MaryKay Mullally, a Jamaican born woman whose Self-Expression and Leadership Program of training women to run marathons and half-marathons led her to form the “Step Up For Life” organization, was recently interviewed by the Jamaica Gleaner, a leading Jamaican newspaper. Mullally talked about being honored by ABC News and Prevention Magazine as one of five winners of their Picture of Health contest, which gave the award to women making an inspiring difference in the health of other women.

MaryKay Mullally — Making a Difference

by Barbara Nelson

Tired of running a software development team in California, Jamaican-born MaryKay Mullally became involved in self-development seminars. One of her courses involved developing a half-marathon-training group. The result? “I ran my first marathon in January 2002, two months before turning 41,” the now vibrant 47-year old mother of two, said.

“It was one of the most challenging yet exhilarating things I’ve ever done. I had to dig deep physically and mentally to keep going when my muscles were burning and the voices in my head said I wasn’t going to make it. It required that I be present in each moment, focus on the finish line and just take the next step. Completing that marathon made me feel like I could do anything.”

twists and turns

She was one of five women featured in the June 2008 issue of Prevention magazine, vying for the top prize in the second annual Prevention/ABC News Now Picture of Health contest. The women were selected because they showed that “life does get better after 40, and that you can find your healthy path no matter how many twists and turns it takes to get there.”

This charming woman, who attended St. Andrew High School in Jamaica as a young girl, ran two more marathons in 2003 before creating Step Up For Life in August 2004. Step Up For Life was initially launched as a project in the Self Expression and Leadership Program, one of the core programs of Landmark Education. This program gives people an opportunity to express themselves fully, make a difference in their community and have other people people participate.

“I wanted to empower women with this program by helping them to do something they would never have done and never thought they could do so they could take that into other areas of their lives and know they could do anything by taking one step at a time with the support of other women just like themselves. I wanted women to experience the freedom I felt when I ran and have a tool they could use to reclaim their health. I had 50 people sign up and had to turn people away,” she said.

experience

Of the original 50 women, 40 made it to the starting line at the inaugural Nike Women’s Half Marathon in San Francisco and all finished. For many it was the most empowering experience of their lives.

In January of 2005 MaryKay launched Step Up as a business, running three sessions per year to train for local San Diego Half marathons. Just fewer than 1000 women have participated to date.

“I have now expanded my business into a wellness coaching practice and have helped hundreds of men and women to lose weight and reclaim their health and wellbeing. So my focus is more on this aspect of my business,” she explained. MaryKay also coaches people via the phone over a period and helps them to achieve their individual health, weight or fitness goals.

Since being profiled by Prevention magazine and ABC News, she has been contacted by scores of people including high school friends with whom she’d lost touch.

dream

“One phone call I will never forget,” MaryKay said, “came from a woman in Texas on the morning the competition was announced on ABC’s Good Morning America. She told me that she weighed 300lbs and had tried every diet in the book and had failed miserably. She said she hated herself and the night before had gone to bed hopeless and resigned. That morning she turned the TV on to the segment and for the first time in months she had hope through my story. At that point she immediately went to her computer, cast her vote for me, looked me up on Google and called me. When I hung up realizing that my dream to impact millions of people was already being fulfilled, it was all I could do to not breakdown and cry.”

ABC News declared all five finalists winners and MaryKay donated her winning cheque of US$5,000 to NEADS (Dogs For Deaf and Disabled Americans), of Princeton, MA. The organization trains rescued dogs to assist persons who are deaf or physically disabled in leading more independent lives. To learn more about MaryKay’s wellness program visit www.stepupforlife.com

To see the story in its original form, visit the Jamaica Gleaner website.

Dr. Bryce Crowley, of Centerville, Utah, recently put on a safety event, Helmet Heroes, to protect young bike riders from head injuries. About 500 young people were fitted with and given new, high quality bicycle helmet. Crowley chose this as his project in landmark’s self-expression and leadership program based on personal experience – He recently had a close call in a bike accident where the third vertebra in his neck was crushed. Only his bike helmet saved him from severe injuries. 

Based on his own experience as both a doctor and a bike rider, Crowley is adamant that parents make sure their youngsters use helmets. “Just like every time you buckle your child with a seatbelt in a car, you ought to have a helmet on your child anytime they’re out and about on a bike,” he says. He hopes his work will reduce Emergency room visits for young riders.

Crowley’s “Helmet Heroes” was covered extensively by local television stations, including KSL News and KUTZ 2 Noon News.

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Massage therapist and wellness expert Sheila Snow is creating a project in her self-expression and leadership program that is a two day healing event called “Journey to Wellness and Transformation.” This event is scheduled to take place on August 22 and 23, in Vernon, British Columbia, at a yet to be determined location. The event will be a fundraiser for the Vernon District Women’s Center.

Snow, a Canadian residing in British Columbia, seeks to gather 20-30 chiropracters, acupuncturists, kinesiologists, craniosacral therapists, herbologists, naturopaths, natural therapists, biofeedback technicians, iridologists, and doctors that will work from a holistic perspective that will examine patients that have conditions that traditional medical doctors have been unable to diagnose, or who find themselves at an impasse in their health and well being. 

