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CancerEd - Helping Children Understand Cancer

CancerEd - Helping Children Understand Cancer

School-Based Cancer Awareness Workshop Initiative

MISSION STATEMENT
CancerEd is an organization dedicated to helping children understand cancer by bringing childhood cancer awareness workshops into schools and communities. Using our video to introduce the subject of cancer in our workshop presentation, we explore the emotional, physical, and psychosocial aspects of childhood cancer with students and teachers in a classroom setting. CancerEd was founded by Colleen Goddard and Joe Nardelli - parents, educators, and professionals working in the arts.

A MESSAGE FROM THE CO-FOUNDERS
- Recently, our seventeen year old nephew Steven was diagnosed with Stage IV Hodgkins Lymphoma, and is being treated as an outpatient at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. While Steven has suffered through a year of mis-diagnosis, he remains in great spirits with an outlook that is promising. We are thankful for all of the advice that friends in the professional community have shared with us. God bless you.

- We are extremely happy to announce that a Spanish translation version of our video is now available.

We would like to thank Venus Ginés for her tireless dedication to making this translation possible. And we would also like to thank Dr. Nelson Robels, Arlene Robels, William Sierra, and Ricardo Robels at Diamond Productions, Inc. in Puerto Rico for their generosity and the technical expertise that brought this year-long endeavor to completion.

A portion of all proceeds from the sale of this video will be used to promote the sponsorship of cancer awareness education in spanish speaking school communities.

- HOW ARE YOU using our video and/or workbook in your family, school, hospital, or extended community? We would like to know how they have helped you or how we can make improvements that will better serve your needs.

Please send your comments directly to CancerEd@aol.com. Information about the resources we offer can be found on pages that follow.

- Currently, we are inviting schools - who would like to be included on our workshop presentation list, to contact us. It is the directive of CancerEd to provide sponsored workshops in schools requesting cancer awareness education services for their school community.

If you would like to observe a classroom workshop presentation, please contact us. At times it is possible to make such arrangements.

NEW FUNDRAISING DEVELOPMENT
The YARD SALE OUTLET, a thrift shop in Barrington, NJ has offered to accept (estate items, furntiure, or other saleable merchandise) as donations, on our behalf, to help raise funds for workshop presentations in southern NJ.

For more information about our school-based initiative, fundraising, or how we can help you please contact us at 1-800-221-3170 or email us at CancerEd@aol.com.

NEW LINKS
The Degge Group, Ltd. is www.kidzwithleukemia.com Since 1988, Dr. Judith K. Jones has headed this group whose mission is to optimize Drug Safety management and assessment. Our experienced team of diverse professionals continues to provide expertise in the strategic management of regulatory, epidemiological, and public health policy issues that revolve around the safety issues of pharmaceutical products in the domestic and international marketplace. We work closely with our clients to arrive at approaches and solutions that are customized to your issues and time-specific needs.

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK:
- The Honorable Senator Hillary R. Clinton for appointing her Legislative Correspondant, April Springfield, and the Honorable Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, for appointing her Legislative Assistant Dannie Diego, to meet with us in Washington, DC to discuss our initiative goals and for sharing ways they can assist us in our efforts to find resources to support our initiative.

- Presenter.com for hosting our streaming video classroom workshop iPresentation.

- The many families, cancer organizations, hospitals, schools, and libraries who have added our video to their video resource collections and to their school re-entry programs.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Goddard and Nardelli produced the video, "MY HAIR’S FALLING OUT... Am I Still Pretty?" A Childhood Cancer Education Video, which provides the basis for the workshop they now present in schools. Their mission - to help school children understand cancer, is supported by many health care professionals. Dr. Fred Kaeser, Health Director for Community School District 2 in New York City, saw the video and immediately recognized the value of using the video to teach elementary school children about cancer.

WORKING WITH CANCER SURVIVORS
Dr. Kaeser, who counseled a student who was stricken with cancer, remembered there were few resources available to help this student, or his classmates, understand cancer. Dr. Kaeser introduced Paco (now a cancer survivor) to Goddard and Nardelli who invited Paco to join in their efforts to bring childhood cancer awareness into other classrooms. With Paco as a guest presenter and cancer survivor, Goddard and Nardelli piloted their first workshop in a 4th grade class in 1996. The workshop integrates components of life sciences, language and visual arts explorations, health education, and scientific facts and terminology about cancer - linking it all together with larger concepts of loss, change, and acceptance.

