Carefully placed on the center wall of the waiting room in Dr. Susan Merola-McConn’s Living Proof Longevity Centre in Fayetteville hangs a gold framed reproduction of Florentine painter Sandro Botticelli’s 1482 “Primavera.” This iconic image of voluptuous Venus “watching over the garden” is one that the Executive Vice President of North Medical said represents the principle of her practice — the celebration and rejuvenation of womanhood.

The Centre’s logo is also a famous illustration of femininity, the nude “Three Graces” sculpture, which depicts the virtues of beauty, charm and joy in a linked affectionate embrace of female bonding. “Women struggle to be who they really are because they perceive that society wants them to fit into some niche or role,” Merola-McConn said. “It’s OK for us to be women. We can still pave the way in society and do successful things.”

As a nurturer by nature and the daughter of a well-established local physician, Merola-McConn has always felt led to women’s healthcare, and she’s been a pioneer for women’s health in the Syracuse area throughout her 20-year medical career. (And she hopes her children follow suit: her son is in his third year of medical school and her daughter is in the process of applying to medical schools.)

While in medical school at St. George’s University in Grenada, she was one of nine women in the class. Now, 50 percent of medical students are women. By the time she joined her family’s practice in 1989, she had already given birth to her two children — an action that was unheard of for women lucky enough to be in the medical field at that time, Merola-McConn said.  And even though she entered medicine as a primary care and family medicine physician, many female patients at Northeast Medical Center were naturally drawn to her practice.

In 1998, she spearheaded the establishment of The Women’s Place within her family-owned Northeast Medical Center, a practice devoted to the unique healthcare issues females at all stages of womanhood face. “I wanted to combine everything for the woman in the new space, so grandma could come with her granddaughter who might be getting pediatric care and grandma might be going to the gynecologist and the mother could be going for obstetrical care for her next child,” she said. “Being able to take care of the whole female from birth to death is the key.”

With the addition of Living Proof in 2000, she and her husband Dr. Mark McConn, chief medical officer of North Medical, now provide physician-supervised and performed preventative aging programs and services to help patients proactively manage hormonal and physical changes. (Think: Botox, Latisse, Medifast, bio-identical hormone replacement therapy, laser treatments, bariatrics, skincare.) “I see women at the center of their family. I want to help my female patients understand that it’s OK to ask for help, it’s OK to want this. It doesn’t mean that you’re vain, unhealthy or cheating, it means you’re optimizing and why shouldn’t we if it’s medically safe,” she said. Most recently added to the menu of nonsurgical procedures is CoolSculpting, the first-ever fat-freezing device.

Over the past several years, Merola-McConn has witnessed an increase in patients, both men and women, interested in nonsurgical alternatives. “Some people are just afraid of surgery and others consider noninvasive as natural,” she said. So after learning about CoolSculpting at a conference in Miami two years ago, she thought it was too good to be true. “I looked at all of the research and data, and I called docs [who provide CoolSculpting] and decided it was another modality to add to our compliment of services,” she said.

As of last August, Living Proof is still the only CoolSculpting provider in the Central New York region, and Merola-McConn is already beginning repeat sessions after patients’ initial treatments have been successful. “It’s pretty amazing the results we can get without doing surgery, needles or downtime,” she added.

Being a female who’s been on every diet and gained and lost many times over, Merola-McConn prides herself on practicing what she preaches. “I don’t promote anything I haven’t tried myself, within reason,” she said. Unhappy with the dimpling left from liposuction, she used CoolSculpting to smooth the lumpy areas. “I’ve really been motivated by my own journey into preventative health,” she said. But she’s careful to make sure that each patient understands that she’s not here to offer quick fixes. “I promise a patient their results, but they always want more, who doesn’t. So I really harp on that because I don’t want them to be disappointed,” she said.

With each patient’s care and safety at the core of her practice, Merola-McConn is always on the lookout for cutting-edge therapies to compliment the hard work it takes to stay healthy. Currently on her radar is using low-light lasers to shrink fat cells, as new research shows that doing so might decrease leptin levels, the fat-produced hormone that regulates body fat and interacts with brain-controlled hunger cues. On the skin rejuvenation front is using platelet-rich plasma as a facial filler and taking fibroblasts from the patient’s own body and reimplanting lab-grown cells, not stem cells, back into the patient’s face to stimulate collagen growth, she said.

“After the hard work of losing weight, fixing hormones, optimizing health by whatever method it is, I love being able to give them back that healthy glow. It’s powerful and exciting for women to be able to have that,” Merola-McConn added.

