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wellness

Open Door Names Armonk, Briarcliff Residents to its Boards

June 26, 2020 by Inside Press

Briarcliff Manor resident Marie Pennacchio and Armonk resident Noi Sukaviriya have been named to Open Door’s Board of Directors.

Two area residents have been named to key posts at Open Door Family Medical Center. Armonk resident Noi Sukaviriya has been named to the Open Door Foundation Board of Directors, while long-time Briarcliff Manor resident Marie Pennacchio has been named to Open Door’s Board of Directors.

Sukaviriya, a 17-year resident of the town and a long-time User Experience designer and researcher with IBM, plans to bring her corporate, design and technology expertise to the federally qualified health center. She is an expert in UX design, which focuses on the interaction between human users and everyday products and services. An extremely varied discipline, it combines aspects of psychology, business, research, design and technology. She presently leads an award-winning IBM Food Trust™ design team in providing food traceability solutions.

“Having spent many years in the corporate world, I’m really looking forward to working in the not-for-profit world and using my skills to support an organization like Open Door that plays such an important role in helping people who can’t afford health care,” she said.  “I was impressed by how forward-thinking the organization is in terms of technology, and look forward to assisting in this new realm of telemedicine.”

Meanwhile, Pennachio, a 29-year resident of Briarcliff Manor, brings her experience as a nurse, corporate executive, entrepreneur, and artist to her new role.  Pennacchio began her career as a hospital and private duty nurse before getting her MBA and entering the business world.  She later opened a successful marketing firm.  She also speaks Spanish, as do many of Open Door’s patients.

Pennacchio has been extremely active over the years in the community, serving as president of the Briarcliff Manor Public Library and spending many years as a family specialist volunteer in the Briarcliff Manor schools.  She has served as a girl scout troop leader and taught religion classes at local churches.

The Open Door model of treating the whole patient by bringing in staff specialists, such as a behavior health expert or nutritionist to address their health and wellness needs, appealed to Pennacchio as both a one-time health professional and product manager.

“Open Door is the absolute embodiment of holistic care,” she said. “I was truly impressed with their collaborative care model, which I believe has a direct relationship on the success rates in patient compliance for the myriad health issues they address. In an age of uncertainty in many domains for the population they serve, this model restores control for the patient in countless ways.”

Open Door Family Medical Center’s mission has remained consistent since 1972: to provide high-quality health care that’s affordable, accessible and efficient.

Today, the federally qualified health center cares for over 60,000 adults and children every year in Westchester, Putnam and Ulster counties – with more than 300,000 patient visits and over 400 babies delivered annually – regardless of ability to pay. In addition to primary medical care, Open Door offers integrated dental care, pediatric care, women’s health care, behavioral health care, and wellness programs in its Ossining, Port Chester, Sleepy Hollow, Mount Kisco, Brewster, Mamaroneck locations, eight School-Based Health Centers in the Ossining and Port Chester school districts, dental van, and a dental practice is in Saugerties. For more information, visit www.opendoormedical.org.

Filed Under: Not for Profit News Tagged With: Health and Wellness, Holistic Care, Open Door Foundation Board of Directors, Open Door Medical Center, wellness

District Parents Weigh in About iLearning

April 1, 2020 by Inside Press

Feedback from Chappaqua Central School District parents about their experiences with iLearning during what may be a much longer stretch of cyber-schooling than anyone could ever have predicted. 

Comments received April 1 – April 2, 2020

“I am an educator and parent of a student in the first grade at Grafflin. I am so pleased with the lessons that his teachers provide including all core subjects and specials such as gym, music, and art. The platform is easy to use and very interactive. You feel as if your teachers are there with you as they have video recorded the lessons and clear directions. The directions and lessons can easily be played multiple times if a student needs extra support.  The lessons are multi-sensory, not just all online and the child can submit answers through a chosen method.  For example, they are asked to build things and take pictures of what they have built, engage in scavenger hunts; they record themselves singing, and dancing.  As my son needs a lot of writing practice, rather than typing, during his writers’ workshop projects, he can use a drawing tool to write his paragraph and illustrate it all on paper. He can choose to just take a picture of his work and submit it or he can even do a video showing his story and reading it to the teacher.  It’s very easy. Having options for “type of response” is a very useful tool in supporting all types of learners. Additionally, the supplemental activities provided are websites and passwords set up on very worthwhile educational sites. Lastly, his teacher has started Zoom hang outs where the kids are just so excited to see their wonderful teacher Ms. Schassler and each other. She gives each student a time to share and read a story to them. Lastly, the teacher is available all the time through email and allows students to pace themselves through the work.  I could go on and on, actually. I’m very pleased and feel very grateful to live in such a wonderful community.  We are very fortunate as it is not like this throughout the country and the world. Thank goodness kids are resilient!” — Karalyne Sperling