In addition to Paco - who has become a willing and dynamic story teller of his own childhood cancer experience, a growing number of other cancer survivors have offered to join in on our school workshop initiative, to share their personal cancer experience with children in the classroom. "There is a vital, connection made between the cancer survivor, their personal experience with cancer as told by them, and the students who are present in the classroom workshop, that simply can not be expressed in words, and has been uniquely powerful in every workshop we've experienced".

VIDEO HISTORY
The video - originally based on a stage play written and performed by Goddard and presented to school children in NYC, received a 1996 Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Group Film Award and has been seen on public television stations throughout the United States. The video has received supportive reviews and can be found on the resource lists of The National Cancer Institute, The Childhood Cancer Foundation -Candlelighters Canada, The Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation US, the American Cancer Society, The National Childhood Cancer Foundation, and The National Coalition of Cancer Survivors. It can also be found as a resource listed in many oncology publications and web sites, and is used by families, schools, libraries, hospitals, parent support groups, health care professionals, and camps in numerous locations internationally. "Our video, recently added to a school re-entry program offered nationally by The Childhood Cancer Foundation - Candlelighters Canada, is also a component of several hospital based school re-entry programs offered in the United States.

"MY HAIR’S FALLING OUT... Am I Still Pretty?" tells the story about a child who is diagnosed with leukemia, undergoes hospitalization and chemotherapy, and returns to school, her cancer in remission. Goddard portrays all of the characters in the twenty-minute video, from cancer patient, to doctor, to family members and other kids at school, and in the hospital. Although a friend she makes in the hospital dies, the program is upbeat and includes animation, music and dance segments. Simple clear information about what cancer is and how it is treated is explained, as well as insight into the feelings of patients and those who love them, which makes the video especially appropriate for school children. Goddard and Nardelli say, "The video, workbook, and teacher's guide, together or separately, make it possible for any classroom teacher, school nurse or psychologist, to openly discuss the subject of cancer with their students."

WORKSHOP PRESENTATION
Using the video as a launching pad for discussion, the classroom workshop presentation explores the emotional, physical, and psychosocial aspects of childhood cancer. Feedback from students, parents, teachers, health care professionals, and others who have participated in workshops has lead to the creation of the workbook for children called, "THINGS CHANGE ALL THE TIME... When Someone You Know Has Cancer", which was written by Goddard, with Dr. Robin F. Goodman - Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine, Art Therapist, and Co-author of "CHILDHOOD REVEALED-Art Expressing Pain, Discovery, and Hope". Dr. Goodman is also credited for the development of the workshop. We recently added a "A TEACHER'S GUIDE - For Cancer Awareness Workshop Presentations In The Classroom" to help teachers and administrators introduce the subject of cancer to students in their schools.

CancerEd has been recognized for it's work with school children by many childhood cancer organizations. Goddard and Nardelli are frequently invited to present workshops to families, health care professionals, educators, school administrators, and government officials at conferences internationally. Hosts of their workshop include: the NorthEast Regional Cancer Institute, The Intercultural Cancer Council, The Childhood Cancer Foundation - Candlelighters Canada, Gilda’s Club, and the New York City Board of Education.

While primarily reaching schools in New York City, CancerEd has also reached public and parochial schools in Pennsylvania and Indiana. CancerEd is officially approved as a resource available to all public elementary, middle, and high schools in the five boroughs of New York City by the NYC Board of Education.

GROWING OUR INITIATIVE
CancerEd is always seeking partners within the local business community, to subsidize it's workshops in schools that otherwise would not benefit from this service due to the absence of funding for outside instructional support. There are a variety of ways CancerEd recognizes sponsors for their generosity including adding a sponsor's name to their video, which, every workshop participant - and in most cases, the entire school community, sees. Workshops can be sponsored in a single classroom setting, in clusters of schools within a school district, or in schools throughout the entire city. The workshop is designed to reach 3rd through 12th graders.

"As we continue to develop the integrity of our initiative, we look forward to satisfying the immediate and long term needs of teachers [in the classroom environment] who wish to help children better understand the impact a life threatening illness can have on them or on someone they know."

Goddard and Nardelli seek a publisher for their workbook and teacher's guide, and invite sponsors to help them in their efforts to train teachers, health care professionals, and administrators, as well as help them reach a broader base of schools and extended school communities. "We are speaking with school districts now about the possibility of integrating our program into the curriculum as a component of health education. We believe childhood cancer awareness education is as important to students, families, and communities as aids and violence awareness education are, and should have a place in the curriculums of every school community".