And innovating the space in which her patients receive individual care was all part of the plan when she designed her Italian-inspired office space more than 15 years ago. “I practiced the first 10 years at North Medical and always thought, ‘why do we have to have such a sterile, concerning, ominous environment?’ I liked the idea of juxtaposing antiquity with modern in a home-like environment. I thought it would make people more comfortable,” she said. Her favorite element: paneled murals of the rolling Tuscan landscape painted to represent the “path to wellness” that Merola-McConn helps each patient reach through customized care.

By Courtney Rae Kasper

In a whispery voice, Victoria MacKenzie-Childs humbly recalls the moment she parented the whimsical pottery style that founded the Aurora-based company she and her husband Richard once owned: “I was sitting in my little studio and was making what you call a chowder bowl. I had never made one, or seen that shape before,” she said with childlike excitement. “A whole rush of ideas burst forth out of control. All kinds of patterns and decorations just kept building and falling completely almost like jazz.” Crafted on a table top, this piece defined the “stackable with the humor of it dancing on the edge” MacKenzie-Childs’ shape.

But those familiar with the eponymous MacKenzie-Childs, Ltd. wares can thank daughter Heather Chaplet for its existence and cheerful childlike whim.

In 1983, Victoria (“MacKenzie”) and Richard (“Childs”) began producing their ceramic art as a means to bring Chaplet back to New York State from ballet school in England, and by 1985, the duo’s artwork was in full-time production. And Chaplet’s ability to cherish the child within is what mother Victoria credits inspired her day-to-day outlook.

“When she was a little girl, it didn’t matter what Heather was doing or what day of the week it was. She wasn’t conscious of any kind of formula, yet she was very organized in her progression forward,” Victoria said. “I started thinking like her. I didn’t care if I was plaiting her hair, baking a cake, making a pot or hoeing the garden; I’m going to be playing as my work and my work will be my play. It changed my consciousness, my whole way of being.”

MacKenzie-Childs notes that it might be because she and Richard raised Heather to express herself without walls. “She’s just so natural and fresh, and everything she touches is just so individual and inspiring to others. I love the way she and Nils are with their children and with themselves; they are a beautiful expression of family,” said the rainbow-coiffed grandmother of two.

Now, almost 11 years after cutting ties with the company that still bears their combined surnames, Victoria and Richard have put their 43-acre King Ferry estate on the market and are forging forward with a new collection of whimsical wares, while an all grown up Heather quit running her family’s on-property Home Again bed and breakfast to design her own organic clothing line.

Here, the mother and daughter designers talk about what they’re creating now after life in Central New York.

Victoria MacKenzie-Childs

From bucolic emporium
to floating emprise

On a pier in the Hoboken, New Jersey shipyard floats a 105-year-old vessel named Yankee Ferry. This 137-foot boat is the place where artists Victoria and Richard MacKenzie-Childs will now permanently call home, that is until the next natural progression moves them forward, Victoria said.

The couple, who both attended graduate school at Alfred University, live, work, eat, breathe and sleep on board the historic boat they’ve transformed into their own floating wonderland. Yankee also serves as the showroom and studio for the duo’s latest endeavour, Victoria & Richard Emprise (www.victoriaandrichardemprise.com), that features artisan ceramics and other fanciful household wares, plus the husband and wife designers’ first and only jewelry line.

When asked about trading their sprawling pastoral Finger Lakes residence where MacKenzie-Childs originated for the bright New York City lights, Victoria compares it to the likes of a shared travel journal or moving art project:

“Our home there that we love dearly is a part of that wholeness and oneness of movement forward,” she said. “It’s time for it to have its next blessing expressed through somebody else who has a dream and a vision to pick up where we left off. Our mothers always taught us to leave everything better than when we found it, which we certainly have done with our upstate dwelling.”

As for finding inspiration for their artwork in an urban setting, she said it’s more exciting than simply being inspired by one’s surroundings, but that she and Richard are currently more mentally than physically profound.

“We’re in a place where we’re not really alone with our thoughts like we were upstate; we’re in a place where it’s like a great big giant think tank, a place where policies are changing and ideas are erupting, international cultures are converging and there’s all this wonderment going on that obviously is not something you can paint a picture of,” she explained. “It’s more something that moves you forward in thought.”

In the time that has passed between what Victoria calls “the anchor” people recognize from Aurora to its current state, she said that the brand is now completely the dichotomy of what MacKenzie-Childs, Ltd. was meant to be in their eyes.

She explains that it was a mere form of expression in that time and place that they’ve come to realize wasn’t the body of their work nor did it represent what they are as visual artists.

