Newspaper Stories

Forest Moon has been featured in several news stories.  Here are a few of them:

• "New cancer retreat awaits Act 250 permit" in The Brattleboro Reformer (May 2008)
• "Words to Live By: Writing Workshop Brings Emotional Healing To Cancer Patients" in The Healthcare News of Western Massachusetts (April 2008)
• Connections/Snippets in Heal (Spring 2008)
• "Beyond Cancer" in the Vermont Quarterly (Spring 2008)
• "Cancer survivors group receives $10,000 grant" in The Brattleboro Reformer (February 2007)
• "Hands on learning event rings a bell" in The Recorder (December 11, 2006)
• "Vulnerable" at MyBreastCancerNetwork.com (August 24, 2006)
• "Retreat helps cancer survivors with emotional post-recovery" in Connecticut Valley Spectator (August 24, 2006)
• "Cancer Retreat Center Planned in Whitingham" in The Deerfield Valley News (June 1, 2006)
• "Garden of Health" in The Brattleboro Reformer (April 2006)
• "Forest Moon Helps Cancer Survivors" in The Sunday Republican (March 2006)
• "Funds Boost Organization's Goal to Aid Cancer Survivors" in Daily Hampshire Gazette (December 2005)
• "Celebrating Survivorship" in The Women's Times (October 2005)
• "Coping with cancer's cloud of uncertainty" in The Recorder (February 2005)
• "Plan for cancer retreat center moves ahead" in The Brattleboro Reformer (January 2005)
• "Cancer survivor wants to use her experience to help others" in The Brattleboro Reformer (September 2004).

The Brattleboro Reformer (May 29, 2008 issue)

New cancer retreat awaits Act 250 permit

By NICOLE ORNE
Reformer Staff

WHITINGHAM -- When Cindy Blood and her husband Phillip found out about her breast cancer diagnosis in May of 2002, they had just bought a plot of land in Whitingham, and planned to build a home there.

Consumed with the day-to-day trials of cancer treatment, the Bloods were forced to halt their plans. But through their struggle, they saw that the land was meant for a different purpose.

They founded Forest Moon, a nonprofit organization aimed at improving the quality of life for cancer survivors and their families.

Now, six years later, in the same month as Cindy's diagnosis, the couple has applied for an Act 250 land use permit to construct a space for a cancer retreat and is awaiting final approval.

The retreat center will be a 4,000 square foot building off Sadawga Road. Nestled in the woods, Cindy and Phillip Blood believe the site is perfect to provide cancer survivors a chance to reflect and heal emotional and physical wounds.

"For us, the word retreat inherently means escape from all the stresses of everyday life," Cindy Blood said. "It's a very quiet dirt road and you sometimes don't hear traffic all day. The (Forest Moon) board really feels strongly about that setting. For me, personally, nature is the one thing that helps me relax."

The land is also conveniently located, Blood said, between a number of larger Vermont towns.

The whole idea of the retreat is to find anything that can help survivors deal with the aftereffects of cancer.

"The year after everything was done was the hardest part for me," Cindy Blood said. "I was surprised by how mentally challenging it was. I was constantly afraid of it coming back, wondering if I was going to live to be 40. There's all this emotional healing part to cancer."

She found that there were limited resources available to help cancer survivors after the medical work was done. Most of the resources go toward standard medical care, she said.

While Cindy Blood found support at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the drive was too long to be convenient in her schedule and the "talking piece" of traditional support groups did not work for her.

Survivors also deal with various physical effects of treatment and Blood found she needed a whole-body healing method. She began meditating and jogging.

"I kind of found my own ways to manage stress."

Vermont, the couple found, posed particular difficulties for cancer survivors. "People can drive up to an hour and a half to get to a treatment center," Cindy Blood said.

The retreat will offer a place where survivors and loved ones can come for a weekend to reflect and find a way of handling stress that speaks to them personally.

"The curriculum is really broad because we recognize that, for everyone, it's different," she said. From music to art, writing, cooking and meditation, the program will be open enough to fit with all the kinds of cancer.

"It's really designed to deal with the emotional side effects any survivor of cancer may deal with. It's a lot more of a mishmash of the different parts of the curriculum."

The couples retreats, Cindy Blood said, are the most popular, giving spouses or significant others a chance to learn how to help their partner through writing, meditation or massage.

"If you ask anyone what helped the most, they're going to say their husband or their family, their support system. The people who go through it are just as wrapped up as you are. It's a team effort," Cindy Blood said. "There's not a lot out there for a person dealing with the emotional journey, but there's often nothing for the loved one. That's a really important part for us."

With any retreat the bond formed among participants has been amazing, she said. "There's a sense that these people get it. Everyone else has moved on, but you're still in a place that is not always safe and happy. Other people at the retreats get that without you having to explain it."

People who have gone through the retreats e-mail each other after they leave, she said, particularly before going in for a test.

"There's a network of understanding about what scans are about, what that means to a cancer survivor," she said. "We all deal with having a headache or a back ache or being short of breath and immediately think it's the cancer. There's no real easy answer for dealing with it. There's always going to be stress involved."

After the organization finishes the permitting process, they will begin fundraising. Anyone interested in donating or volunteering can contact Cindy Blood at cindy@forestmoon.org, can call 802-380-4238 or can go to the Web site, www.forestmoon.org.

Nicole Orne can be reached at norne@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 277.

The Brattleboro Reformer (February 9, 2007 issue)

Cancer survivors group receives $10,000 grant

By PAUL H. HEINTZ
Reformer Staff

BRATTLEBORO -- Cindy Blood is one step closer to realizing her dream of creating a place where fellow cancer survivors can focus on their emotions after beating the disease.

Forest Moon, an organization Blood founded following her father's death and her own recovery from cancer, recently received a $10,000 grant from the Vermont Community Foundation.

The money is being used to hire Pam Roberts, a writing instructor and cancer survivor who has led Forest Moon workshops, as a part-time program director.

"This is our first paid staff member, so this is a real sign of growth for us as a new organization," Blood said.

Since it became operational last January, Forest Moon has sponsored a dozen day-long and overnight retreats for cancer survivors and their caregivers. Participants are introduced to a variety of activities, from yoga and physical exercise to writing and couples massage.

"The focus of our program is individuals focusing on their own healing," Blood said. "I was a cancer survivor myself so I can speak to it. There was very little available for emotional recovery."

Mary Conlon, program director of the Vermont Community Foundation, said that was one of the reasons the organization chose to help fund Forest Moon.

"It seems like they're doing very good work," she said. "In the application, they talk about studies that show cancer survivors' nonmedical needs are unmet in the current system. It seems like Forest Moon is filling an important niche for cancer survivors."

Also important to the their decision, said Conlon, was the organization's focus on Vermont and its work with the state's health department and area hospitals.

Though Blood currently runs Forest Moon from her home in Deerfield, Mass, she is originally from Brattleboro and hopes to build a 4,000-square-foot retreat center in Whitingham.

Initially, Blood hoped to build the facility before offering retreats, but after realizing the extent of the costs, she decided that "having the programs first made a heck of a lot of sense." In the meantime, events takes place in a variety of settings, many donated or loaned.

Blood hopes to construct the shell of the Whitingham facility next summer and complete the interior the following year.

"It's a pretty big project, and we want to do this debt-free," she said.

More immediately, Blood is hoping to hire a part-time development director, so that the organization can become more self-dependent.

"Part of this grant and the purpose of it is to free up my time," Blood said. She hopes that with the addition of one or two part-time employees, her "time get freed up to focus on fundraising and capacity-building."

In the meantime, Blood is continuing to encourage survivors and their loved ones to take the time to heal. The next retreat is scheduled for this weekend and will focus on "spiritual and emotional healing" for survivors and their spouses.

The Recorder (December 11, 2006 issue)

Hands-on learning event rings a bell

By JEREMY DIRAC
Greenfield Recorder Staff

12/11/2006 GREENFIELD -- The transcendent sounds of handbells dinged and donged throughout the First United Methodist Church's fellowship hall Sunday afternoon, evoking images of Christmas. 

Not all of the songs played quite sounded as intended, because the workshop was made up of some people who'd never tried handbells before, and some who couldn't read music. 

