When:   Saturday, April 3, 2010

9:00am 5k Trail Run and 10:00am 1K Family Run

Immediately followed by the 59th Annual Stoneybrook Steeplechase

Where:  Carolina Horse Park

Why:    To benefit the Cancer CARE Fund of the Foundation of FirstHealth

Who:     YOU!!

Check it out on the website: www.runfortheribbons5k.com

Our Cancer CARE Committee is planning a 5k footrace and a 1k walk/run to compliment the 2010 Stoneybrook activities. Entitled, Run for the Ribbons, the race will feature colorful ribbons representing all cancer diagnoses and will occur just prior to horse races, bringing together everyone on a joyous day of fun, celebration and fund-raising.

100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Cancer CARE Fund which assists hundreds of patients from our very own community each year. Last year alone, we were able to assist over 400 patients and our 35 CARE-Net volunteers helped over 70 new patients who needed assistance with transportation, medications, food supplements, and a helping hand while they navigate an often overwhelming treatment process. I truly believe that each and every one of us has been effected by the devastation of a cancer diagnosis within our private lives;  be it family, friend, colleague or neighbor……

To make this event run as smoothly as possible, we are asking for volunteers to help out on the day of the race with a multitude of tasks. There is something for everyone! Volunteers for the footrace will receive parking passes to the volunteer lot, a general admission ticket for the entire day’s events (including the steeplechase) and a commemorative T-shirt.

PLEASE CONSIDER VOLUNTEERING FOR THIS FANTASTIC EVENT!!

Below is a list of volunteer opportunities. Please look at the list and see if there is a place for you and a friend or two. Then call me or email me with your name, both home & cell phone numbers, and a T-shirt size (s, m, l, xl). I would appreciate hearing from you before Friday, March 19th.  It promises to be an event you’ll be proud to be part of.

Sarah Bahner
695-1008
690-1597
sbbahner@nc.rr.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Pre-Race Registration                Post Race Refreshments
Race Day Set Up                Awards Ceremony
Race Day Registration            1K Course Positions
Runner/Walker Escorts (from parking)    Memory/Honor Table Hosts
5K Course Positions                Clean-Up
Water Aid Station
Finish Line Timers

Acceptable items include anything that is paper: All Christmas Paper and flattened boxes, paper grocery bags, telephone books, paperback books, junk mail, magazines, catalogs, shredded paper, flattened corrugated cardboard, office paper, and newspapers.

**Also accepting: Any type of Household and Rechargeable Batteries, Inkjet Cartridges, Cell Phones, diskettes, CDs, DVDs, and LAPTOP COMPUTERS.**

For additional information, contact Joan Neal, Executive Director, Keep Moore County Beautiful, Inc. at 947-3478 or by email at jneal@moorecountync.gov

    If I can never shoot another indoor photo, my feelings would not be hurt.  I love shooting photos outside in natural light.  Even on cloudy rainy days, I prefer being outdoors.  You are never supposed to take a photo looking towards the sun, but I do.  I’ve even posted some of those photos on here.  Sometimes, those shots come with the best shadows or diamonds playing on the surface of water. 

    Even night shots outside can be great.  They are harder to get, but how else can I get a shot of the full moon?  Or shots of snow falling at night?  I just don’t care for flash aided shots. 

    Today I am sharing some photos of camellias from my yard and some shots of the full moon last night.  Some of the camellias bear evidence of frost bite but it does not detract from their beauty.  The shots of the moon were through trees still bare of leaves and one through the pines.  Being born and raised here, I have pine tar running in my veins, I think.  Love my pines!  Therefore, I love shots of the moon through the pine trees.

    How do I get the night shots?  I turn my flash off or look for a setting (such as landscape) that is getting enough light directly from the moon for the camera to focus on.  Some of them work, some of them don’t.  Night shots cause the shutter speed to slow down, so I have to be careful about moving before the shutter closes.  Obviously the shots are not as clear as they would be in daylight, but that is the point, is it not?

    I find so many splashes of joy every day all around that it’s hard to narrow down to a few subjects.  So PLEASE, if you have questions, ask them!  If you have suggestions, share them!  If you have comments, make them!  If you would like more infor on any of the photos or would like to inquire about a copy, let me know!  Until next week, keep looking for those splashes of joy by capturing moments of beauty that will last forever!