“MacKenzie-Childs was its own think tank; it was a place of constant change and it’s been so saturated in the last 10 years with the repetitive ‘whitebread’ patterns that are recognized in a regular way,” she said. “But if you’re not a visual artist you wouldn’t get sick of the repetitive pattern because you translate it into business progression. We’re able to leave those things behind because they weren’t the subject anyways. The subject was to rattle the shackles of protocol and to move mankind and thought rather than base designs on what the public wants. The point was to create what new work was inspired each day and leads the public sometimes, but its mission is not to manipulate mankind but to search more deeply into roots as a tool for them to express themselves.”

Since selling their company in 2001, Victoria and Richard traveled the world and flowed with the natural progression rather than pinholing themselves to one margin of past self sense. “Artists have to be careful not to become what they’re here to undo,” she added. “We had to go through that period to really shake ourselves loose of everything that tried to stamp us into a place and purpose that is not the infinite idea of our expression at all. At the very moment, we’re in the movement of only doing what we’re asked to do today. We’re obedient to the inspiration, the bigger vision rather than material.”

One thing she’s realized? She and Richard have the God-given ability to inspire themselves into doing for others to see no matter the form of expression it comes through. “We are all artists and you cannot stop that,” Victoria said. “I am still the same; I haven’t changed a bit but the tools in my hand have changed so I’m rolling with it.”

Her latest dream: to turn Yankee Ferry into a place where people, especially businesses, come to “hang their hats” and conduct meetings out of the conference room to “become immersed with the rock of the ship.”

“No one comes aboard Yankee and leaves the same,” Victoria said. “If Yankee could be a place where thoughts are nurtured and upheavaled what a gift that would be. When people come on board they are jarred enough that the child comes racing forward, and that freedom that it gives you for the momentum you can see anew.”

If successful, she hopes that Yankee will become the flagship think tank that she and Richard can create in ports around the globe.

“Our natural talent without even doing it is creating environments. We can’t help it. You could put us in the middle of the desert and all of a sudden we’d be drawing in the sand,” she said with a giggle. “I love the challenge of taking something cast aside or some part of reusing it in new ways. My sport is to not buy but to churn and churn and reposition; life is a treasure hunt to me. I love laughing all day long so just picking up things and using them however they land in my lap entertains me.”

Heather Chaplet

Saving the environment, one fabric swatch at a time

The daughter of the decorative art duo said that the best lesson she grasped from her parents’ non-bearing rearing is to live fearlessly. Which is why when she conjured up the idea to found Xoomba, a producer of organic fabrics, apparel and other textile products in West Africa, she put her performing arts background and management skills together and made it a reality in three years’ time.

“At the time, I was working on musical theater costumes and thought, ‘well I can sew and I can do things with textiles.’ I was so exposed to my parents’ work to know how to do all sorts of things,” she said, with a girlish laugh. “I thought I’d like to go into clothing making and textiles and find a way to market that work for the environment.”  Chaplet added that both Richard and Victoria are talented clothing makers, and she remembers her parents were always creating garb for the whole family to wear.

In 2009, she took a four-month research trip to Africa and was later joined by her musician husband, Nils, and two children, Felix and Wittika. Prototypes rolled out one year later, and the company’s first production of 100 percent fair-trade cotton spun, dyed and woven hammocks, fabric and clothing debuted in 2011. New clothing collections for men, women and children will be released this summer for fall orders, Chaplet said. The latest addition to the line: baby clothing constructed from a blend of cotton and kapok, a soft, silky milkweed-like fiber.

While Chaplet is the motor propelling the operation, she praises her husband’s support and ability to enthusiastically communicate the importance of the project to others. Optimistic about the future of the organic fabric market, Chaplet was careful to avoid using “eco” or “green” when designing her concept.  “I hope that we’re all going in this direction and that in the end it won’t be an original idea to have organic clothing. It will be normal,” she said.

Along with providing customers with affordable, environmentally conscious fashion, the purpose of the project is to help support a more sustainable living and livelihood in Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in Africa. With more substantial financial backing (to join the effort visit www.xoomba.org), Chaplet plans to establish a small scale spinning operation (the first on the African continent) to assist in meeting the regional demand. As a side project, Chaplet spearheaded an effort to sell 100 locally crafted bronze cow sculptures to fund a deep well for urban sustainable farming in Burkina Faso.

The sweet-spoken Brown University graduate is sunny about Xoomba’s potential success, and hopes that as the project grows they can expand the good doings to other countries, become a collaborative and stable resource for designers and spotlight their collection on a runway with music by Nils and choreography by Heather.

“That’s what I love to do,” Chaplet said. “That’s what makes me excited about the whole thing, being able to create.” And like mother like daughter, you can bet there will be many more wild-eyed, adventurous creations that this family of designers will continue to inspire the world with.

A broken bone may be more than meets the eye. It might be an early warning sign of osteoporosis, a condition that contributes to more than 1.5 million fractures each year. Osteoporosis is a condition that causes a loss of bone mineral density resulting in the body’s bone becoming sponge-like and porous. It gradually weakens the bones and makes them vulnerable to injury over time.