DISTANCE LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY
In anticipation of the increasing role technology will play in learning environments, Goddard and Nardelli have been assisted by Presenter.com, an on-line interactive forum for people, companies, and organizations seeking unique content presentations on the Internet. "We have developed an Internet video iPresentation™ that is an example of the work we do with children in the classroom setting." It can be viewed at https://secure.presenter.com/p2/pls/authoring/detail-server.asp?id=richa1000001. Look for the title, "What Is CancerEd?" in the Health or Education index of their web site library.

Also, in cooperation with Rich Wykoff - a fifth grade teacher and team leader at Renovo Elementary School in the Keystone Central School District in Lock Haven, PA, CancerEd created and piloted the first ever Distance Learning workshop designed for and presented to school aged children.

"We hope that our classroom workshop is eventually embraced by all school and extended communities and is used to introduce the subject of cancer and cancer awareness early enough to make a difference in the lives of all young learners".

We offer the following educational resources:

EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS

MY HAIR’S FALLING OUT... Am I Still Pretty?
A Childhood Cancer Education Video
22 Minutes/Color
English Language Version ISBN No. 0965083209
Spanish Language Version ISBN No. 0965083233

Winner - 1996 Parents' Choice Silver Honor Group Film Award

This video is a fictional, one person performance which tells the story of a young girl who is diagnosed with leukemia, undergoes hospitalization and chemotherapy, and returns to school, her cancer in remission. Writer, Actress Colleen Goddard plays all the characters in this twenty two minute program, from young cancer patient, to doctor, to family members and other kids at school and in the hospital. Although the subject matter is difficult - a friend she makes in the hospital dies - the program is upbeat, including animation, music and dance segments. Simple, clear information about what cancer is and how it is treated is explained, as well as insight into the feelings of patients and those who love them, which make this program especially appropriate for school children.

VIDEO PURCHASE PRICE
($69.00 plus $6.50 S&H) Includes public performance rights limited to non-paying audiences.
(Families $19.95 plus $6.50 S&H)
Package price includes choice of Workbook (English Only) or Teacher's Guide (English Only)
($75.00 plus $6.50 S&H)
*****

QUICK POINTS ABOUT THIS VIDEO
- Provides simple, clear information that helps individuals understand their cancer diagnosis or that of a family member or friend.

- Has been included as an educational component of the school re-entry kit nationally distributed by The Childhood Cancer Foundation-Candlelighters Canada

- Has been reviewed by School Library Journal, Video Rating Guide for Libraries, Children's Video Report. Reviews and articles have also appeared in the newsletters of many prominent cancer organizations internationally. Our video and our work with children has also been the subject of feature articles of several regional newspapers.

- Is available in numerous public library systems, schools, and hospitals Internationally.

- Has been approved by the New York City Board of Education for use in public schools city wide. And has been approved for social content by the Instructional Materials Reviews Unit of the California State Department of Education.

- Can be found listed as a family and patient education resource on the internet, in numerous book publications, and is referred by prominent cancer organizations internationally.

- Has been seen on public television stations throughout the United States and is distributed by Necessary Pictures Film & Media in New York City.

- Is viewer friendly, is effective in group and family settings, and has served families, children, adults, students and teachers of all ages.