Each client would be examined from the point of view of several different modalities, and the facilitators would work together to present their views on each client, and collectively create a potential “Journey to Wellness” for the client.

Snow’s project was recently featured on 105.7 Sun Fm radio with morning host Brian Martin. For more information, go to Snow’s website, or contact her directly at vernonwellness@gmail.com or 250-938-4905.

When Judy Serrano, of Franklin Park, IL, took the Self-Expression and Leadership Program, she wanted to bring a course on nutrition to her community.

Serrano, who is a registered nurse, is passionate about making a difference with the many nutrition-related health problems which are on the rise, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Specifically, she wants people to know about the impact that additives, preservatives and various sugars can have on people’s long term health.

Serrano got Marie Williams, a nutritionist whose diet helped her completely eliminate symptoms from a stroke she had suffered, to speak at the event, which was held on April 12th at Bible Baptist Church in Mt. Prospect. The feedback from the event was very positive. The workshop appears likely to become a regular event.

In taking on the project, Serrano has both impacted her own health and eating habits, as well as realizing that she is someone who can and does make a real and lasting difference in the world.

I feel like I’m a different person from when I started the project and started the Self-Expression and Leadership Program. I didn’t feel like I had any power to make a difference, but now I’m clear that I can accomplish anything if I believe it can be done.

Roberta Jones shares her personal story of how she came to want to make in hospice care, and how she chose this as her project in Landmark Education’s Self-Expression and Leadership Program:

In January of 2006 my brother-in-law, Kirby, collapsed at work and was taken to the emergency room. We soon discovered he had esophageal cancer and his prognosis was very bad. The news of his illness was catastrophic to his only brother, my husband, Randy. Randy had struggled with maintaining a good relationship with his brother their entire adult life due to Kirby’s alcoholism which was a result of severe childhood abuse and a stint in Vietnam. Randy was incredibly saddened to learn that his brother who has struggled so much in life was now going to lose the chance to improve his life and live to be an old man with his brother. It didn’t take long for us to discover that Kirby was in the final stages of his cancer.

As a family we discussed all of the options. The doctors pushed for medical treatment even though there was a good chance Kirby wouldn’t make it through chemo for very long. He had lost a considerable amount of weight for his small frame and was very weak from the disease. We were all also concerned about the fact that we would have limited access to Kirby because of the threat of passing infection to him during his treatment.

That’s when Kirby decided on Hospice and comfort. As a family we supported his decision all the way. The Hospice environment was wonderful. The nurses were incredible in their caring and empathy. Where Kirby was restricted at the Hospital he was encouraged at Hospice. Randy and his sons even took Kirby on an outing to his favorite spot in the woods up north. The “boys” all shared in a final goodbye to their favorite hunting area with their brother/uncle. During the three weeks Kirby was in Hospice family was there most of the time. We visited with food, stories, laughter and love as much as we could. It was comforting for all of us to have those final weeks to be fully present to each other as a family. It’s during those times you realize how important family is in comparison with everything else we put so much significance.

That’s why it was so shocking when we learned there was a gentleman in Hospice who didn’t have the support of family and friends. Kirby befriended “Tim” and asked us to go to the store for him and buy Tim some cigarettes because he didn’t have anyone to take care of him. Kirby continued to be Tim’s friend until Kirby died on 02/18/06. We went to see Tim one more time after Kirby died to bring him some things. But my thoughts were always on the man who lived his last days alone at Hospice.

In December 2007 I was introduced to Landmark Education. I received an opportunity to attend a class called the Landmark Forum in the city of Livonia (Detroit Center). Little did I know how much of an effect that class was going to have on me and my family. The Forum was amazing. I came out of the experience a better person, a better friend, a better parent, a better spouse, a better family member but mostly, a better human being. Because of the excitement I felt in that class I continued on farther into their “Curriculum for Living” and had a wonderful learning experience in the advanced class and then finally in the third course, “The Self-Expression and Leadership Program” (SELP). It was in the SELP that I learned that it isn’t about us as individuals but rather as community and how we can all help make planet earth a better place with bringing about amazing projects to help those in our community seeking a better life, or in our case, a better death.

Since I met “Tim” in Hospice I thought about the need for a program of volunteers to come and assist those who are dying without family and friends. I believe all human beings need love and support especially in their final days. I met Kelly Voisinet and Karen Ketola who are the volunteer coordinators at Sparrow Hospice Services in Lansing, MI. These are two amazing women who saw the need for this project also and “have taken the ball and run with it.” We are structuring the additional training needed to assist volunteers in taking on these types of patients. We are also determining what special materials they will need to have with them in the home to assist their patient (ie. Bibles, rosaries, cards, books, etc). We are always looking to donations. You can reach me at vrtrainer@verizon.net if you would like to donate something useful to this program.