Osteoporosis is a silent disease and people are often completely unaware that they are afflicted with this condition until a fall that normally would have had minor impact results in a fracture.

According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, more than 10 million Americans have osteoporosis and more than 30 million have a bone density mass low enough that they are at risk for the disease. Caucasian women are most at risk for developing osteoporosis but there are several other risk factors as well, including small bone structure or being thinner than normal, smoking cigarettes, reduced levels of estrogen after menopause and low dietary intake of calcium or the reduced ability to absorb calcium and Vitamin D.

Doctors usually diagnose osteoporosis by conducting a complete medical history and physical, X-rays, laboratory tests and bone density testing, an X-ray technique that compares bone density to the peak bone density of a person usually in their mid-20s of the same sex and ethnicity.

Osteoporosis is preventable and treatable. Preventive measures such as eating a well-balanced, calcium-rich diet and regular physical exercise are critical to ensuring healthy bones. Bone mass reaches its peak in the mid-20s and then levels off. After people reach their mid thirties, bone mass begins to decline. Adopting a life-long diet rich in calcium and Vitamin D (milk, cheese, yogurt, soy, almonds, leafy green vegetables), engaging in regular weight-bearing exercise such as walking, hiking, jogging, tennis and avoiding habits that lead to calcium loss such as excessive alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking, can reduce bone density loss. Vitamin D in sufficient quantities supports the effective absorption of calcium. Calcium supplements may also be an effective way to ensure an adequate daily intake of this important nutrient. A patient should check with her doctor for the correct calcium supplement.

It is impossible to replace bone that has been lost so treatment focuses on reducing the further loss of bone and preventing injuries. Although there is no cure for osteoporosis, there are many medications that are effective in slowing the loss of bone and increasing bone density. Discuss medication options with your doctor if you have a family history of osteoporosis or have been diagnosed with it by bone density testing.

Osteoporosis is a major health problem affecting millions of Americans. You and your doctor can effectively develop and implement a combination of measures to prevent the further loss of bone, establish effective exercise and nutritional therapies, explore medication treatment options and adopt practices to minimize your risk of injury. Be sure to discuss these options with your doctor at your next visit.

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, many of us are thinking about ways to recognize the special women in our lives. A sweet little ladylike brunch is the perfect solution to slow down and enjoy time together. Bonus: hosting a Mother’s Day brunch is easier than you think. All it takes is a few thoughtful touches, tasty eats and a little craftiness. (No Martha Stewart-esque skills required, I promise!)

First up, setting the table. When selecting elements like linens, tableware and flowers, pick a color that you love to serve as inspiration. From there, mix and match different patterns and textures to create interest and keep things fun. Here the linens are a $2 garage sale find. The hand embroidery in shades of green set the stage for all details. For flowers, pick up seasonal blooms and arrange them in whatever glass vase or container is hanging around. (You can also find them inexpensively at places like Hobby Lobby, Marshalls and Christmas Tree Shops.) A good rule of thumb: you can never go wrong with white flowers. They mix well with any decor and large bunches bundled together create impact without having pro floral arranging skills. Add an extra touch of color and texture by dressing up your vase with ribbon, twine or fabric. Used here is a band of jute webbing (from www.burlapfabric.com) quickly attached on the backside with safety pins. Hot glue or double-stick tape would also do the trick. Once your table is set, it’s all about the good stuff — food! To make any celebration and the intended guest of honor feel extra special, serve simple foods dressed up in inexpensive ways. We displayed a pretty fruit tart (found at Wegmans) on a rustic cutting board. Instead of leaving croissants and pastries in the paper bakery box, arrange them in a napkin-lined basket or tray. The addition of little details such as striped paper straws (available at www.shopsweetlulu.com) and pretty garnishes like sprigs of thyme in lemonade pull everything together without a lot of fuss, but will give the appearance that you spent all day crafting the perfect brunch table.

By Joleene DesRosiers

Have you ever noticed that you never stick with one emotion for very long? Take anger, for instance. When you become angry with someone, you express that anger for a certain period of time. But, eventually, you let the anger go. It’s often replaced with sadness or frustration because the situation was never resolved. So then you carry on for some time with that frustration. But even that grows old — and before you know it, you end up angry all over again.

This cycle is best illustrated with an infinity sign. If you don’t get out of it, you’ll roll along it’s track, well, to infinity and beyond.

You could escape this trap with distraction. Distraction, however, usually comes in the form of addiction or other unhealthy behaviors and only yields temporary results. You may take this route for a while, but soon, you’ll start looking for another out.