But lack of experience didn't prevent smiles and laughter from participants, a group whose lives were in some way touched by cancer.

"The ladies were so excited, they were going twice as fast as us," said Joanne Parsons, the leader of the Methodist bell choir which was providing instruction. Parsons was talking about a half-a-dozen women at one corner of the long table who, with 11 others, stood wearing gloves to prevent fingerprints from getting on shiny bell surfaces.

Parsons said that playing handbells is a team effort because if one person doesn't play their note, then the song doesn't come together.

Illustrating this, she started singing "Happy birthday (pause) you."  Someone has to play their note to have "Happy birthday to you," she said.

In between tries, Parsons walked over to help one of the participants ring her bell.

It's not a simple downward motion, she said. Act like you're scooping ice cream, Parsons told the woman.

The woman made the motion of scooping ice cream with her handbell, with no sound emerging.

Then Parsons illustrated a forward flick motion and when the woman mimicked her, suddenly a clear note jumped from her bell, and applause broke out from her fellows.

"Oh! Like I'm flicking water off something," the woman said.

One of the songs used for practice was "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know." Part of the group added their voices to the handbells to create a musical blend.

After a few recitations of "Jesus Loves Me," the group took a break to enjoy fudge, spice cake, Christmas cookies, Swedish bread, and juice that had been brought to the church.

Although the group didn't play any Christmas carols -- because they tend to be more complicated, Parsons said -- just the sound of bells made some participants think of the holiday.

"It definitely puts me in the Christmas spirit," said Susie Driver, who sat chatting with her friend, Melanie Fournier, during the break.

The bell-ringing workshop was one of several events run by the Forest Moon, a nonprofit program that celebrates surviving cancer through activities like writing, gardening, yoga, snowshoeing, massage and others.

The program can be contacted at (802) 380-4238 or cindy@forestmoon.org or phil@forestmoon.org.
 

MyBreastCancerNetwork.com (August 24, 2006)
http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/

Vulnerable

By PJ HAMMEL

I’ve just returned from a weekend retreat, and as I transition from that place–a spa visit for my inner self, as it were–back to life-as-usual, I wanted to share some thoughts.

Though the retreat was positioned as a gathering for cancer survivors and their caregivers, it really could have been for anyone–anyone who was willing to do some self-examination, that is. The setting was gorgeous: a beautiful boys’ prep school here in New Hampshire, absent the boys. It’s rural-lovely, situated on a point bisecting a large, secluded, and very quiet lake; we could hear the loons calling at odd hours, against a backdrop of whispering wind in the trees, and the occasional slap-slap-slap of waves against the dock. The facilitators were top-notch: two talented, caring women, experts in the mind-body connection and how it can work to help in our journey with cancer. And the participants came from all over a three-state area, each bringing their own stories: some as cancer survivors, some as caregivers to those survivors, and all as vulnerable human beings who’d been broadsided by a life-changing illness–and lived to tell the tale.

The key word here is vulnerable. The retreat included activities ranging from writing and art to dance and storytelling. And a common theme developed: vulnerability, and what you do with it. Yes, we’re all vulnerable to cancer; in the end, it’s probably a random roll of the dice that determines who gets it. But that’s not the vulnerability we faced this weekend. Instead, it was the vulnerability that comes with exposing your deepest fears, your most personal anguish, to the light of day. Standing up in front of 17 people you’ve never met, and saying, “I’m scared out of my wits, and I’m not brave at all; I’m a wimp.” Or, “I’m not who I appear to be; this is all a fake. The real me is awful.” Or, “I’m not in charge anymore. I was always the strong one, the superwoman, and now I have to ask for help.” Once you stick your neck out enough to admit your “shortcomings”–once you expose your vulnerability–then what?

First of all, believe that they’re not shortcomings, flaws, or anything else you might term these parts of yourself you don’t like. You are who you are, “warts and all.” Having cancer taught me to think like this early on; I’ve never been a fighter, and had no interest in “fighting” cancer. Instead, I accepted cancer as part of me, and decided we’d have to reach a compromise. “You can stay, but you have to hide and not bother me. Go lurk somewhere; just leave the other cells alone.” Now, 4 1/2 years later, I’m living with cancer, the key word being “living.”

Second, look at these “itchy” parts of you as opportunities for growth. If you were perfect, what could you ever strive for, or work towards? Dealing with cancer teaches you, sooner or later, that you’re NOT a superwoman. That it’s OK to accept help. Heck, it’s even OK to ASK for help–a big step for many of us, if we’ve always seen ourselves as the chief caregivers, never the care-receivers. People are good and want to help; how wonderful that cancer has made you vulnerable, and gives them the opportunity to do so!

Going through cancer treatment also maps out for you the boundaries of your strength. And guess what? Maybe being a “wimp” was the perfect reaction to chemo. It’s humbling, it’s debilitating, and you were savvy enough to accept help, rather than march through it on your own, only to fall under the weight of that lonely burden later on.

Finally, use your own vulnerability to recognize and accept it in others. We all have very high standards for the world, don’t we? “Should” is way too common a word in our vocabulary. Perhaps, when we soften our own personal standards–when we accept and love ourselves exactly as we are–we can more easily do the same for those around us. And think how that might change the world!

Me, I learned something very important this weekend: how to dance. I was a wallflower growing up, and never got asked. But, in the supportive, loving setting of this retreat, I admitted I couldn’t dance, and went out there and did it anyway. And within an hour, to the strains of Motown, I was dancing. Right into the next part of my life.

Forest Moon, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Vermont and western Massachusetts, offers a number of retreats and workshops throughout the year for those touched by cancer.

Connecticut Valley Spectator (August 24, 2006 issue)


Retreat helps cancer survivors with emotional post-recovery

By JOE COTE
Connecticut Valley Spectator Staff

CANAAN — Completing chemotherapy and radiation treatments, healing scars from mastectomies and other surgeries, even receiving a clean bill of health isn’t the end of the battle with cancer.
There are emotional and psychological scars to heal as well.
    Just ask Cindy and Phil Blood, who shared their stories with a group of cancer survivors from around New England at a cancer survivors’ renewal retreat at Cardigan Mountain School last weekend.
    The Bloods founded Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship in 2004 and started hosting weekend- and day-long retreats this past January. The retreats focus on reducing stress and increasing hope through a variety of activities such as meditation, art therapy, expressive writing, and an appreciation of nature.
    The Canaan retreat was led by Deborah Steele, support services coordinator at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and Susan Bauer-Wu, a nurse and the director of the Phyllis F. Cantor Center for Research in Nursing and Patient Care at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
    “It’s rare that you’re cured of cancer,” Steele said. “The experience of having cancer and going through treatment leaves an emotional deposit, if you will. You don’t just close your eyes and say ‘I’m not going to think about it anymore.’”
    Hanover resident and five-year survivor of invasive breast cancer PJ Hamel, 53, said the techniques and activities she learned over the weekend will be a blessing when she returns to her normal, more hectic life. She and other participants said the weekend left them drained, but at the same time more rested mentally.
    “It was like going to a spa, but it was an inner beauty trip,” Hamel said. “It’s like how I imagine you feel after a marathon, but I feel it emotionally. I’m taking away that you don’t have to be stressed. It’s a choice.”
    Stress can be a big factor for cancer survivors, one overlooked too often by those outside the survivor or medical communities, Hamel said. One woman at the retreat wore a T-shirt that read “I Didn’t Survive Cancer to Die of Stress.”
    Joanne Parsons, 56, of Greenfield, Mass., said that if nothing else, the weekend gave her a chance to catch her breath and let her think about her life after cancer.
    “It provides a safe environment to express what’s really going on,” she said. “That can be hard with family and friends because they just don’t understand. (Other participants) know where I’m coming from.”
    The Bloods recognized the lack of support services, particularly for rural survivors, after Cindy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003 at the age of 29, while both of them were teaching at Cardigan Mountain.
    “There’s really a lack of services for the emotional impact,” Cindy said. “Our goal is really to improve the quality of life of cancer survivors and their loved ones.”
    Hamel said she’s grateful to have found a community of survivors. In fact, she said, if she could choose, she would go through being diagnosed with cancer all over again because of the way it’s opened her eyes and led her to so many new friends.
    “I would choose to have cancer again because of what I’ve been through,” she said. “There’s just a huge community around cancer. It’s woken me up to helping others. It’s made me a much better person.”
    “(Forest Moon) really is giving a service that’s hard to find,” Hamel said, adding that there’s lots of attention given to cancer research and treatment, to everything “except the person who is living that life. Being a cancer survivor is a big part of who we are now. It’s changed our lives.”
    Based in Whitingham, Vt., Forest Moon offers retreats and seminars at a number of sites throughout Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, but is seeking permits to build a 4,000-square-foot facility in Whitingham, Cindy said.
    Forest Moon depends completely on donations, and last weekend’s retreat was no different. Cardigan Mountain donated the use of its facilities, and the Dartmouth Organic Farm and the Lebanon Co-op donated food. Along with a $3,000 anonymous donation, those gifts made it possible to offer the two-day retreat for $25, according to a release from the organization.
    To contact Forest Moon and Cindy and Phil Blood, or to donate, call 802-380-4238 or visit www.forestmoon.org.

