, PhD and Mental Retardation with Dr. Lengel. 

            Hopefully these dates won’t change again. I finally had my court case in Wilkes-Barre with a $1200+ attorney to get permission to move my mother from Wilkes-Barre to Pittsburgh. 

   Who can HELP me find a vehicle with a wheelchair access / bed to make the move this month. Several Care sites and Nursing Homes have been talking to me to come and present the talk to survivors, family, and their staff that are getting into more and more care of TBI’s for one session or a set of three to accommodate all shifts and families at 1, 4 and 7 or 8 p.m. 

Saturday,  March 27  from 10 ^a.m. to 4 ^p.m.

           Senator  Jane  Orie  will be having her 2nd ANNUAL SPORTSMAN's EXPO.  It will be at the North Side Sportsman's Association, 325 Mt. Pleasant Road, Warrendale, PA. 

            Len Winchock of Sewickley will have a booth there.  He is a brain cancer survivor since December 1999, and a member of our Brain Tumor Support Group at the Burger King Cancer Caring Center.  He will be showing his 9/11 ‘Freedom Bugs’ that he designed and produces to honor all who give their time, support and sometimes lives to defend our freedom.  One of his first I still wear on my coats and suits.  He will also have many of his other beautiful creative ‘BUGS’ he makes to help enhance each individual’s personal spirit.  A portion of his proceeds from the sale of his ‘artwork’ are donated to the Cancer Caring Center. 

            For more information on the event  contact  Senator  Orie's  office  at  412-630-9455.

  

NEW  Monroeville Area  T B I Support Group

scheduled talks and events

          Paul Damon and Denise Paterson have scheduled the following speakers for their second Tuesday meetings at 7 ^p.m.

at Cross Roads Presbyterian Church, 2310 Haymaker Road, Monroeville, PA  15146. 

March 11 - Talk by Ms. Amy Dana, who represents Keystone Neuro-Rehab of Jeanette, PA.  Her topic --- ‘The COMMCARE Waiver for State Funding for Brain Injuries’  This waiver program is new, designed for funding the long-term needs of those with brain injuries.  This topic is extremely important for most all of you, and it is about the first formal recognition by the PA State Dept. of Health and others that brain injuries indeed is a class by itself.          Also on March 11, we will have a graduation party for one of our survivor members who just received her degree from the Community College of Allegheny County, and was on the Deans List and the Honor Society.

 April 8 - Talk by Dr. Francis Bruce Marion of Pittsburgh, a Chiropractor by profession and a long time advocate for brain injury survivors.  His topic --- ‘Mend the Mind, Mind the Body, Know Your Soul’  Bruce was in charge of the Pittsburgh Brain Injury Support Group for many years in the 1980s and early 1990s.  If you missed his first great presentation of this topic at our 2/3 Pittsburgh support group, don’t miss this encore engagement. 

 May 13 - Talk by Dr. Rebecca Weigers, a traumatic Brain injury Psychologist. (Topic to be announced).  Dr. Weigers was in charge of the brain injury program at the local Health South Greater Pittsburgh Rehabilitation Hospital for many years, is now in private practice specializing in brain injury survivors.
 
June 10 - Program to be announced. 
July 8    -  Picnic, location to be announced.  About 5 to 9 ^p.m.. 

3:30 ^p.m. to 6:30 ^p.m.

Western PA BIM / HS  Recreational Bowling League

Where: Fun Fest Entertainment Center, 2525 Freeport Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15238

COST: $7 each, Bowl 3 games, Includes shoes, 2 slices of Pizza & unlimited fountain drinks.

Lanes:  #35 to 40.  Bowling at Fun Fest is Wheel Chair Accessible and there are Bowling Ramps.

For more information contact:    Tom  Byrnes  at  412-531-0343.

 Dual Diagnosis  -  People with mental retardation and mental health diagnosis 

COMMUNITY COLLEGE  OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY

 and  ALLEGHENY COUNTY OFFICE OF

MENTAL RETARDATION/DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES

 and APS HEALTCARE 

Tuesday -  March 23^rd   9:00 ^a.m. to 12:00 ^p.m.

room 413-15 West Wing,  CCAC Boyce Campus, 595 Beatty Road, Monroeville

Wednesday – March  31^st  9:00 ^a.m. to 12:00 ^p.m.

Room 3002,  CCAC North Campus, 8701 Perry Highway, North Hills 

FAMILY FORUM  with Don Clark, Deputy Director MR/DD

Thursday -  March 11^th   9:00 ^a.m. to 12:00 ^p.m.

Room 215  CCAC Mon Valley Center  339 5^th Avenue 2^nd Floor

            Hopefully my spellin and gramer are good enough to email.  My proof reader, Connie, is busy helping her daughter Melissa with the care of her new (2/24/04) 7 pound 2 ounce granddaughter Sidney Rose.  Her Son-in-law Eric left with the MP Brigade Reserves for Iraq this past December. So help is needed there more than the paper.    

            Most of these talks we have on video and we have started of ‘full’ write-ups by Malin Lowenadler-Shadel, John Pistorius, Dr. Francis Bruce Marion, and Mr. ED.  If we finish them this year, we will put it in the next newsletter or on the pabia,org web.  

Thank you to:

 Al Condoluci Chairman PA TBI Advisory Board and CEO – United Cerebral Palsy Assoc. -Pittsburgh

7 /  1 / 03  talk on

Andrea Williams  8 /  5 / 03  talk on

Dr. Julie Gatti – Coordinator Clinical Training, Mercy Behavioral Health

9 / 2 / 03  talk on

Fred  Kellinger of  Independent  Concepts   10 / 7 / 03  talk on

Dr. Dennis Pad, TBI  survivor 2/17/89

With:   Robin Page  from  United Way-Allegheny County, Volunteer Impact,

Andy St. John  from  Life's Work,

 Megan Frezy  from  Working Order

 Lynn Ireland-Knight and Alyssa Brenneman  from AHEDD

11 / 4/ 03 talk on

Rita Raymond – CRNP Nurse Practitioner, A G H Life Stages 12 / 2 / 03  talk on

Dr. Masson Scott and Amy Dana  Keystone Neuro-Rehab

Jeff Jenney   Parent of  1/ 8/03 Survivor

 1 / 6 / 04  talk on

Dr. Francis Bruce Marion – T B I   2/27/86 Survivor and past PABIA Coordinator

2 / 3 / 04  talk on