Or, you could change the model of your world. This is the only way out of the trap. Most people have exactly what they expect out of life all figured out in their heads. And when these expectations aren’t met, they get angry, and then frustrated, and then angry, and then frustrated. You need to change your expectations to meet “what is.” And “what is,” is exactly that — what is happening at all times before you, to you and within you. It’s accepting “what is” and rolling with it. What we resist, persists. If you continue to resist the way a particular situation unfolds, you will continue to find yourself lost in the loop. Yet if you accept that it happened and move with the natural flow of things, you’ll find yourself up and out of that loop in no time. Practice this everyday. You’ll find that traffic jams are what they are (and really aren’t so bad), and not making it to the store before it closes really is no big deal.

Somewhere along the line, we learned to get angry at the way certain situations unfold for us. Yet the world has always moved with uncertainty and always will. It’s a matter of finally accepting this and moving with it. You can still love, laugh and live a remarkable life. The best part is that you’ll be able to do it better than ever.

The former Central New York television reporter turned transformational speaker and author comes clean about her 26-year battle with addiction in a tell-all book.

For 10 years Joleene DesRosiers Moody was a familiar face that delivered local news to News 10 Now viewers, first as a field reporter then as a fill-in anchor. Little did viewers know that the beautiful, smiling woman with the camera-ready hair, makeup and wardrobe on their television screen was struggling internally with some breaking news of her own.

After spending two self-committed months at Centre Syracuse last fall, Moody was finally ready to break the silence through a post on Facebook on Jan. 10:

“I have been sick with a highly misunderstood disease for the better part of 26 years. I have hidden it for over two decades, finally succumbing to its overwhelming power after it knocked me to my knees earlier this year. After two decades of trying to overcome it on my own, I finally gave in and sought help. For the past two months, I have been in treatment for an eating disorder,” she wrote of her battle with bulimia.

Moody knows that going public with this kind of information could lead to being judged and ridiculed, but that’s OK. This post is only the beginning to a passionate career that the 40 year old has been waiting a lifetime to fulfill — using the written and spoken word to help others overcome their fears. And she’s off to a great start on what she considers to be a long road ahead.

One year ago this month, she began penning her newly released book, “Memoirs of Normalcy: Journey from Sedentary to Extraordinary.” Last March, she landed her first speaking gig in front of 422 women at a Christian women’s conference in Syracuse. Her recovery inspired a second book, titled “Twenty-Six,” that focuses on body image and the media, and why middle-aged women like herself hid the disease for so long. It will be available next spring. The Cicero native, who now lives in Pulaski with her husband Mark, a criminal prosecutor, and her 8-year-old daughter Madison-Mae, is also earning a life coach certification through Robbins-Madanes online.

But Moody is the first to admit that she doesn’t have all of life’s answers; she views herself as merely a “reminder.” “Humans feel two emotions: love and fear. Fear is all man-made. We’re domesticated to listen to what others say we can and can’t do,” Moody said. “I want to teach people to ignore this and listen to themselves. People aren’t afraid of failure; they’re more so afraid of blowing their own minds with what they can accomplish. I am a reminder, that is all. I consider myself a teacher in a sense because I’m reminding people about what they forget about themselves.”

With her book, Moody hopes that readers will relate to the woes, triumphs and humor of the personal accounts she shares and realize that they do not have to struggle alone. “The idea is not that when people are reading to go, ‘Wow, that’s really a great idea, Joleene. You did this and now I’m going to, too.’ I’m not offering a simple step-by-step to fix your problems kind of text. I don’t believe in the instant gratification that current society seeks to cure their troubles. My goal is to tell an enriching story that will help others come to their own conclusion.”

However, this newfound perspective in life wasn’t the result of a brief stint in treatment. It has been a longtime battle of self-loathing and poor choices coupled with an eating disorder (Ed) that Moody tried to bury with binge drinking and drug abuse before learning how to be honest with herself. “I’m not a superhero. This is a girl who went through normal things in life, and these normal things included addictions and having her heart broken,” she said. The first step: a new career.

“I was very unhappy and I didn’t know it because I had this job that a lot of people thought was shiny and cool and I thought well, it must be,” Moody said. “I worked with great people and there were facets that I enjoyed but overall I didn’t love it.” After years of dreading to get up each morning and pestering people for interviews, she knew it was time for a change, but she didn’t know how to get there. Plus, she said she was conflicted with leaving a secure job that paid well, especially in the floundering economy.

In August 2009, Moody received shocking news that caused the wake-up call she needed. While sitting on her stoop in a state of self-pity with a cigarette and beer in hand, she got the devastating phone call from her brother that her 60-year-old mother had passed. “When my mom died she was miserable and sick. I thought to myself, ‘I can’t continue down this path.’ I knew I had to make a change,” she said.