Joe Cote can be reached at 603-298-7755

Deerfield Valley News (June 1, 2006 issue) 

Cancer Retreat Center Planned in Whitingham

By MIKE ELDRID
Deerfield Valley News Staff

WHITINGHAM- A 72-acre parcel on Whitingham’s remote southern border will soon be home to a retreat for cancer patients, thanks to the work and dedication of Cindy Blood.

Blood was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002, shortly after she and her husband Phil purchased the property. At that time the couple, both educators, were living in New Hampshire. We were in a rural community, just like communities here in Vermont, a half-hour drive from any major treatment center, she says. And I found there was a real lack of support services, and I started thinking about creating a nonprofit organization that would serve the underserved rural patients.

The Bloods realized their secluded 72 acres on Saddada Road would be the perfect place for a retreat program. In 2004 Blood’s father, Brattleboro Realtor Gil Parker, died of cancer. In that same year, the Bloods created Forest Moon, a nonprofit organization for cancer survivors. The couple moved to Brattleboro, to be closer to Blood’s mother, and Phil Blood found work at Deerfield Academy while Cindy Blood devoted her time to establishing Forest Moon.

Blood says the permits for the building are already in place, and she hopes to break ground on the organization’s planned 4,000-square-foot retreat homestead next summer, with a tentative finish date for 2009. Blood says the center is designed to have minimal impact on the environment, from building materials to household cleaners, something she says is important for cancer survivors to learn about. Our concern is to be light on the land and avoid toxic materials in the construction process, she says. Because we’re talking about a haven for cancer survivors we have to look at every material we use and make sure we’re not contributing more carcinogens to the environment.

The building will emphasize solar power systems, and even the relatively small size of the building, 4,000 square feet rather than a building of 10,000 square feet or more, is intended to minimize impact. It’s also a subtle educational tool, she says. If you spend a day or a weekend here, you’ll find ways you can avoid carcinogens in your own home.

Forest Moon’s retreat program is modeled after similar, successful programs. Blood says the goal is to involve patients in activities that give them the tools to take control of their own physical and mental healing at home. Forest Moon has been working with Susan Bauer-Wu, a researcher at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, to develop a wide range of therapeutic activities. From yoga to writing, gardening, cooking, and physical exercise, she says. Our next retreat is a hiking program.

Although the organization’s Whitingham home is still in the funding phase, they’ve been holding retreats at various venues around northwestern Massachusetts and the surrounding area. There are one-day programs that focus on one therapeutic activity, but Blood says overnight programs that focus on several activities are Forest Moon’s calling card. For people who live in remote and rural areas and have to travel to participate in the retreats, Blood says, the overnight programs make more sense.

We’ll introduce people to a smattering of different activities so everyone feels, by the end of the retreat, that something spoke to them, she says. At the end, our goal is to assist participants with setting goals for themselves.

Blood says the retreats provide participants not only with a chance to focus on an activity that will aid in their healing, but also to interact with other people with similar experiences. We felt isolated, she says of her own experience with cancer. We hope to provide people with a community they can turn to, a place where they realize they aren’t alone in their fears and anxieties, that will validate them.

Blood says Forest Moon provides their services at no cost, or minimal cost, to retreat participants. That has meant the organization has had to maintain two different fundraising campaigns, one to fund their current programs, and another to build their new center.

Forest Moon’s funding goal for their Whitingham retreat center is $670,000. To date, the organization has raised $70,000, mostly through a series of small fundraising events. But Blood says she’s ready to start tackling fundraising in bigger chunks. We’ve raised enough to do the engineering plans and the permitting, she says. But at this point we’re looking to hire a professional fundraiser to continue with the effort.

Blood says the strategy will be to find bigger donations from large foundations and corporations for construction of the retreat, while turning to the local communities and businesses to sponsor the retreats.

The organization is also looking for volunteers, and Blood says there’s no limit to the talents Forest Moon can use. Anyone interested in learning more about Forest Moon, making a donation, or volunteering their time, can contact Blood through Forest Moon’s website, www.forestmoon.org, or call her at (802) 380-4238.

Everyone I’ve met has been touched by cancer, and everyone has been supportive of having something in this area she says. The hill towns of western Massachusetts and central Vermont are in an area where there is a lot of need, but not a lot of resources to turn to. We want to focus on a retreat model that will be accessible to the rural population.

Sunday Republican (March 12, 2006 issue)
http://www.masslive.com/republican/

Forest Moon Helps Cancer Survivors

By RONNI GORDON
Republican Staff

On New Year's Day, a new group for cancer survivors kicked off its programming with "A Survivor's Snowshoe" at Monument Mountain in Great Barrington.

Eileen M. O'Brien, a 45-year-old chef with advanced colon cancer, was among the small group traipsing through the woods for some three hours.

It was a welcome distraction from the world of cancer.

"Being outdoors with them was just wonderful. It was good for body and soul," the Florence woman said of the group's founders, Deerfield residents Cindy and Phil Blood.

It's the kind of activity that the couple plans to continue offering through their nonprofit organization, "Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship."

"It was a terrific symbolic way to start the year," Cindy Blood said.

They plan to offer different types of programs, many held outdoors, for individuals with cancer and their primary caregivers in rural New England. Both have experience with outdoor education and trips and with navigating cancer treatment while living in the country.

They were living in rural New Hampshire when, at age 29, Cindy was diagnosed with breast cancer. Dealing with a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation, she also looked for support groups that had more to offer than the traditional ones at a nearby hospital, and for help in managing her stress when at home.

"We felt isolated," she said.

And she figured that a lot of people in rural areas felt the same way.

They manage Forest Moon from their home in Deerfield, where her husband is associate director of admissions at Deerfield Academy. Programs take place in Vermont, New Hampshire and Western Massachusetts.

The couple incorporated Forest Moon in 2004. They plan on building a cancer retreat center in Whitingham, Vt., on land that they purchased, and are currently raising money for the project. In the meantime, they have scheduled events at various locations through August. Some events are free and others have small registration fees, with financial assistance available.

"The outdoors has always been for both of us a haven and place to go to rejuvenate," she said. "We love backpacking, the simple aspects of life, and we've always intended on incorporating simplicity into our curriculum because there is something therapeutic to returning to your roots in nature."

Last month, Forest Moon had a full house - six couples - at its free overnight "Couple's Retreat" at Nine Mountain Retreats in Plainfield. Activities included guided meditation, couples' exercises, snowshoeing, writing and guided couples' massages.

Upcoming events, scheduled in Vermont and New Hampshire, include an introduction to hypnosis and guided imagery and retreats focusing on gardening, cooking, hiking and healing.

For more information, call (802) 380-4238 or visit www.forestmoon.org.

Ronnie Gordon can be reached at rgordon@repub.com.

© 2006 The Republican Company.  All rights reserved.  Used with permission.

Daily Hampshire Gazette (December 13, 2005 issue)

Funds boost organization’s goal to aid cancer survivors

By CRIS CARL
Gazette Staff

DEERFIELD - Forest Moon, an organization dedicated to serving cancer survivors and their caregivers has received grant funding recently that will allow it to take significant steps towards the vision of its president and co-founder, Cynthia Blood.
Blood is a cancer survivor who faced the disease while in her 20s. At about the same time her father was also diagnosed with cancer. The two went through grueling treatments together and Blood came to realize how few support services there were for survivors and their caregivers.