NEW YORK (Feb. 18, 2010) – Columbia University Medical Center researchers studying the link between emotions and heart disease believe that their recent study, published in the latest issue of the European Society of Cardiology’s European Heart Journal, is the first to show a relationship between positive emotions and coronary heart disease.

In other words, being happy may be good for your heart, says Karina Davidson, Ph.D., the Herbert Irving Associate Professor of Medicine & Psychiatry and director of the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health, who led the research. Although it was observational research in a trial population that had suffered cardiac events, the study suggests that it might be possible to help prevent heart disease by enhancing people’s positive emotions.

Over a period of 10 years, Dr. Davidson and her colleagues followed 1,739 healthy adults (862 men and 877 women) who participated in the 1995 Nova Scotia Health Survey. At the start of the observational study, trained nurses assessed the participants’ risk of heart disease and the degree of expression of positive emotions, which is known as “positive affect.”

Positive affect is defined as the experience of pleasurable emotions such as joy, happiness, excitement, enthusiasm and contentment. These feelings are usually stable and trait-like, particularly in adulthood. After taking into account age, sex, other cardiovascular risk factors and negative emotions, the researchers found that, over the 10-year period, increased positive affect was associated with less risk of heart disease by 22 percent per point, on a five-point scale measuring levels of positive affect expression (ranging from “none” to “extreme”).

“We also found that if someone, who was usually positive, had some depressive symptoms at the time of the survey, this did not affect their overall lower risk of heart disease,” Dr. Davidson said. “As far as we know, this is the first prospective study to examine the relationship between clinically-assessed positive affect and heart disease.”

The researchers speculate about the possible mechanisms by which positive emotions might help confer long-term protection from heart disease. These include influence on heart-rate variability, sleeping patterns and smoking cessation.

“We have several possible explanations,” said Dr. Davidson. “First, those with positive affect may have longer periods of rest or relaxation physiologically. Second, those with positive affect may recover more quickly from stressors and may not spend as much time ‘re-living’ them, which in turn seems to cause physiological damage.”

“If trials support our findings, then these results will be incredibly important in describing specifically what clinicians and patients could do to improve health,” Dr. Davidson said. “However, it would be premature to make clinical recommendations without clinical trials to investigate the findings further.”
An observational study draws inferences about the possible effect of a treatment on subjects, where the assignment of subjects into a treated group (in this case, the group measured in the Nova Scotia Health Survey) versus a control group is outside the control of the investigator. However, randomized controlled trials of interventions to increase positive affect in patients with cardiovascular disease are now under way and should help determine the effectiveness of increasing positive affect on cardiovascular outcome.

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Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, pre-clinical and clinical research, in medical and health sciences education, and in patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Established in 1767, Columbia’s College of Physicians & Surgeons was the first institution in the country to grant the M.D. degree and is now among the most selective medical schools in the country. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and state and one of the largest in the United States. For more information, please visit www.cumc.columbia.edu.

     I had a great laugh this week.  A new acquaintance asked me if I ever take bad shots.  I couldn’t help it; I had to laugh.  Of course I do!!  Some are out of focus.  Some catch my eye at the moment but when I download, I wonder what I was thinking when I took the shot.  Sometimes, I just discover things going on that I did not notice when I was focused on one part of the picture.  Delete is my friend!

    Perhaps the only difference with me is that I take LOTS of photos, download, sort and delete.  Some things can be “reparied” or “improved” in Photoshop.  Some can not.  Some of my favorites that have been just slightly out of focus, I will add the “paint look” to and have a great photo.

    The same lady asked me the very question I addressed last week: how do you know a good shot when you see one?  You don’t always.  That is why I will shoot first and delete later.  She asked me for an example.  I told her she needed to come walk at the Southern Pines Reservoir with me sometime.  I will leave the Reservoir with 200-300 shots.  I will keep maybe 40-50.  And every time I go, I see something new.  But isn’t life like that?  Every day is different, we meet and greet different people, we go to different places and we think different thoughts.

    I have shared five photos today that I took on three different days – all at the Reservoir.  The biggest key to successful photography is keeping your eyes (and ears) open and then take the shot!!  Especially in this digital age.  You spend absolutely NO money unless  you print the photos.  So shoot away and create splashes of joy by capturing moments of beauty that will last forever!