One day out of work soon led to four weeks. She used this time to soul search, and would wander aimlessly around a field across from her house asking the sky for answers. She was sitting at home alone in bed reading Dan Millman’s “The Life You were Born to Live” when it clicked. Throughout all of the careers she had dabbled in over the years (theater actress, lead singer of a band, desktop publisher-slash-web-developer, working at a musical instrument and accessories catalog, news reporter) the underlying element was always writing. When it finally surfaced, Moody said she was overwhelmed with indescribable feelings and emotions.

For financial reasons, she agreed to return to her day job for a year while pursuing freelance writing on the side. Her unhappiness began to consume her even more and after five months she called her on-camera career quits to begin a life of self-employment. What helped her take this brave leap of faith for good? Skydiving. “I recognized that if I could jump out of an airplane at 10,000 feet I could leave my job,” she said.

The next battle was to overcome her shame of having an Ed and seek treatment. Unsure of what first sparked her eating disorder, Moody said she was 13 when she remembers her first strange incident with binge eating. One Thanksgiving, after her family was fast asleep, she took out a sampling of leftovers, snuck it up to her room and hid it in the closet. “I remember going to bed thinking, ‘this is so cool, when I wake up I’m going to sit in my closet and have all of this to myself.’ And I did,” she said. By age 15, her Ed was the result of full-blown body image obsession that ultimately led her to have liposuction on her stomach and chin 11 years ago.

Moody’s disorder would fluctuate in monthly cycles of four, from extreme dieting and exercising, to bingeing and purging, to months of no symptoms. So, when she checked herself into Centre Syracuse, she was at a healthy weight because as bulimics age, bingeing and purging is used to maintain weight, she said. “You wouldn’t know, which is why people were shocked to find out. I looked normal,” Moody said. Her husband was the only person who knew. When they started dating in 2009, she told him that she had “one last demon to slay,” and his support has helped carry her through.

While in recovery, Moody realized that eating disorders are a much bigger issue than people like to acknowledge. Her group consisted of males and females ages 12 to 57. Although she didn’t buy the meal planning aspect of the program at first, because she had survived 26 years on exactly 1,500 calories or less a day, Moody is now maintaining a healthy and happy weight with strength training exercise, proper eating and trusting herself. “I no longer want to have to accept what the world says I should look like,” she said, noting that she consumes 2,300 to 2,600 calories a day and hasn’t gained a pound. She’s also made it a point to be proactive with her daughter by making healthy eating fun and reinforcing that “it doesn’t matter what we look like, we’re all beautiful people and deserve to be treated well.”

And just like the photograph on the cover of her book reiterates, everyone is on their own journey, some move at a faster pace than others, some even stop to rest. For Moody, it took more than two decades to find the meaning to her journey. “Life is yours,” she said. “Mold it how you want. But you have to be willing to understand that it takes time, but time is all it takes.”

At 13, Katelyn Kane fought leukemia, just seven years later, the up-and-coming local race car driver is fighting for a championship at Fulton Speedway.

Kane’s thrill for speed began when she attended her first race at only 2 months old. From then on, she spent almost every weekend at the races, watching her heroes battle on the track.

“It’s where I’ve grown up, ever since I can remember there has been a race car in our family’s garage and we’ve been going to the races, it’s just a special part of my life,” said Kane, whose love for the sport began with her grandfather, Ernie Kreis, owner of Ernie Kreis and Sons Heating Co. He has supported many local race car drivers, including Mitch Gibbs, Tim McCreadie and Billy Decker.

Kane looked up to these drivers, both literally and figuratively. She would tell her parents and grandparents that she wanted to race just like them. Though they may have thought it was just a phase that she would grow out of, Kane never lost her passion. She was destined to find her way into the seat of a race car, but there was one thing that stood in the way of making her dream come true.

In 8th grade, Kane, an athletic middle schooler at Onondaga Hill, Westhill district, said she remembers being at volleyball practice and being overcome with weakness and exhaustion.

“I fell asleep for the two hours of practice on the bench,” Kane recalled. She figured she was just under the weather, so she stayed home from school for a couple days. During that time, her throat began to swell and her condition worsened, so she made a visit to the pediatrician.

Doctors told Kane she had Mononucleosis and should feel better after a couple weeks of rest, but results from a blood test showed otherwise. “The blood test came back at 5 o’clock that night,” Kane said. “They said ‘go to the emergency room now, don’t ask questions.’”

By 3 a.m., while in a bed at Upstate University Hospital, Kane was told she had leukemia. At that same time, also at the same hospital, her father was receiving cancer treatment on his birthday.