- Promotes the view that cancer does not discriminate and can be conquered.
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REVIEW EXCERPTS
"A must for all children and teens living with childhood cancer and for their families. Highlights the positive and practical steps that can help resolve many of the day-to-day challenges."
Eleanor Pask, RN, MScN., EdD.
Former Executive Director
The Childhood Cancer Foundation-Candlelighters Canada
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"When I viewed this program I immediately thought that it contained all the elements an educational film could offer. It is sensitive, moving, informative, and emotionally evocative, yet simple in design, well produced, and friendly. As a national educational media distributor, I recommend this program for use in schools and libraries, and or by health care professionals who seek a video exploring childhood cancer that can be viewed by children, their families and friends. This program will serve the child, parent, educator, and health care professional with equal satisfaction."
Randolph Wright
Executive Vice President
Pyramid Films
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"In the U.K., the program has been used in a number of treatment centers, with particular success among teenage groups. They respond especially well to the lively and very imaginative way in which the program describes the experiences and feelings of young people, and their families, who have cancer."
Donal Donnelly-Wood
Social Work Consultant
Malcolm Sargent Cancer Fund For Children
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"Through a series of one-act segments and a very artistic dance interlude, the thoughts and feelings of a patient, her family, friends, and a peer with cancer are realistically portrayed. Our child viewer asked to see this tape again and again."
Elizabeth Irvin - Reviewer
Candlelighters Canada / Quarterly Newsletter
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"When I showed this video to a group of parents and professionals and to another group of parents and children with cancer and several siblings their response was overwhelmingly positive. The video is entertaining, accurate, honest, easily understood, and very encouraging for children and parents alike. It blends humor, moments of sadness, and a large measure of hope in a manner that is realistic, yet sensitive to the body image and well being of children with cancer."
Dave Adams, M.S.W., C.S.W.
Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry
McMaster University
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"Showing this short (22 minute) film to school-aged cancer patients can be a most effective tool for encouraging open communication, especially if the patients and their families watch the film together, with a trained professional available to discuss their reactions and answer any questions. Choreography by Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, songs by Whitney Houston and Bebe and Cece Winans, and such eye-catching techniques as animation and the portrayal of all roles by one actress make seeing this film an upbeat experience."
Joyce Rothschild
Educational Media Reviewer
Association of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers
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"This is the best overall video on childhood cancer, meshing entertainment, education, compassion, and reality in a sustaining fashion. This is the finest to date."
Robert Norton, F.A./Former Chapter President
Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation
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CLASSROOM WORKSHOP OBSERVATION VIDEO

"WHAT IS CANCERED?
A School-Based Cancer Awareness Workshop Initiative

Video excerpts of interviews with children, art explorations, and classroom discussion are used to highlight the work CancerEd conducts in classrooms as part of it's school-based cancer awareness workshop initiative.

FREE VIEWING
- ($6.50 to cover the cost of S&H)
- 30 day limit use period.
- $25.00 to replace lost or damaged rental units.
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WORKBOOK DESCRIPTION

THINGS CHANGE ALL THE TIME...
When Someone You Know Has Cancer

Drawing upon content from the video and inspired by questions raised by students who have participated in the workshop presentation, this workbook integrates life sciences, and language and visual arts explorations. It is designed to engage the user in an extended experience to help them process their feelings about cancer, and personalize the emotional, physical, and psychosocial aspects that are introduced in the workshop. As a compliment to the video, the workbook reinforces the information base established in the video, while presenting questions that link scientific facts and terminology with larger concepts of change and acceptance.

As a leave behind or stand alone resource for students, the workbook allows the user to personalize and creatively express their own thoughts and feelings, about cancer, through drawings and writings. The workbook was written by Colleen Goddard, with Robin Goodman, Ph.D., A.T.R.-BC.

Workbook
($15.95 plus $3.50 S&H)
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TEACHER'S GUIDE DESCRIPTION

A Teacher's Guide
For Cancer Awareness Workshop Presentations In The Classroom

This guide is based on five years of workshop presentation experience in public and parochial schools, and in family and professional group settings in the US and Canada. Our workshop has been presented to students primarily in the fourth through seventh grades, but can be adapted for age groups K through 12th, and adults.

This Teacher's Guide is designed to help teachers and administrators take steps to implement a classroom workshop in their school or extended school community. It includes Implementation Procedures for administrators seeking support in schools whether or not there is a cancer experience, and helpful advice on the mechanics of how to organize a workshop in their school. It also contains sample permission forms for distribution to parents and/or guardians.

The guide also provides information about how to use the educational resources we offer - tools to help teachers discuss cancer openly with their students, and address common questions asked by students with responses reflecting students feelings about cancer. This information will help teachers prepare for a substantial interactive discussion with their students, and help them help their students have a better understanding of the impact a cancer experience can have on an individual, family member, or friend.

Guide /1st Edition
($15.95 plus $3.50 S&H)
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WORKSHOP COMPONENTS

(90) Minute Classroom Presentation includes:
- Video Screening
- Classroom Discussion
- Examination of Medical Apparatus
- Art Exploration

Optional
- Co-Presentation by a Childhood Cancer Survivor
- Art Therapist

Fees schedule available upon request.
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To Reach CancerEd:

Email us at CancerEd@aol.com, call us at 1-800-221-3170, or look for a sample of the work we do in the classroom at our NEW LINK https://secure.presenter.com/p2/pls/authoring/detail-server.asp?id=richa1000001. "What Is CancerEd?" is an iPresentation created by Presenter.com. Our video can also be found as a resource in many book publications and is linked to many Internet web sites hosted by prominent cancer organizations.


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