“I have two boys – a sophomore and a 8th grader. They both have positive feedback regarding it. According to my sophomore (his words): “With all the things that are happening, a few glitches in iLearning is insignificant.” It has been a learning curve for both the students and the teacher and the experience has been really good for both my kids.”  — Madhumita Guha Thakurta

“My son has been doing iLearning and I couldn’t be more impressed.  He and I both have been able to independently communicate with his teacher whenever we need to,  and he is currently working on a group project online that looks like it’s done by middle school kids (he’s in the third grade).  I think this particular teacher has incorporated technology throughout the year, so the transition was much more seamless than I would have expected.” — Jessica Postrygacz

Comments received between March 30th and April 1, 2020:

“The first few days of iLearning  were by far the most stressful. We were in a transition and my kids, mainly my spunky 7 year old, highly resisted it. There was a lot of fighting with her in the beginning.  The older kids complied with the process more easily but quickly became frustrated when several assignments they thought they had submitted didn’t go through. There were misunderstandings about this and the two of them (separately as they are in different grades) became very stressed about having grades penalized because of misunderstood technical difficulties.  Meanwhile, my priority as a parent has been to keep the “vibe” in the house as calm and positive as possible during these strange and stressful days. The way I see it, these kids just had their entire world turned upside down; suddenly they weren’t allowed to see their friends (only virtually), their activities had come to an abrupt halt and they could most definitely sense the stress my husband was feeling about the state of the economy and everything else going on out there.I wanted to shield my kids from any further stress. I was trying to look at the bigger picture and prioritize their mental wellness over grades. At the end of the first week of iLearning I emailed several teachers asking them to be mindful that the kids were going through a lot of changes and might not be able to get all assignments in on time. I told them that my kids were experiencing a lot of stress around being penalized for late assignments. The teachers and administration responded reasonably to my email. I also have had the “pass/fail or grades” discussion with many people; this seems to be a big question out there right now. I personally prefer the pass/fail grading for the rest of this school year because I am prioritizing my family’s mental health and stress management, but I realize there are many opinions on this. As of last week grades were still being given out by some (not all) of my kids teachers. From my perspective full compliance with the official policy* (below) would smooth things out. I am hoping the issues we have had are because we have all been in a transition and the big bumps in the road are now behind us. iLearning does seem to get better day-by-day.”— Sabra Staudenmaier

“The curriculum for middle school is great- it’s just the right amount of work. My first grader who needs the most has over 90 assignments this week;  granted they don’t take too long but I do have to sit with her to do them, and then,  my 4th grader who is less motivated, requires me to also be on top of her. While the iLearning initiative is great, it still can’t replace the talented teachers we have in the district.”  — Stacey Pfeffer

“I have two kids – a 5th grader at Seven Bridges (7B) and a 9th grader at Greeley. I think it’s going okay for them. They’re occupied pretty much all day with work they’ve been assigned. I think the teachers have been working hard to follow their curriculums, although I’ve been disappointed at the lack of live instructional time for my 7B student. So far, only one teacher is using Zoom daily to meet with the students as a group, and it has worked very well to keep the class connected, engaged, and learning in a classroom-like setting. I think more teachers will need to do group face to face instruction if they’re doing remote learning the rest of the school year. My high schooler seems to be having an easier time engaging on a regular basis with her teachers and classmates. Canvas is a fine LMS, but it’s a horrible remote learning system, and it’s made worse by how the teachers use it inconsistently. The notices posted in different areas, the assignments that don’t show up on the calendars, Zoom for conferences, flip grid for videos, YouTube for other videos, etc. It’s a nightmare, and I would be happy to blow Canvas up entirely. LMS software in general is a really user-unfriendly landscape for which many schools pay significant sums though, so I don’t fault the district on this one. There aren’t significantly better platforms yet. I know from previous experience that remote/iLearning/online learning is a very difficult environment for students to feel engaged. It’s also an incredible amount of work for instructors, so I feel for these teachers and appreciate their effort. Overall, I’m impressed with how quickly the District was able to move to this model. Moving forward, I’d like to see the District put in place a week of remote learning every year to keep this emergency plan tuned up and ready to roll out at any time.”  — Kate Brady