“He ended up getting rolled down from his bed to see me, everyone came by and it was a blur,” Kane said. She remained in the hospital for the next two weeks as she underwent tests and treatments.

“The only thing I do remember is when I came home after those two weeks, the sunlight was killing me because I had been in the dark for so long,” Kane said.

Through her sickness, Kane always focused a bit of her thoughts on racing. It provided a positive outlet as she tried to recover, she said. And, in the midst of her treatments, she received a piece of news that would change her life and provide more incentive to recover: her dream to race was going to come true.

Her grandparents, Ernie and Carolyn Kreis, bought a Sportsman Dirt Modified race car which would be waiting in their garage for her once she recovered.

“It was a mutual agreement that if I was able to fight and recover then I would have a race car,” Kane said.

Kane was 16 when she had her final treatment and wasted no time before strapping into the high-powered machine. In 2007, she competed in the novice division of the Sportsman Modified Series at Fulton Speedway, winning the division championship just a year later.

“It’s what I want to do and continue doing for as long as I can,” Kane said.

Judging by her early success, opportunities to continue the sport should be plentiful. Kane was the first female to win an open wheel race at Fulton in 2008 in the Novice Dirt Modified Sportsman Series and in 2011, finished fourth in the Fulton Speedway Sportsman Modified Division point standings, posting seven top tens and one win.

In addition to racing on the track, Kane is also a duel economics and math major with an accounting and business administration minor at Le Moyne College. She said she would like to have a career in racing, but knows the importance of college. If she cannot race full time, she would still like to continue the sport as a hobby. And, as if her current schedule isn’t full enough, Kane was recently accepted into the RACE 101 program (Research, Analyze, Consult and Educate, One on One). The program, in North Carolina, consists of classes where Kane and others hone their skills in marketing, mechanics and racing.

Kane’s first race of the season is scheduled for April 14 at Fulton Speedway.

Kathy Holland and Erica Miller sit on the board of the CNY chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and have been assigned the task of recruiting promising prospects for the organization’s inaugural bachelor and silent auction. Men drafted into service will be put on display at Justin’s Tuscan Grill on May 4, where they’ve been instructed to come armed with the best date package they can muster.   

For Holland and Miller, this particular meat market is all in the service of generating awareness about mental health and removing the social stigma that surrounds suicide.

“Mental health is just as prevalent and just as important as cancer or any physical health and yet it doesn’t receive the same attention,” Holland said.

A kindergarten teacher at Liverpool Elementary, Holland remembers driving to the hospital after learning that her husband, Gene, had made an attempt on his life. Through the window of her car she could see some homeless people, poor and living on the streets of Syracuse, but still alive. She realized that mental illness doesn’t discriminate.

“He had just completed his master’s degree at Le Moyne College, ran seven marathons, was a phenomenal marathon runner, had the most loving parents and five loving siblings that you could dream of, we had a fabulous marriage … It made no difference,” said Holland, whose husband passed away from a traumatic brain injury two years ago.

She began looking for ways to reach out, eventually learning of CNY’s first annual Out of the Darkness Awareness Walk. An AFSP sponsored event held every Columbus Day weekend in Long Branch Park, the walk became a springboard for the launch of a new local AFSP chapter for which Holland gladly volunteered.

The AFSP’s presence in CNY was warmly welcomed by Cazenovia College Professor Erica Miller, who began participating in Out of the Darkness walks in memory of her father, Richard Vernold. Described by his daughter as a kind and generous man, Vernold’s decision to take his own life came as a shock to his family.

“He was a master at hiding it, a master at just pushing it down to the point of where ‘I’m OK.’ Just putting that mask on, that happy face for people,” Miller said.

She became increasingly involved with AFSP, attending chapter meetings, coordinating awareness walks and eventually joining Holland on the chapter’s board. Both women feel that the work they are doing is essential, and they have found ways to incorporate it into their lives as educators.

“That’s one thing where Kathy and I really connect is that we’re both educators. We really see our role as not only working with AFSP, but where in our professions we can tie what we’ve learned from AFSP and the programs that we’re using to connect with folks in the education world. I’ve never had any resistance. Everybody craves this information,” Miller said.

A professor in Cazenovia’s Inclusive Education program, Miller speaks regularly with classes full of future teachers about the negative effects of bullying on mental health, while Holland keeps the faculty at Liverpool Elementary apprised of ways to get involved with the AFSP.

Their search for eligible bachelors began in the spring of 2011, when AFSP CNY named them the chairs of the auction. Justin’s Tuscan Grill offered to waive its room fee as a tribute to Gene, who had worked for the restaurant’s owners before his death.

The co-chairs are just beginning the process of acquiring donations for the silent portion of the auction. But they have been pleased by the response that the AFSP and its various events have received within the CNY community.

