TODAY news - Nov. 21, 2002

Thursday, November 21, 2002 TODAY

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SAC–Norton hosts substance abuse treatment program graduation ceremony

Richard H. Hart, MD, DrPH, chancellor of Loma Linda University, and president of SACHS, provides the opening remarks for the graduation while Kyndal Hays (left), probation officer II, San Bernardino County probation department, prepares her remarks..

Social Action Community Health System (SACHS) substance abuse treatment program held its graduation program in July.

This was the first graduation held at SAC–Norton for drug offenders under California’s Proposition 36. It was also one of the first graduating classes in this region.

California’s Proposition 36 is also known as the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act. The Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act, was passed by 61 percent of California voters on November 7, 2000. This initiative allows first and second time non-violent, simple drug possession offenders the opportunity to receive substance abuse treatment instead of incarceration.

Donna Smith-Burgess, MFT, behavioral health director, SACHS, welcomed all of the attendees to the graduation and gave the graduates special words of encouragement.

“You have all accomplished what you thought was impossible,” she said.

The welcome was followed by prayer from Kenneth Hart, MD, medical director, SACHS.

Richard H. Hart, MD, DrPH, chancellor of Loma Linda University, and president of SACHS, provided the opening remarks for the graduation.

“I know for all of you this isn’t your first try at sobriety,” he said. “I do believe however, this will be your last.”

Patrick J. Morris (back row, fourth from left), Superior Court judge, San Bernardino county, poses for a group picture with the SAC–Norton substance abuse treatment program graduates. Joining Judge Morris and the graduates are Allana Causer (front row, first from left) and Debra Moline (back row, second from left), substance abuse treatment program counselors. Not pictured is Linda War, substance abuse treatment program counselor.

Dr. Hart also gave a history of SAC and its importance in the community.

Kyndal Hays, probation officer II, San Bernardino County probation department, offered the remarks to the graduates.

Keynote speaker for the graduation was the honorable Patrick J. Morris, Superior Court judge, San Bernardino County.

Judge Morris told the graduates the story of a mother that he had sentenced that day because of drug abuse. The story reaffirmed the importance of substance abuse treatment programs like the one offered at SAC–Norton.
“You are here as Proposition 36 graduates—California’s great experiment,” he said.

All ten graduates were presented with a diploma by their own substance abuse treatment program counselors. The counselors—Allana Causer, Debra Moline, and Linda War—each gave a brief story on how each graduate had faced their addiction and overcame it.

According to the Proposition 36 web site, the initiative allocates $120 million annually for five and one half years to pay for treatment services. However, due to the large disparity between incarceration and treatment costs this initiative will save California taxpayers $1.5 billion during the five-year period of time.

For more information on Proposition 36, please see <www.prop36.org>. For more information on SACHS, please see <www.llu.edu/llu/sachs/>.

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IVBPA donates $2,000 to fund swim classes for children in Redlands School District

Lori Langford (left) presents the over-sized “thank-you” card to Ray Profant (second from left), IVBPA vice president. Looking on are Al Federicko (second from right), IVBPA president, and Donald Sease, director of Drayson Center.

Members of the Inland Valley Business Professionals Association (IVBPA) have utilized the facilities at Drayson Center for just over three years, taking part primarily in soccer leagues on the superfield, as well as the 35 and over basketball leagues.

To show appreciation for the partnership with Drayson Center, the IVBPA has asked Drayson Center administrators to suggest potential projects and needs that might become funding opportunities.

For 2002, IVBPA chose to donate $2,000 to fund free swimming lessons for children from the Redlands School District who are unable to afford them.

“Many of these children were totally afraid of the water before they started lessons,” says Lori Langford, Drayson Center aquatics manager. “By the time they finished the lessons, they were very comfortable—and more safe—around the water.”

Admiring the “thank-you” card are (from left) Al Federicko, IVBPA president; Lori Langford, Drayson Center aquatics manager; Ray Profant, IVBPA vice president; and Donald Sease, director of Drayson Center.

On September 17, Drayson Center honored IVBPA president Al Federicko, a tax accountant in the Inland area, and secretary-treasurer Tony Ozbolt, a local attorney, at a special luncheon held at the faculty dining room in Coleman Pavilion. During the luncheon, a special card of appreciation, signed by Redlands teachers and students, was presented by Ms. Langford.

Ray Profant, a retired teacher and vice president of IVBPA, was unable to attend the luncheon. However, he and Mr. Federicko were on hand October 21 for a photographic moment.

“The IVBPA is one of several corporate groups whose members receive special corporate rates at Drayson Center,” points out Donald Sease, executive director. “We greatly appreciate the partnership we have with them.”

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Innerweave: The Wholeness Story

Lots out there these days in religious journals on worship. The following from Douglas Steere is a classic, take it with you to worship.