''There was just nothing out there for my husband while I was going through this,'' said Blood who lived at the time in rural Vermont. ''And there's not a lot of services out there for the emotional journey that cancer survivors have to go through.''
Currently, Blood, now 33, and her husband, Phillip, live in faculty housing at Deerfield Academy where she also has her base of operations. Blood, who had been working full time until the move to Deerfield, gave up her job to focus on her new venture, Forest Moon.

Blood runs the organization along with her husband and several other people. She said their goal is to improve the quality of life for cancer survivors.
To that end, the couple is building a retreat center, which will be called the ''Healing Haven,'' in Whitingham, Vermont. They hope to have the center completed by some time in 2007.

The organization has been fundraising for both the new retreat center and to be able to hold free retreat weekends locally for cancer survivors and their caregivers.
To date Forest Moon has received over $75,000 in donations, with a $10,000 grant from the Rudducs Foundation and $10,000 from the Gilder Foundation. The total anticipated cost of the retreat center is $670,000.

Forest Moon will be offering its first free retreats beginning on Sunday, Jan. 1 at Monument Mountain in Great Barrington from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The program will involve a guided two-mile snowshoeing trek on a gentle trail with spectacular views.
No prior experience is required and all equipment will be provided. The retreat is limited to 12 participants.

The next offering from Forest Moon will be a free overnight couple's retreat from Saturday, Feb. 11 at 9 a.m. to Sunday, Feb. 12 at 1 p.m. at Nine Mountain Retreats in Plainfield.

During the retreat participants will be introduced to evidence-based activities that reduce stress while increasing hope and strength. Activities will include, guided meditations, couple's exercises, snowshoeing, expressive writing, and guided couple's massages. The retreat is limited to six couples.

''Until the center is completed, retreats will be all over the place,'' said Blood.
Blood said that another component of Forest Moon is a strong commitment to ecology and environmental awareness. The center will be built with the most environmentally friendly materials and even the cleaning products that will be used will be non-toxic.
Blood said she feels toxic materials in the environment have helped to contribute to cancer numbers and that creating a healthier environment also helps survivors to feel more in control at a time when they feel the least in control.

For information about Forest Moon, retreat registration, or to make a donation go online at forestmoon.org, or write P.O. Box 164, Jacksonville, VT 05342 or call Blood at (802) 380-4238.

Cris Carl can be reached at ccarl@gazettenet.com.

The Recorder (February 1, 2005 issue)

Coping with cancer's cloud of uncertainty

By RICHIE DAVIS
Recorder Staff

DEERFIELD - As she went to bed that night in April 2002, Cynthia Blood's mind was swimming with details about the property she and husband, Phillip, were buying in Whitingham, Vt.

After poring over books about house construction, the boarding-school math teacher was having a restless night in their Canaan, N.H., home. That's when she discovered the lump in her left breast.

Feeling healthy enough to run a 10-kilometer race the following week, Blood's fears were confirmed by a mammogram and ultrasound within three weeks, and within a month she had a mastectomy. Then, over a period of six months, she went through round after round of chemotherapy. And then came the radiation therapy, which ended the following January.

The prognosis: a 50-50 chance of surviving "cancer free" for 10 years. Then, more waiting.

"That's when it was hardest for us," said the 32-year-old woman, seated on the living room couch in the Old Deerfield home to which they moved last July. "All of a sudden, after battling through the treatments and feeling you're a warrior doing something to help your situation, then there's nothing. How do you reconcile the fact that now you're just sitting waiting for your fate to be upon you and not doing anything to help yourself?"

Despite the anxieties, the Bloods figure they had better coping skills than many couples might have. She'd been watching the decline of her father, who was battling an incurable form of lymphoma, and took a cue from how both her parents dealt with his imminent death, which came last March after a struggle of five or six years.

"I feel we were very blessed with coping mechanisms: how we deal with the fear of recurrence, how a partner deals with the fear of losing a loved one. I couldn't help but think about all those people wrestling with the same fears, and some of them then taking medication for anxiety, and the complications from that."

The couple left their jobs at Cardigan Mountain School, in fact, to be closer to her family in Brattleboro, Vt. Phillip, who had taught English and worked in admissions, found a job in the admissions office at Deerfield Academy, and she decided to volunteer full-time on a project they developed while at a home-construction workshop: a retreat for other cancer survivors and their caregivers.

Forest Moon

Beginning with a "Celebration of Life" last October that involved more than 100 Deerfield Academy students and participation by the entire junior varsity football team, the Bloods have already raised $18,000 toward a $650,000 goal to build what they envision as "Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship" to help couples like themselves.

By selling pink plastic bracelets, planning an April fund-raising auction and applying for grants from the Lance Armstrong Foundation and other groups, the couple hopes to raise the first $350,000 by the end of this year. They would like to break ground on a 35,000-square-foot center as soon as the ground thaws in 2006, and open the retreat center that December.

"After we had been through the treatments," said Blood, who had her last radiation therapy in January 2003, "we experienced what we felt was a void in support services for a family. Being young in a rural area, we just felt really disconnected from the cancer community. When we went through the toughest times, after the treatments, that's when it became so obvious there was not enough in place to help people with the emotional, physical and spiritual healing that has to take place when those thoughts are simmering."

At four-day retreats their planned nonprofit organization would offer 12 times a year, the Bloods envision leading four participating pairs of survivors and caregivers in activity-filled events to help point the way for living under the cloud of cancer.

"I'm fascinated by how society has developed the perception that cancer is either here or gone," said Blood, who returns for checkups every three months. She's on two forms of medication as well as a third medicine to prevent declining bone density she's experiencing as a side effect of a chemically-induced early menopause. "There are very few people who can say they are 100 percent cured. It's a cloud that stays with you."

Before and after each of the bone scans, chest X-rays and other tests even while in remission, she said, "You're petrified with every ache and pain you feel - that lump in your armpit, that stomach ache."

Her 41-year-old husband, recalled, "It was like a roller coaster for me as caregiver."

Each retreat will be "a very positive, upbeat weekend," with cooking, art, hiking or skiing on the 72-acre property, and some form of mindfulness meditation - all intended to focus the energies of all sorts of cancer survivors and all varieties of caregivers on good nutrition, physical fitness and other strategies for living fully, despite that cloud.

"I judge myself by how long I can go without worrying about my life," said Blood. "There was a time when it was five minutes. Now I can go two or three days without personal fear.

By turning to activities which mind-body research now shows can have a dramatic effect on recovery -music, breathing, physical activity and involvement in projects - the Bloods felt they were taking control of their own lives.

Rather than offering counseling or even formal discussion groups, Blood said the proposed center will provide a way for survivors and caregivers to interact as separate groups

"Forest Moon will be a haven for people to be able to express themselves, but it won't be forced," said Blood, who didn't join cancer support groups while undergoing treatment but instead contacted other young women through a Web-based Young Survivors Coalition, some of whom have become close friends.

Blood said she hopes the bonds made by Forest Moon survivors and caregivers during workshops may continue in the weeks and months afterward, since participants would all be from rural Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Blood has four Deerfield Academy students working with her as part of the school's community service program, doing research, preparing materials and beginning work on the April auction she hopes will raise another $15,000.

Planning for the new center - which would incorporate solar and other "sustainable energy" features and non-toxic materials to emphasize the importance of taking control where possible to prevent future cancers - has given the Bloods their own needed sense of purpose.

It's also raised an obvious question for the 32-year-old cancer survivor, who's now made it through the first two years of the decade she was told she has 50-50 odds of surviving.

Even if her cancer returns, she said, she hopes she would have enough time remaining to see her Forest Moon dream realized.

"It's kind of in the back of your mind. But I remind myself: what kept me going the first time was that I had something to strive toward," she said, referring to the house-building workshop the couple attended. Planning. "It gave me purpose to think of the future. If something awful were to happen, I would keep myself focused and driven, full of purpose. That would be a blessing."

Yet as they "keep plugging away" and trying to remain realistic in their plans, she remains hopeful - and active.

"If it's 50-50, why can’t I be the 50 that makes it?" she asks. "That's what cancer is - a big head game."