In Northern India, in the State of Hamachel Pradesh, there is a discouraging state in the social affairs of the local people. This area remains to be one of the most backward regions of India with an average income of $200 dollars per year for most native residents. Outlying communities remain poor with little hope for government funding to improve their way of life.There are eight facilities in the district of Chamba that serve orphans, and battered or homeless women and their children. These facilities have extremely poor living conditions, broken windows, little or nonexistent sanitary facilities, no hot water, poor or no beds and bedding, lack of clothing, minimal kitchen facilities, little or non-existent educational resources and a lack of training or vocational programs to help the local people.

You might find it suprising to discover that the famously afluent Brentwood Area of Los Angeles is home to a non-profit that provides vital services to Homeless People. There are estimated to be as many as 3 million homeless people in the United States. The living conditions that most homeless people find themselves in make even basic personal hygene a struggle. When it comes to dental care there are virtually no official services available to the homeless.

Dr. Jay Grossman is a dentist in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles County. Since 1992, when Dr. Grossman began “Homeless Not Toothless” in the Landmark Self Expression and Leadership Program, it has provided over 1 million dollars worth of free dental work through over 30 different dental practices in the Los Angeles area. Each of these dental practices has delivered the care without any financial compensation. Having a smile back not only boosts people’s confidence, it can make it easiser for people to find meaningful employment. The dental practices that make up homeless not toothless are committed to raise the pride and dignity of the homeless through quality dental services.

Most recently “Homeless Not Toothless was featured on CNN.

When B. Ramakrishnan registered for the Landmark Self Expression and Leadership Program, he knew that he wanted to make a difference in safety on the roads of India.  Indian roads have always been chotic, but with the double diget economic growth of the last two decades, the problems with traffic have become even greater problem.  According to the Boston Globe 276 people die in traffic accidents each day in India. Ramakrishnan’s projects seeks to do something about this, starting with his hometown of Banglor.

Here is a recent story from a news paper in Banglor

Deccan Herald

As part of the initiative, the first session was conducted for drivers hired by GE India Technology Center (JFWTC) where around 76 drivers from SRS Travels and Ambassador Travels underwent the four-hour programme.

The training covered the basics of defensive driving — the need, impact on community, awareness of safety on the road and responsibility of road users. They also covered some of the recent developments or steps taken by the Bangalore Traffic Police in improving driving conditions on road.

The programme, conducted by Geetha, Inspector (Traffic), Traffic Training Institute, Bangalore Police and her colleagues, included presentations, videos as well as discussions on accidents in the country along with footage that included interviews of family members of victims. The feedback, according to Ramakrishnan, was quite positive and people seemed to realise the impact negligent driving can cause on people as well as how important it is to adhere to rules.

Similar workshops will be conducted for other organisations in the near future. For further information contact Ramakrishnan at: ramakrishnan.b@ge.com

Scott Bedall took Landmark Education’s Self Expression and Leadership Program and decided that the area he wanted to make a difference in was the health of kids. Kids take fitness in stride, and then some

From: Times Colonist, Victoria Canada
By: Jeff Bell

The collective energy of a bunch of eight- and nine-year-olds goes a long way.

At Cloverdale Traditional School, students in Gale Penner’s Grade 3 class and Ian Macpherson’s Grade 3/4 group are two weeks into the Victoria School Wellness Challenge — and have already charged past one of their major goals.

Wellness Challenge creator Scott Beddall, whose godson Logan Diamond is one of Mrs. Penner’s students, said all of the children have been given pedometers to keep track of how far they walk and run each day. The hope was that they would make it across Vancouver Island by the time the program wraps up June 12.

Logan Diamond and Tasmin Laal show off the pedometers they’ve been putting to good use at Cloverdale Traditional School.

“The original goal was just to cross Vancouver Island in 30 days,” Beddall said. “But these students are doing so well we’ve had to shift it up to crossing Canada because they’ve already walked so far. They did 904 kilometres in four days.”

Fresh from an in-class striding-and-exercise session led by Mrs. Penner, nine-year-old Solan Baragar said he knew just how far he and his friends had already travelled.

“We’ve walked across the Island and halfway back!”

He said his classmates are using their pedometers every day and having fun keeping track of how far they go.

Mrs. Penner said the students are full of enthusiasm for the Wellness Challenge, which also emphasizes healthy eating.

“It’s fantastic,” she said. “They love it. They’re actually moving.”

The students have even taken to doing high-step walking in the halls to maximize their movement, she said.

Beddall said the Wellness Challenge is a full-fledged community effort. Several businesses have given their support by supplying all of the pedometers and healthy snacks the program requires, and the Greater Victoria school board has been supportive since it was all just an idea.

He said a leadership program he was taking in Vancouver through Landmark Education inspired his plan.

“It centres around building a community project that makes a difference. I wanted to set it up in a way that kids could really stay interested and get motivated about physical fitness and nutrition.”

The program comes at time when health issues and their relation to diet and exercise are very topical, Beddall said.

“Diabetes rates are flying up, and childhood obesity is tied right in with that.”

The Wellness Challenge also fits into the goals of the province’s two-year-old ActNow B.C. initiative, which promotes a range of health- and fitness-related issues, Beddall said.

He said he had a lot of help getting the program up and running, particularly from Winona Pugh, and is hoping to do more in the future.

“We’re going to look at ways next year that we can build this up and include more schools.”