“This is a challenging and isolating situation for our teachers and children. I think that greatest gift the teachers could give their students is to make sure that the kids are connecting with them and each other. I think this program will be considered a success if the teachers do everything in their power to continue to make learning interactive every class day.”  — Deb Notis, co-owner of GAMECHANGER

“I have a son in Freshman year and honestly iLearning for us has been great. Before i get into my opinion I do want to say these are crazy times…we are in unchartered territory here…no one prepared for this. Given this, I think the teachers are doing as good of a job as they can. My son is decently busy, is learning and most importantly, he is busy. The school work is also making him interact with his friends which is predominantly on video calls. This has helped deal with isolation so he doesn’t miss his friends as much. The teachers for most part have been great. I know there have been zoom calls with teachers to talk through any issues/ concerns. The funniest is the PE (physical education) homework…I almost didn’t believe it that the PE teachers are also taking this so seriously. My son has to send in every Friday what he did. I am truly grateful to the teachers and the district.” –– Swati Bhargava

 

In case you missed it, our interview too with Chappaqua’s School Superinendent, Christine Ackerman:  https://www.theinsidepress.com/learning-how-the-kids-are-doing-with-ilearning/

 

Filed Under: Stay Connected Tagged With: Activities, bumps, changes, Curriculum, cyber-schooling, cyberlearning, grades, ILearning, misunderstandings, official policy, pass/fail, wellness

COR Performance: Training Kids for Athletics

October 26, 2019 by The Inside Press

We often hear parents ask: “Could my son’s injury have been prevented with strength and agility training?” or “My daughter is an excellent athlete, clearly a D1 caliber, what do I need to ensure that competitive edge?”

The most pressing questions, however, revolve around the potential benefits of starting your child on training at an early age. And how young is ‘too young’ to start?

Meanwhile, both you and your child may have big dreams of one day of playing college sports, or even professionally, but some kids simply want to play high school sports and create lifelong health and wellness habits.

Until recently, the standard approach to train young athletes would lead only to damage to the spine, stunt growth and/or ultimately result in injuries. Many even believed that strength training for kids results in slowed progression of athletic development.

All of this is true and false depending on how, what, when and why you are training.

Today, thanks to new research and practical knowledge, we better understand the biomechanics and the role it plays in all stages of a child’s life. We know for certain that a safe and age appropriate approach to athletics can be EXTREMELY beneficial to children in the long run.

Children who participate in a regular fitness routine or lifestyle tend to be a step ahead, developmentally speaking, of those that do not–in height, weight management, muscle strength, lung capacity, even body control, as well as self-confidence. Studies have also found a resistance training program can also have a great impact on strength prior to adolescence. With the proper trainer and program, preadolescents can attain the same levels of strength gains that their adolescent counterparts do, regardless of gender.

The Mayo Clinic, an authority in health research, has stated that kids should start age-appropriate strength and athletic development training as early as 7 or 8 years of age. At these early ages, you can expect a longer positive effect on a child than just playing sports.

If we invest the time to properly teach, train and develop our children now, we are maximizing their chances of long-term physical, mental and developmental success. As puberty, competition and challenge come into play, your child’s mind and body will be prepared. Call 914-273-3413 now to get your little athlete training!

COR Performance (CP) is a 16,000-square-foot facility located in Armonk, NY, featuring an indoor turf, fully equipped gym and onsite sports medical personnel. At CP, we focus on the four pillars of strength training: Strength, Mobility, Power, and Agility. We know what it takes to be reach optimum performance: Hard Work, Positive Attitude, and a Burning Desire to be the Best. CP trains; young athletes, amateurs, as well as professional athletes.