You can reach Richie Davis at rdavis@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext. 269

Brattleboro Reformer (January 5, 2005 issue)

Plan for cancer retreat center moves ahead
By MIKE KALIL
Reformer Staff

Wednesday, January 05, 2005 - WHITINGHAM -- A couple who plans to build a cancer retreat here has nearly doubled its year-end goal, and hopes to have around $350,000 raised by 2006.

Cindy and Phil Blood of Deerfield, Mass., hope to start building Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship by May 2006. The retreat would be for cancer survivors and caregivers.

The wife and husband hope to use alternative energy on its grounds.

They have so far raised about $18,000, Cindy Blood said Monday. They hope to cut their $650,000 goal in half by the end of the year. The two have recruited four Deerfield Academy students for help.

The couple had sought to raise $10,000 by year's end, which would help them jump-start their campaign to get grants. They hope to open the retreat sometime in 2006, but have yet to get permits.

They are in the planning stages of an auction, where Cindy Blood hopes to raise $15,000. The auction will be held sometime around April, possibly on the Deerfield Academy campus in Massachusetts.

Then, they'll begin canvassing towns surrounding Whitingham for donations, she said.

At the academy, money was raised selling bracelets, she said. The couple is working with four high school students -- a sophomore, two juniors and a senior -- who are in the academy's community service program.

"They're just unbelievably bright and enthusiastic," Cindy Blood said.

The couple is campaigning for foundation grants and have not done much with the Whitingham property yet, she said.

The couple got the property with the help of Gilbert Dale Parker of Brattleboro, who died at age 60 of cancer.

Cindy Blood was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 29 and has since recovered. She is working on the project full-time.

The couple hopes to serve four pairs of primary caregivers and survivors at a time. Including the Bloods, it would be 10 people at the retreat for four days and three nights. They say there's a lack of support for survivors, who do not know whether their cancer will come back.

Donations can be mailed to Forest Moon: Celebrating Suvivorship, P.O. Box 164, Jacksonville, VT 05342.

Brattleboro Reformer (September 20, 2004 issue)

Cancer Survivor Wants to Use her Experience to Help Others
By MIKE KALIL
Reformer Staff

BRATTLEBORO - At age 29, Cindy Blood was a rarity: a woman living with breast cancer.

The odds are very slim for a woman in her late 20s to get breast cancer. And her unlikely diagnosis was one in a string of events that made her want to help cancer survivors.

Just before being that, she and husband Phil Blood obtained land in Whitingham in spring 2002.

About two years later, Cindy’s father, Gilbert Dale Parker, died at age 60 of cancer. Parker, a Brattleboro resident, helped the couple get the land.

All these events led to the couple’s desire to build a retreat for cancer survivors and their caregivers. They plan to build it on the same property Parker helped them get.

Cindy Blood, who grew up in Brattleboro, hopes to service four survivors with their primary caregivers at a time. Counting the couple, that would make 10 people. They want to keep it small and short duration - four days, three nights - so people can get time off from work.

At the retreat, the group would support one another. She wants it to be a "healthy haven," a place where the patrons have similar experiences. "We really had a lot of exposure to the disease in the last few years and one of the things we noticed is that there was really a void in the medical community," said Cindy Blood, now 32, who now lives in Deerfield, Mass., with her husband.

That void, she said, is the lack of support for cancer survivors and their caregivers - those who have anxiety not knowing if the cancer will return. Her cancer went into remission, but everyone has a risk of recurrence. She said hers is pretty big.

"She is fine, but you go through all these tumultuous ups and downs," said Phil Blood, 40. "Every little ache and pain sets off alarms."

Cindy Blood said there’s a misconception that cancer survivors immediately have a clean bill of health after beating the disease. That is not the case, and cancer survivors know this all too well, she said.

"It’s really difficult to be able to manage that anxiety," she said.

The couple is in the start-up stage of creating the retreat  - to be called Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship. They said they have officially become incorporated, but that’s the easy part.

The harder parts remain: getting permits, fiddling with Act 250 and fund-raising. With everything combined, they hope to open the retreat in 2006, but also hope to raise around $10,000 at an Oct. 10 fund-raiser at their Deerfield home. To set up shop, they want around $100,000.

The $10,000, they hope, will jump-start their grant applications. That way they can say they actually have some money, and show they are serious about the project.

Whatever happens, they don’t plan to start building until May 2006.

Cindy Blood said they’re attempting to create their own niche here: support for cancer survivors, and those who care for them. Phil Blood considers himself a primary caregiver, since he helped his wife through the ordeal.

"There’s nothing that I’ve come across that includes that support person with the survivor," Cindy Blood said. "That’s a real important aspect for us."

For Cindy Blood, this is her work. She’s taking it on as a full-time job, while her husband works in the administrative office in Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts.

Throughout the months, she’ll research alternative energy resources for the retreat. She’s thinking about solar and wind energy. She wants it to be as toxin-free and environmentally friendly as possible - less headaches, more earthly.

Donations can be mailed to: Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship, P.O. Box 164, Jacksonville, VT, 05342.

Mike Kalil can be reached at mkalil@reformer.com.

---

Press Releases

• "Forest Moon Announces a Weekend Renewal Retreat for Those Touched by Cancer" (January 2008)
• "Kimball Union Academy to Host Forest Moon Retreat for Individuals Affected by Cancer" (January 2008)
• "Renewing the Spirit Retreat for Women with Cancer in Waitsfield" (October 2007)
• "Forest Moon Offers a Cooking Retreat for Cancer Survivors and their Loved Ones (October 2007)
• "Cancer Renewal Retreat to Take Place at Cardigan Mountain School" (August 2007)
• "Forest Moon Receives $15,267 in Grants from Four Foundations" (May 2007)
• "Forest Moon Announces a Weekend Retreat for Men With Cancer" (April 2007)
• "Forest Moon Announces the Appointment of Pamela Roberts as Program Director" (April 2007)
• "A Couples' Renewal Retreat for Individuals with Cancer and their Partners/Spouses" (April 2007)
• "Forest Moon Announces $10,000 Grant From The Vermont Community Foundation" (January 2007)
• "Forest Moon Announces Winter 2007 Retreats for Cancer Survivors" (December 2006)
• "Forest Moon Awarded Two $10,000 Foundation Grants" (November 2005)
• "Forest Moon Unveils First Program Offerings For Cancer Survivors and Caregivers" (November 2005)
   

---

FOREST MOON ANNOUNCES A WEEKEND RENEWAL RETREAT FOR THOSE TOUCHED BY CANCER

 

        DEERFIELD, Mass., Jan. XX, 2007… Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for cancer survivors and their families and friends throughout rural New England, is pleased to announce a Weekend Renewal Retreat for individuals with cancer and an accompanying family member or friend.  The retreat is sponsored in part by Rays of Hope and The Roundhouse. 

The Weekend Renewal Retreat will take place from 5 p.m. on Fri., Feb. 15, 2008 to 1 p.m. on Sun., Feb. 17, 2008 at The Roundhouse in Colrain, Mass (www.roundhouseculture.com).  During the retreat, participants will be introduced to evidence-based activities that reduce stress while increasing hope and strength.  Activities will include guided meditations, snowshoeing, expressive writing, creative arts, and goal setting.  Participants will have ample opportunity to explore the magical setting of The Roundhouse while reflecting on living in balance with cancer.  The retreat is $25 per person (which includes food and lodging) and financial aid is available.  The retreat is limited to 20 participants.  While Rays of Hope funding reserves 10 of those spots for western Mass residents affected by breast cancer, the remaining 10 spaces are open to individuals with any type of cancer.  

Facilitators of the overnight retreat are Deborah Steele, MA; and Elana Rosenbaum, LICSW, BCD.  Ms. Steele has been facilitating healing retreats for those touched by cancer for fourteen years. She is the Support Services Coordinator at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center (at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center) and is a 15-year survivor of cancer.  Ms. Rosenbaum is a cancer survivor and founder of Mindfuliving.  A former senior instructor in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the University of Massachusetts, she now consults at cancer centers/hospitals and facilitates retreats.

To register for the Weekend Renewal Retreat, please contact Pam Roberts at (413) 625-2402 or pam@forestmoon.org.