“The meeting for worship has sent tears down my eyes and cheeks. It has given me specific things to be done and the strength to undertake them. It has, on a few occasions, laid on my heart rimless concerns whose precise structure and whose outcome I could not foresee and kept them before me until they came to some degree of clarity. It has called me into the intercessory chain-gang to pray for other people and for situations where the need was urgent. It has changed my mind when I did not mean to change it. It has firmed me up when I might have yielded. It has rested me. It has upset my sluggish rest. It has helped prepare me to live. It has fortified me in knowing that my ashes will eventually lie in the earth. It has scarified me and broken down the hull of my life and shown me how I might live. It has warned me that I am too cowardly to live that way, but reminded me for good measure that it is not what I give that makes me suffer, but what I hold back. It has comforted me and quieted me when I was torn and hurt and it has dug up the garden of my soul when I thought that the present produce was all I could manage. In it I have physically slept and again I have been terribly awake. In it my mind has wandered like a humming bird on holiday and yet in it I have felt moments of intensity and of concentration and awareness that have shown me what life could be like.”
—Douglas Steere, Traveling In

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Drayson Center employee wins his division in Ironman Triathlon World Championship

Drayson Center’s Willie Stewart runs the last leg of the 2002 Ironman Triathlon World Championship, held October 19 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii—a grueling 26.2-mile marathon. The previous two legs of the race included a 2.4-mile ocean swim and a 112-mile bike race.

Willie Stewart, Drayson Center facilities manager, took first place in the physically challenged division of the 2002 Ironman Triathlon World Championship, held October 19 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

“I’ve always wanted to do the Ironman,” Mr. Stewart relates, “ever since I was a kid.”

The Ironman in Hawaii includes a 2.4-mile ocean swim, a 112-mile bike race, and a 26.2-mile run. Competitors have 17 hours to finish the race. He finished in 10 hours and 48 minutes.

“To my knowledge, the Ironman in Hawaii is one of only a few—if any—races where the physically challenged compete next to the able-bodied competitors at the same time on the same course,” Mr. Stewart explains. In 1980, he lost his left arm in a construction accident.

“My next goal is to beat the 10-hour mark,” he reveals. “The key is for me to have a solid run at the end of the race.”

Mr. Stewart “hit the wall”—a term competitors use when they reach a point of exhaustion where they aren’t sure they’ll finish—at the turnaround point of the bike race. The heat and humidity were nearly unbearable.

“I was thinking about how exhausted I felt, and the fact that I still had the marathon to run,” he remembers.

To make matters worse, the sun came out during the first seven miles of the run, making that the hottest point of the entire race.

“My experience pushed me through,” he continues, “helping me slow down, take a little more time, hydrate, and cool off,” he says.

In addition to drinking fluids and dowsing his head with ice water, he put ice in his hat—a personal trick of his to aid in cooling off.

Recognizing that he was overheating and doing something about it paid off for Mr. Stewart. He ran the second half of the marathon in a faster time than the first, known as a “negative split.”

“I took the lead for good six miles into the marathon,” he details. After that, he never looked back.

Mr. Stewart trains hard leading up to a major event like the Ironman Triathlon World Championship. In May, he ran an Ironman Triathlon race in Brazil, which helped build his confidence and gave him valuable experience.

He runs 50 to 60 miles a week, bikes 150 to 200 miles a week—with a 300-mile week just before the race, and swims six to seven miles a week.

“Before I came to work at Drayson Center,” he confides, “I couldn’t even swim 25 yards.” Mr. Stewart appreciates the willingness of Loma Linda University administration—and specifically Drayson Center—to allow him to train and compete as a world-class athlete.

“As I said earlier, losing my arm made me feel as if I wasn’t ‘whole,’” he clarifies. “When I began to work on the physical, the rest of my life—the mental and spiritual—came together and I felt ‘whole’ again.”

Willie Stewart’s wife, Lynnsey, is a fourth-year medical student in Loma Linda University’s School of Medicine. In 1985, she competed in and finished the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii.

A fellow competitor in the 2002 Ironman Triathlon World Championship particularly impressed Mr. Stewart.

This individual had competed the year before and placed sixth overall. During the ensuing year, he had suffered an accident that damaged his spinal cord and confined him to a wheelchair.

“With little more than half a year to train, he entered this year’s Ironman in the wheelchair division,” Mr. Stewart marvels. “He wasn’t able to finish, but he said he’d be back.”

It will probably take him five or six years of training to be able to finish an Ironman Triathlon World Championship race, Mr. Stewart estimates.

“After all, it’s the most difficult race in the world,” he points out. “Instead of ‘sitting back on the couch’ and feeling sorry for himself, he chose to go for it.”

That is the kind of spirit it takes to compete in the Ironman. “You just have to be mentally tough,” he attests.

While he may be able to “bask in the glow” of his accomplishments in Hawaii, he is already training for the next event. Scarcely a week after the Ironman in Hawaii, he was already competing at a triathlon in San Diego. Early next year, he will compete in winter sports in Europe.

It’s a never-ending effort, but that is the level of devotion it requires to be a world-class athlete.

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Information technology administration settles in new office on Mountain View

The newest tenants of the Mountain View complex are (from left to right) Robert S. Blades, MBA, vice president for information systems, Loma Linda University Medical Center; Alvin Siagian, information systems security administrator; and Marilyn Winters, administrative assistant.

The administrative office for information technology (IT) has finished settling in to the new office space at the Mountain View complex. The new occupants, Robert S. Blades, MBA, vice president for information systems, Loma Linda University Medical Center; Alvin Siagian, information systems security administrator; and Marilyn Winters, administrative assistant, held an open house to celebrate their move on October 15.

The administrative office moved from the Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital administration hallway in July, 2002. They are now located on Mountain View Avenue in building 11155, above the State Farm Insurance office at the north end of the complex.

The new offices consist of a reception room, a conference room, and an individual office for Mr. Blades and Mr. Siagian. The IT office can be reached at 558-3995 or extension 33995.

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Thursday, November 21, 2002 TODAY