“I go into places and I’ll say, ‘Can I put a poster up?’ or ‘Will you do a donation or will you do this … ?’ And I swear 90 percent of the time whoever I communicate with will say, ‘You know, I lost a loved one or friend [to suicide],’” Miller said.

When faced with an unexpected health nightmare, Stephanie Juskow learned the importance of laughter.

A non-diabetic with low blood pressure, Stephanie Juskow, mom of two, considered herself boring, health-wise. That is, until Juskow, at 29, went in for a routine visit after giving birth to her second daughter and learned that her kidneys were failing.

“I was tired all the time, but I attributed it to having a newborn, so it was a complete shock to me,” she said. With 4-month-old and 3-year-old daughters, she was scared. “My first question to the doctor was, ‘Am I going to die?’”

Unfortunately, the doctor was unable to answer her question.

In that moment, all her dreams and plans were put on hold, as the previously healthy young mom realized her number one priority was getting well.

By the fall of 2006, Juskow started undergoing an aggressive home treatment, which involved receiving dialysis every night. “You’re basically chained to a machine for eight hours,” Juskow said. This treatment lasted two years, until her situation took a turn for the worse.

In 2007, she was suddenly faced with another unexpected blow — divorce. During this time, Juskow’s home treatments stopped working and she was put on the kidney transplant list. According to the National Kidney Foundation, 100,000 people die each year while waiting for a kidney transplant.

Despite everything she was going through, Juskow kept upbeat: “I found that laughter, spending time with close friends and family, got me through it … I was very ill, but I hid it well. I didn’t want to look sick. I didn’t want people to look at me and think, ‘poor her.’”

Whatever spare energy she had, she spent playing with her kids. Juskow didn’t want her children to see her sick. So, each morning, Juskow did her hair, got dressed and tried to live as normal a life as possible. “I find that it’s a lot easier to stay positive. Once you go to the negative side of things, it’s a lot harder to get out of it,” Juskow said.

In August of 2009, Juskow took her daughters to Disney World. She had dreamed of taking her children there and she wanted to make the trip before it was too late.

Four months after they returned from Florida, Juskow received a phone call from a hysterical relative in Philadelphia. Another relative, James Blume, suffered a heart attack and was on life support. He was also an organ donor. On Dec. 3, she received the official call: the mother of two was getting a kidney.

Today, two years after the successful surgery, Juskow has reclaimed her life. “I’ve come full circle. We have a brand new house. Life has gone back to being boring and mundane,” Juskow said. Now she has the energy to spend time with her daughters, Rebecca, 9, and Emma, 6, while working as a massage therapist and serving as a vocal advocate for kidney donation.

“It was a big chapter in my life. When you go through something like that, you find out who your family is and who your real friends are,” she said.

This coming August, Juskow is taking her daughters back to Disney World. This time, Juskow plans on going on all the rides.

Every girl dreams of her wedding day. She conjures up visions of the perfect day, complete with a handsome groom, stunning dress, joyous music and beautiful flowers. When it finally comes time for the girl to make her wedding dreams a reality, she turns to skilled wedding professionals like Erin McKenna Nowak to bring her vision to life. 

Nowak has been creating art and day dreaming about weddings since she was a little girl. And after earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in graphic design and printmaking from Alfred University and experience working in New York City, Chicago and Providence, R.I., Nowak turned her passion into a business with the start of her company, Bride Design. Since 2004, Nowak has listened to the stories of her wedding clients, observed their personal styles and reflected on their wedding day dreams to create signature wedding stationery and accessories.

“I was trained and mentored by designers who taught me to be a visual problem solver, so I have the ability to carefully combine the wedding colors, wording and style of a couple to create a beautiful composition,” Nowak said.

As an imaginative business woman, Nowak added an artistic line of baby announcements, baptism and first birthday invitations and children’s stationery to her company after the arrival of her three children. This extra line of business products has helped Nowak expand her company while providing young families (some of them former wedding clients) with a beautiful way to announce their children’s special celebrations.

This woman entrepreneur also inspires other businesswomen to bring more creativity into their enterprises. At a recent presentation Nowak gave for women business owners, she said, “The generation of new ideas is perhaps the most important creative activity we do as entrepreneurs; it is vital to our survival therefore it’s important to pay attention and preserve ideas we have, even if they don’t seem valuable at the moment.” Her words have motivated others to think of their companies from a creative and colorful perspective, not just the black and white viewpoint of a corporate plan.

Whether Nowak is presenting her wedding clients with unique invitations, helping a family announce special moments or motivating women entrepreneurs to use creativity to expand their business concepts, she is a woman with exquisite design talents and warmth that truly inspires others.