            Founded in January 2004 by breast cancer survivor Cindy Blood and her husband Phil Blood, Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the quality of life for cancer survivors and their families and friends in rural New England.  Forest Moon offers affordable full-day, overnight, and weekly support programs in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Western Massachusetts.  Further information about the organization is available at www.forestmoon.org.

 

 

KIMBALL UNION ACADEMY TO HOST FOREST MOON RETREAT FOR INDIVIDUALS AFFECTED BY CANCER

JACKSONVILLE, VT, January XX, 2008… Forest Moon:  Celebrating Survivorship, a nonprofit organization out of Whitingham, VT, is pleased to announce its Renewing the Spirit Retreat.  The free retreat is taking place at Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, NH on Saturday, January 26 from 10am to 4pm and is open to individuals who have received a cancer diagnosis and an accompanying family member or friend.  The goal of this full-day retreat is to facilitate emotional and spiritual healing by bringing together people who have been touched by cancer to explore and share their journey through the use of writing and art.  No previous art or writing experience is required.

 The retreat will be facilitated by Deb Steele, Coordinator of Support Services at Dartmouth Hitchcock’s Norris Cotton Cancer Center, and writer and artist Pam Roberts, Forest Moon’s Program Director. Both are cancer survivors.

The weekend is sponsored in part by a grant from The Vermont.New Hampshire Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and by Kimball Union Academy.  There is a $5 registration fee per person to attend the retreat, which is otherwise free.  Financial assistance is available. 

The mission of Forest Moon is to improve the quality of life for cancer survivors and their loved ones in Vermont and surrounding states by offering retreats that introduce evidence-based therapeutic activities and help individuals set goals to promote their own healing at home.  Retreats are either free of cost or require only a modest registration fee.  Retreats are held at various locations in Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

To register for the Renewing the Spirit retreat at Kimball Union Academy, please contact Pam Roberts at 413-625-2402 or pam@forestmoon.org.  More information about Forest Moon can be found at www.forestmoon.org.  

 

 

RENEWING THE SPIRIT RETREAT FOR WOMEN WITH CANCER TO TAKE PLACE AT THE YOGA LOFT IN WAITSFIELD

JACKSONVILLE, VT, September XX, 2007… Forest Moon:  Celebrating Survivorship, a nonprofit organization out of Whitingham, VT is hosting the Renewing the Spirit Retreat for Women with Cancer.  The free retreat is taking place at the Yoga Loft in Waitsfield, VT on Saturday, October 20 from 10am to 4pm and is open to women who have received a cancer diagnosis and an accompanying female family member or friend.  Renewing the Spirit provides a special time and place for self-exploration, connection, and healing.  In the company of other women, participants learn tools to bring balance to their lives.  Some of the activities include:  relaxation techniques, creative arts, and adaptive yoga.

 The retreat will be facilitated by Ellen Fein.  Ellen is a licensed clinical social worker, registered yoga teacher and cancer survivor.  Combining mind/body techniques, counseling, coaching, and yoga, Ellen works as a Cancer Coach in central Vermont supporting individuals whose lives are touched by cancer.   She enjoys the out-of-doors, travel, learning, music, friends and yoga.

The weekend is sponsored in part by a grant from The Vermont.New Hampshire Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  Easy Street Café is donating lunch for participants in memory of former co-owner Kat Perera.  There is a $5 registration fee per person to attend the retreat, which is otherwise free.  Financial assistance is available.  Cancer survivors are encouraged to bring a female family member or friend with them to this retreat. 

The mission of Forest Moon is to improve the quality of life for cancer survivors and their loved ones in Vermont and surrounding states by offering retreats that introduce evidence-based therapeutic activities and help individuals set goals to promote their own healing at home.  Retreats are either free of cost or require only a modest registration fee.  Retreats are held at various locations in Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

To register for the Renewing the Spirit retreat at the Yoga Loft, please contact Pam Roberts at 413-625-2402 or pam@forestmoon.org.  More information about Forest Moon can be found at www.forestmoon.org.  

 

 

FOREST MOON OFFERS A COOKING RETREAT FOR CANCER SURVIVORS AND THEIR LOVED ONES

 

WHITINGHAM, VT, October 16, 2007…Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship, a Windham County non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for cancer survivors and their loved ones throughout rural New England, is offering a Cooking Retreat For Cancer Survivors and Their Loved Ones on Sunday, November 11, 2007, between the hours of   3:00 – 7:00 pm.  The event will take place at the West Village Meeting House in Brattleboro, VT and is sponsored in part by Thomas Thompson Trust. 

In the company of others who are touched by cancer, participants will learn to prepare a simple, healthy meal with a Polish flair.  Chef Andrzej Mikijaniec will facilitate this hands-on retreat.  Andrzej has been a chef at the Russian Tea Room in New York City and is now at Amy’s Café in Brattleboro.  The day will conclude with food and fellowship, as participants enjoy the feast they created.

            There is a $5 registration fee per person for this program and pre registration is required (financial assistance available).  To register for the program, and for more information about Forest Moon, contact Pam Roberts at (413) 625-2402 or pam@forestmoon.org.  On the Web at www.forestmoon.org.

 

CANCER RENEWAL RETREAT TO TAKE PLACE AT CARDIGAN MOUNTAIN SCHOOL
August 17-19, 2007

 CANAAN, NH, June XX, 2007… Forest Moon:  Celebrating Survivorship, a nonprofit organization out of Whitingham, VT is hosting Renewing the Spirit, the 2^nd annual overnight retreat for cancer survivors and their families and friends, at Cardigan Mountain School in Canaan, NH from Friday, August 17 at 5pm to Sunday, August 19 at 1pm.  Renewing the Spirit provides a special place for self-exploration, connection, and healing.  During the retreat, participants are guided through a variety of activities that have been shown to reduce stress and anxiety while increasing hope and strength.  Some of the activities include:  walking, mindfulness meditation, writing, art, and free time to enjoy the beautiful Canaan Street Lake and views of Mt. Cardigan.  After reflecting on living in balance with a cancer diagnosis, participants set goals to promote their continued healing at home.  One of the participants from the 2006 retreat at Cardigan said the weekend “was a wonderful renewing, refreshing, enlightening experience.  It gave me strength to go forward and grow stronger through my cancer journey.”

The retreat will be facilitated by Deborah Steele, MA and Susan Bauer-Wu, PhD, RN.  Deb has been facilitating healing retreats for those touched by cancer for fifteen years. She is the Support Services Coordinator at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.  Deb is an 18-year survivor of cancer.  Susan has extensive experience in psycho-oncology and leading healing and renewal programs for cancer patients and families.  She currently is an Associate Professor at Emory University in Atlanta and Distinguished Cancer Scholar for the Georgia Cancer Coalition.

The weekend is sponsored in part by The Vermont.New Hampshire Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Cardigan Mountain School.  There is a cost of $25 per person to attend the retreat, which includes lodging in a Cardigan dormitory and all meals.  Financial assistance is available.  Cancer survivors should plan on bringing a family member or friend with them to this retreat.  The retreat can accommodate twenty total participants; ten spaces are reserved for residents of Vermont or New Hampshire touched by breast cancer, and the remaining spots are open to individuals from greater New England with any type or stage of cancer. 

The mission of Forest Moon is to improve the quality of life for cancer survivors and their loved ones in Vermont and surrounding states by offering retreats that introduce evidence-based therapeutic activities and help individuals set goals to promote their own healing at home.  Retreats are either free of cost or require only a modest registration fee.  Forest Moon is currently in the process of obtaining permits and funding to construct a 4,000 square foot cancer retreat facility in Whitingham, VT where its programs will be permanently based.  Currently, retreats are held at various locations in Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

To register for the Renewing the Spirit retreat at Cardigan Mountain School, please contact Pam Roberts at 413-625-2402 or pam@forestmoon.org.  More information about Forest Moon can be found at www.forestmoon.org.  

 

FOREST MOON RECEIVES $15,267 IN GRANTS FROM FOUR FOUNDATIONS
Non-Profit to Utilize Funds to Offer Nine Cancer Support Programs

            JACKSONVILLE, VT, May XX, 2007…Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship, a Windham County non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for cancer survivors and their loved ones throughout rural New England, recently received four grants totaling over $15,000 from Baystate Franklin Medical Center’s Board of Organized Work, Thomas Thompson Trust, The Vermont.New Hampshire Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and Rays of Hope.  The four awards will sponsor a total of nine cancer support programs in VT, NH, and MA.