Filed Under: Lifestyles with our Sponsors Tagged With: Agility, Athletics, Competitive Edge, fitness, health, high school sports, Positive, preadolescents, Strength, Training Kids, wellness

Innovation Takes on a New Light

April 18, 2019 by Deborah Raider Notis

In July 2018, Amy Barone brought a new, innovative health and skincare clinic to Chappaqua when she opened Red Light Life. With Red Light Life, Barone is introducing Red Light Therapy to help people treat acne, reduce inflammations, rejuvenate skin, and manage chronic joint pain, musculoskeletal and arthritic pain.

“Our bodies crave sunlight,” says Barone. “Red light therapy provides the deepest penetrating red and near infrared wavelengths to give people all of the benefits of sunlight without any UVA and UVB damage.” A licensed esthetician, Barone opened her clinic after working for manufacturers and venture capital groups involved with the development of skin, wound, and oral care. She spent a year researching manufacturers and equipment and studying the science and proper power levels to achieve the best results with red light and she uses only FDA approved, medical-grade quality LED systems.

Barone implements painless, natural treatments using red and near infrared lights. “They are actually good for your entire body at the location of the treatment and systematically by traveling through our blood all over without side effects. Red light feels good to receive as it’s warm and comforting, never burning,” says Barone.

Red Light therapy is designed to help people look and feel younger. It has been proven to help people with everything from arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and Lyme Disease to tighten flaccid skin on the stomach, arms and neck from aging and pregnancy to reducing pigmentation from sun and age spot and scarring from acne.

“My eighth-grade son was having typical acne breakouts, so I brought him into Red Light Life,” says local Chappaqua resident, Laura Tainsky. “After two short treatments, we saw a notable difference.” Tainsky appreciates that Red Light Life is local and convenient. Seeing positive results for her son, Tainsky went in for a treatment to ameliorate foot pain. She was amazed at the results. “I definitely felt relief afterwards. And they are not putting chemicals on your face or into your body.”

Barone uses only pure, cruelty-free skincare products at her clinic. Everything is high quality medical grade and the ingredients are formulated to produce powerful results with no artificial dyes, fragrances, parabens and sodium lauryl sulfates. Her goals are to heal, protect, and ultimately transform skin. Moreover, none of her products are tested on animals.

Barone is constantly uncovering new, innovative treatments to help the community. Red Light Life now offers a series of six neck treatments to tighten the skin and reduce the “double chin effect.” She is also offering abdomen tightening treatments that can be done in conjunction with facials. And, she is planning to offer “Smoking Cessation” using red light in a low-level laser pen to mimic the effects of acupuncture with a painless treatment. Barone notes, “I’m hoping that young people, who have become addicted to vaping, will recognize the dangers of vaping and actively end their addiction in one to three sessions.” She also intends to develop an online retail store, selling innovative red-light therapy devices for home use.

Ultimately, Barone’s “mission” is to make red-light therapy a go to health solution for our community. She hopes everyone can acclimate to these new treatments and leave Red Light Life feeling rejuvenated, younger, and healthier.

Red Light Life

(located at the Chappaqua Wellness Center)

400 King Street, Suite 4

(914) 494-9009

redlightlife.com

Publisher’s Note: Opinions and information presented in all Inside Press articles, particularly in the arena of health and medicine, reflect the experiences, expertise and/or views of the author or those interviewed. Please consult your own doctor or health care professional for diagnosis and/or treatment.

Filed Under: Lifestyles with our Sponsors Tagged With: acne, Amy Barone, Health Solution, Red Light Life, Red Light Therapy, skin, wellness

Learn to Manage Stress and Anxiety and Find Tranquility

October 10, 2016 by The Inside Press

We can teach you how through our Mindfulness program Living Balance…a unique method offered as a 4-week workshop developed by a licensed psychotherapist and yoga master that incorporates scientific information and group sharing with gentle yoga and meditation.

living-balance-4-u-logo

BRIARCLIFF WORKSHOPS OFFERED SATURDAYS

Saturdays (3-4:30)
11/19, 12/3, 12/10, 12/17

Call or email for more information or go to our website:

LIVINGBALANCE4U.com

914-262-9898

Filed Under: Sponsor News! Tagged With: Living Balance, Stress, wellness, Yoga

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