            The Board of Organized Work is the Baystate Franklin Medical Center’s auxiliary organization in Greenfield, MA. Its goal is to provide financial support to the hospital and its patients and programs with funds raised through its Gift Shop and various special events. The Thomas Thompson Trust provides grants to charitable organizations whose work and purposes promote health, education or the general social or civic betterment in Windham County, VT, or in Dutchess County, NY. The Susan G. Komen Foundation’s mission is to eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease by advancing research, education, screening, and treatment. The mission of Rays of Hope is to raise funds to improve breast health in partnership with Baystate Health’s Comprehensive Breast Center in Springfield, MA. 

Programs sponsored through the four grants include a 10-Week Spirit of the Written Word Writing Workshop, offered in partnership with Franklin Medical Center’s Oncology Department and sponsored by a $2,000 grant from Franklin Medical Center’s Board of Organized Work.  The workshop takes place on Thursdays, from April 5 – June 7, in Deerfield, MA. The Thomas Thompson Trust’s $3,200 grant is sponsoring a 10-Week Spirit of the Written Word Writing Workshop, offered in partnership with Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, which meets on Tuesdays, from April 3 – June 5, in Brattleboro, VT; a Gardening Retreat, scheduled for May 12 in Dummerston, VT; and a Cooking Retreat planned for September in Brattleboro, VT. The $7,128 Vermont.New Hampshire Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure grant is sponsoring four Renewing the Spirit programs: an Overnight Retreat in Canaan, NH, from August 17-19, two Full-Day Retreats in October 2007 and January 2008 in VT or NH, and a 10 Week Spirit of the Written Word Writing Workshop in Brattleboro, VT starting in February 2008.  Rays of Hope’s $2,939 grant is funding an overnight Renewal Retreat in western MA for residents touched by breast cancer.  Details TBA.

Forest Moon’s programs are open to individuals diagnosed with cancer and their loved ones.  Programs are free or for a modest registration fee. 

For more information about Forest Moon or to register for upcoming programs, please contact Cindy Blood at (802) 380- 4238 or cindy@forestomoon.org .  On the web at www.forestmoon.org.

 

A COUPLES’ RENEWAL RETREAT FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH CANCER & THEIR SPOUSES/PARTNERS
April 14, 2007

GREAT BARRINGTON, MA, March 9, 2007… Two New England nonprofit organizations, The NOAH Center and Forest Moon, are partnering to offer a full-day Couples’ Renewal Retreat for individuals with cancer.  The NOAH Center, out of Great Barrington, MA, seeks to educate and encourage maximum health through self-knowledge and activity.  Forest Moon, out of Jacksonville, VT, is dedicated to improving the quality of life among the cancer community.  The Couples’ Renewal Retreat will take place at the NOAH Center’s facility in Great Barrington, MA on Saturday April 14 from 8:45am to 4pm.  In the company of others touched by cancer, participants will partake in a variety of activities, including couples’ exercises, guided meditations, creative arts, writing, and goal-setting.  It is a special time and place for couples to have the opportunity for self-exploration, connection, and healing.  A nutritious vegetarian lunch will be provided.

The primary facilitator for the day is Cindy Blood, co-founder of Forest Moon.  Cindy has thirteen years of experience as a group facilitator.  She was diagnosed with breast cancer at age twenty-nine.  Assisting with the program is facilitator Dian Shucard, a therapeutic and creative arts practitioner who promotes healing through the imagination and the arts.

The Couples’ Renewal Retreat is limited to 12 participants (6 couples). Registration is required.  There is a $25 registration fee per couple to attend.  To register, or for more information, contact Cindy Blood at (802) 380-4238 or cindy@forestmoon.org.

More information about Forest Moon and The NOAH Center can be found at www.forestmoon.org or www.noahcenter.org. 

 

Forest Moon Announces a Weekend Retreat for Men With Cancer
Event to take place the second weekend of June in northern Vermont

JACKSONVILLE, VT, April 16, 2007…Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship, a Windham County non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for cancer survivors and their loved ones throughout rural New England, is offering The Hero’s Journey: A Northeast Kingdom Retreat for Men with Cancer.

The weekend retreat will take place at the Barre Hunting Club in Ferdinand, Vermont. It is scheduled for Friday, June 8^th at 5pm to Sunday, June 10^th at 1pm.  The participants will gather at camp for a weekend of bonfires, cards, and fun as they learn strategies to improve their physical and emotional healing.  There will be ample time to fish, hike, and enjoy the wilderness setting with other men who have had a cancer diagnosis.

The facilitators for the event are Nelson Coffey and Ellen Fein. Nelson is a physical therapist and has a Diploma in Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy from the McKenzie Institute International.  An avid outdoorsman, he has a special interest in how to integrate mind and body techniques into his work. Ellen is a licensed clinical social worker, registered yoga teacher and cancer survivor.  She works as a Cancer Coach in central Vermont supporting individuals whose lives are touched by cancer.

Roy and Elizabeth Somaini of Barre, Vermont volunteered to plan and cook for The Hero’s Journey at their family camp after participating in Forest Moon’s Couple’s Overnight Retreat in February 2006.  Sponsors for the retreat as of April 17 are: Roy and Elizabeth Somaini, Gervais Construction, Passumpsic Savings Bank, and Ted’s Market.  There is a $25 registration fee per person. The event is limited to twelve participants. Financial assistance is available.  To register for the program contact Pam Roberts at (413) 625-2402 or email pam@forestmoon.org. For more information about Forest Moon, visit our Web site at www.forestmoon.org

---

 

Forest Moon Announces the Appointment of Pamela Roberts as Program Director

JACKSONVILLE, VT, April, 2007… Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship, a Windham County non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for cancer survivors and their caregivers throughout rural New England, welcomes Pamela Roberts of Colrain, MA as its new part time Program Director.  Roberts is the first paid staff member, hired with a grant from The Vermont Community Foundation, a statewide, non-sectarian public charity that builds and manages charitable funds.

Roberts is a13-year breast cancer survivor who leads Spirit of the Written Word writing workshops for people touched by cancer, loss or addiction. As part of Forest Moon’s program offerings, Roberts is currently facilitating two ten-week Spirit of the Written Word series for people touched by cancer: one co-sponsored by Baystate Franklin Medical Center’s Oncology Department and funded by the hospital’s Board of Organized Work, and one co-sponsored with Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and funded by the Thomas Thompson Trust.

Roberts also leads writing workshops at Cancer Connection, Florence, MA .  She has  facilitated Spirit of the Written Word workshops at Hospice of Franklin Country, Greenfield MA and through a grant from The Recover Project. Roberts’ personal essays on her experiences with cancer have appeared in various publications; she has also written for the Northeast Foundation for Children, Turners Falls MA.  Previously Roberts was a television producer.

Roberts is a graduate of Cornell University and an ordained graduate of the IM School of Healing Arts, NYC.  She has two children.

Forest Moon was founded in 2004 by a breast cancer survivor, Cindy Blood, and her husband Phil Blood, who reside in Deerfield, MA.  Focusing on wellness and emotional healing, Forest Moon offers cancer support programs in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Western Massachusetts.  Recent offerings have included workshops on bell-ringing, gardening and healthy cooking and overnight retreats for relaxation and connection with other people touched by cancer. All of Forest Moon’s programs are free or low cost.

For more information go to www.forestmoon.org or call 802.380.4238.

---

 

Forest Moon Announces $10,000 Grant From The Vermont Community Foundation
Non-Profit to Utilize Funds for Hiring a Part-Time Program Director

JACKSONVILLE, VT, Jan. 2007… Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship, a Windham County non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for cancer survivors and their caregivers throughout rural New England, was recently awarded a $10,000 grant from the Vermont Community Foundation (VCF), a statewide, non-sectarian public charity that builds and manages charitable funds.

Forest Moon—which began offering daytime and overnight retreats for cancer survivors and their caregivers last year—will use the funds to hire a part-time program director to concentrate board and volunteer efforts on capacity building and securing a sustainable future for Forest Moon’s cancer support programs in Vermont.  The program director will be in charge of organizing Forest Moon’s retreats.  Forest Moon also plans to hire a part-time development director in 2007 to help raise money for the construction of the organization’s “Healing Haven” retreat center in Whitingham, Vermont. 

“We’re deeply grateful to the Vermont Community Foundation for awarding us this grant from its Basic Human Needs fund,” said Cindy Blood, co-founder and president of Forest Moon.  “With this funding, we can continue offering critical, emotional support to cancer survivors from underserved rural communities in Vermont,” she added.

Forest Moon plans to expand its programs by 2008 to offer six overnight retreats and six daytime retreats either directly in Vermont, or in Massachusetts and New Hampshire border communities easily accessible to Vermonters.  During each retreat, experienced facilitators introduce participants to evidence-based activities that have been shown to improve the quality of life for cancer survivors.

About the Vermont Community Foundation

The Vermont Community Foundation is made up of more than 550 distinct charitable funds totaling more than $140 million in assets.  Each of these funds is established by charitable individuals to build healthy and vital Vermont communities.  Grants from these funds are awarded both at the suggestion of fund holders and through competitive processes.  In addition, the Vermont Community Foundation offers planned giving, non-profit agency endowment management, and other services to help ensure that philanthropy is increasingly effective in supporting healthy and vital Vermont communities, and that charitable partners meet their missions with excellence and efficiency.

About Forest Moon

Founded in January 2004 by breast cancer survivor Cindy Blood and her husband Phil Blood, Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the quality of life for cancer survivors and their families and friends in rural New England.  Forest Moon offers affordable full-day and overnight retreats in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Western Massachusetts.  Further information about the organization is available at www.forestmoon.org.

---

Forest Moon Announces Winter 2007 Retreats for Cancer Survivors

        DEERFIELD, Mass., Dec. 2006… Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for cancer survivors and their families and friends throughout rural New England, is pleased to announce its first two program offerings of 2007. 

A Snowshoe Retreat will take place at Mt. Wantastiquet, Hinsdale, NH on Sun., Jan. 14, 2007 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.  Designed for individuals touched by cancer, the program will involve a guided four-mile round trip snowshoeing trek on gentle switch backs to Mt. Wantastiquet’s 1,335 foot summit with spectacular views of the valley.  No prior snowshoeing experience is required, and equipment is available.  The outing will go even without snow.  The cost is $5 per person and limited to 12 total participants.

The trip leaders are Phil and Cindy Blood, co-founders of Forest Moon, who have extensive experience with education and trip-leading.  They currently serve as advisors to the Deerfield Academy Outdoor Club, have been trained as Wilderness Emergency Medical Technicians and formerly worked as Mountain Leadership School instructors for the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Forest Moon also is offering an Overnight Couple’s Retreat from 5 p.m. on Fri., Feb. 9, 2007 to 1 p.m. on Sun., Feb. 11, 2007 at Centennial House B&B in Northfield, Mass.  During the retreat, participants will be introduced to evidence-based activities that reduce stress while increasing hope and strength.  Activities will include guided meditations, couples’ exercises, snowshoeing, expressive writing, creative arts, and goal setting.  Participating couples will have a special opportunity to reflect on living in balance with cancer.  The retreat is $50 per couple (which includes food and lodging) and is limited to six couples.

Facilitators of the overnight retreat are Deborah Steele, MA; and Elana Rosenbaum, LICSW, BCD.  Ms. Steele has been facilitating healing retreats for those touched by cancer for thirteen years. She is the Support Services Coordinator at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center (at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center) and is a 14-year survivor of cancer.  Ms. Rosenbaum is a cancer survivor and co-founder of Retreats to Renew.  A former senior instructor in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the University of Massachusetts, she now consults at cancer centers/hospitals and facilitates retreats.

To register for either of Forest Moon’s programs, please contact Cindy Blood at (802) 380-4238 or cindy@forestmoon.org.

            Founded in January 2004 by breast cancer survivor Cindy Blood and her husband Phil Blood, Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the quality of life for cancer survivors and their families and friends in rural New England.  Forest Moon offers affordable full-day, overnight, and weekly support programs in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Western Massachusetts.  Further information about the organization is available at www.forestmoon.org.

---

Forest Moon Unveils First Program Offerings For Cancer Survivors and Caregivers
Non-Profit Offers Free Retreats Designed to Promote Connection, Healing and Convening with Nature

        DEERFIELD, Mass., Nov. 2005… Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for cancer survivors and their caregivers throughout rural New England, is pleased to announce its first program offerings.   

In collaboration with the Berkshire Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club, A Survivor’s Snowshoe will take place at Monument Mountain, Great Barrington, Mass. on Sun., Jan. 1, 2006 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.  Designed for individuals with cancer and their primary caregivers, the program will involve a guided two-mile snowshoeing trek on a gentle trail with spectacular views.  No prior snowshoeing experience is required, and equipment will be provided.   The outing is free of cost but is limited to 12 total participants. 

The trip leaders are Phil and Cindy Blood, co-founders of Forest Moon, who have extensive experience with education and trip-leading.  They currently serve as advisors to the Deerfield Academy Outdoor Club, have been trained as Wilderness Emergency Medical Technicians and formerly worked as Mountain Leadership School instructors for the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Forest Moon also is offering a free overnight Couple’s Retreat from 9:00 a.m. on Sat., Feb. 11, 2005 to 1 p.m. on Sun., Feb. 12, 2006 at Nine Mountain Retreats in Plainfield, Mass.  During the retreat, participants will be introduced to evidence-based activities that reduce stress while increasing hope and strength.  Activities will include guided meditations, couples’ exercises, snowshoeing, expressive writing and guided couples’ massages.  In addition, participants will be able to stroll the tranquil woodland paths and enjoy an invigorating soak in an outdoor hot tub.  The retreat is limited to six couples.

Facilitators of the overnight retreat are Dr. Susan Bauer-Wu, DNSc, RN; and Elana Rosenbaum, LICSW, BCD.  Dr. Bauer has extensive experience in psycho-oncology and in leading healing and renewal programs for cancer patients and families.  She co-founded Retreats to Renew and currently is director of the Phyllis F. Cantor Center for Research in Nursing and Patient Care at Dana Farber Cancer Institute.  Ms. Rosenbaum is a cancer survivor and co-founder of Retreats to Renew.  A former senior instructor in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the University of Massachusetts, she now consults at cancer centers/hospitals and facilitates retreats. 

To register for either of Forest Moon’s programs, please contact Cindy Blood at (802) 380-4238 or cindy@forestmoon.org.

            Founded in January 2004 by breast cancer survivor Cindy Blood and her husband Phil Blood, Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the quality of life for cancer survivors and their caregivers in rural New England.  Starting in January 2006, Forest Moon will offer full-day and overnight retreats free of cost in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Western Massachusetts.  Further information about the organization is available at www.forestmoon.org.

---

Forest Moon Awarded Two $10,000 Foundation Grants
Funds to be Applied Toward Construction of Healing Haven Retreat Facility

            DEERFIELD, Mass., Nov. 2005… Forest Moon: Celebrating Survivorship, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for cancer survivors and their caregivers throughout rural New England, has received two $10,000 grants from independent foundations. 

   Forest Moon received its first grant from the Redducs Foundation, a Vermont-based private grant-making foundation that primarily provides financial support to charitable causes involving social services.  Forest Moon’s second grant was from the Gilder Foundation, a New York City-based foundation that funds educational and community-related projects.

  Funds from the two grants will be applied toward the construction of Forest Moon’s Healing Haven retreat facility—an environmentally-conscious and structurally non-toxic homestead where cancer survivors and their caregivers will convene for therapeutic activities, mutual support and revelation.  The facility will be built on two acres of land surrounded by fields and forest in rural Whitingham, Vermont.  According to the construction timeline, the Healing Haven’s final design plan will be completed by January 2006; construction will commence in Spring 2007; and the facility will officially open for retreats in December 2007. 

            To meet this aggressive construction schedule, Forest Moon is conducting a capital campaign known as the “Healing Haven Campaign,” which aims to raise $670,000 by May 2007.  As of October 2005, the charitable organization had raised $75,000 toward this goal.  In addition to the foundation grants, Forest Moon has received more than 100 individual donations and has h