Archive for the ‘St. Mary’s Health System’ Category

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St. Mary’s Offers Health Screenings for Heart Month

Friday, January 25th, 2013

Cardiovascular disease is any disease that affects the heart or blood vessels, such as a heart attack or stroke. Are you at risk? Knowing and managing your risk factors is a vital action to prevent a cardiac event.

Risk factors that can be changed and/or managed are physical inactivity, overweight/obesity, tobacco use, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Since February is Heart Disease Awareness Month for Women we’d like to remind you that:
- Heart disease is the number 1 killer of women
- Heart disease causes 1 in 3 women’s deaths each year, killing approximately 1 woman each minute
- An estimated 43 MILLION women in the U.S are affected by heart disease.
- 90 percent of women have 1 or more risk factors for developing heart disease

Prevention is key! You can know your numbers by scheduling a Take Charge! Health Screening for the month of February. Take Charge! is a quick and easy screening that includes: A written health risk assessment (HRA), height, weight, blood pressure, BMI, total cholesterol testing, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, and blood glucose (blood sugar). As part of the program, you will receive a personalized review of your results and health risks that will be explained to you by an exercise physiologist followed by health education.

Please call Prevention & Wellness at 777-8898 to schedule your screening. These screenings are open to everyone and cost $35.

St. Mary’s is also encouraging everyone to Wear Red on Friday, February 1, 2013 to raise awareness of heart disease.

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Save the Date for Our Spring Event: “Mystery at Our Class Reunion”

Tuesday, January 8th, 2013

St. Mary’s Health System’s Development Office would like to invite you to attend their spring event, “Mystery at Our Class Reunion,” a mystery dinner theater that takes place at a high school class reunion created by Mystery for Hire (www.mysteryforhire.com).

The event will be held on Saturday, March 2, 2013 at The Royal Oak Room in Lewiston, Maine at 6:00 pm.

The evening will begin with a social hour where you will have time to visit friends and browse the silent auction tables. Guests will enjoy scrumptious hors d’oeuvres and a fine dining experience prepared by Personal Touch Catering of Buxton, Maine. Following dinner, Mystery for Hire will set the stage for the mystery. The suspects will be introduced, formally interrogated and the audience will solve the crime and pronounce the sentence. Everyone can participate and anyone can be a suspect! Once the mystery is solved there will be a DJ to play the popular tunes of your day and dancing will commence.

Don’t miss out! Please consider joining us for this unique night of mystery and intrigue!! Tickets are $75 per person or $65 if purchased on or before February 13, 2013. Tables of eight are $500. For more info, contact Mary at 207-755-3366 or email at mellingwood@stmarysmaine.com. All attendees are encouraged to wear attire from the year they graduated!

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Posted in Development Office, News, St. Mary's Health System Development Office | 2 Comments »

HealthSteps Winter 2013 Sprecialty Classes

Friday, January 4th, 2013

HealthSteps is an award-winning health education and prevention program for adults that focuses on the whole person – body, mind, and spirit.

HealthSteps offers a wide range of classes with the core membership fee as well as a variety of specialty classes, including:

Gentle Exercise
This class is designed for those with arthritis, recovering from cancer or any other individual who desires to improve range of motion, strength, posture, balance, and coordination.
Tuesdays, Thursdays, 9:15-10:00am
Jan 28 – Feb 28
Location: d’YP Resident Dining Room, 102 Campus Ave, 2nd Floor
Cost: $24

Lose with Me!
A 12-week weight loss session focused on helping you make healthier lifestyle choices. Classes include goal setting, exercise recommendations, nutrition education, and peer support.
Wednesdays, 12-12:30pm Instructors: Jamie Pepin, MS RD
& Jennifer Smith, MS
Session 1: January 9 – March 27
Location:
WorkMed Conference Rm Auburn Medical Bldg,
15 Gracelawn Road
Cost: $99

Lose with Me! Part 2
A 6-week follow-up to Lose with Me! focused on helping you make healthier lifestyle choices including receiving additional guidance, maintaining accountability, and receiving peer support. Classes are held every other week.
Tuesdays, 12-12:30pm
Leader: Jennifer Smith, MS
January 15 – March 26
Location: WorkMed Conference Rm Auburn Medical Bldg, 15 Gracelawn Road
Cost: $29

Qigong & T’ai Chi
This class combines a short form of T’ai Chi based on the Sun Style family, which is excellent for health, balance, circulation, and over all well-being.

In this class, you will also visualize and activate Qi, our life force, as over the years we tend to deplete our Qi, which causes us to feel tired, anxious, worried and somewhat sluggish.
Tuesdays, 5:30-6:30pm
Instructor: Jason Grundstrum-Whitney
January 15 – February 12
Location: Chase Hall, Bates College, Campus Ave
Cost: $40

Racquetball
Specific time slots are available for registration Mon-Fri on the hour for an hour 6am-noon.
Cost: With Core HealthSteps Membership, $20 for the entire winter/spring session

Without Core Membership:
1-hour, 1x/week = $95
or 1-hour, 2x/week = $152

Senior Fitness
This one-hour class is a safe, fun, and effective workout! Included are a warm-up, cardiovascular component, resistance training, balance, and flexibility exercises.
Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays,
9:15-10:15am or 10:30-11:30am
Jan 21 – Feb 22
Location: d’YP Resident Dining Room, 102 Campus Ave, 2nd Floor
Cost: $32

Tennis
Specific time slots available for registration Mon-Fri 6am-10am.
Cost: With Core Membership, $20 for the entire winter/spring session

Without Core Membership, $144

Tobacco Cessation Counseling
Single Session: $45
This is a great option for a self-motivated person who simply needs the resources to stop smoking.
Multi-Session (3): $125
With a smoking cessation coach, set a quit date and work through the quitting process. Many find the additional support to be a great advantage to their stopping the use of tobacco.

Yoga for Flow Series
Mixed-level flow class that is open to new and experienced students. This class is an excellent way to have fun while improving your overall health, well-being, strength, flexibility, and posture. You will learn a range of exercises and yoga poses that will help to relieve muscle tension, stress, and aches and pains. Look and feel your best!
Mondays, 5:30-6:30pm
Jan 7 – Feb 11
Location: Lepage Large Conference Room, 99 Campus Avenue, Lewiston*
Cost: $75
*Room Changes: 1/28 – Bank of America Room, Women’s Health Pavilion

HealthSteps is part of the Prevention & Wellness Services offered through St. Mary’s Health System.

Call today and start your way to a new healthy lifestyle in which you will feel better, have more energy, meet great people, and enjoy exercise even more! For more information or to register, call HealthSteps at 777-8898 or visit them on the web at: www.stmarysmaine.com. Registration for all programs is required.

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National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day

Wednesday, December 12th, 2012

Imagine spending the longest night of the year on the streets with no place to call home…

The Lewiston/Auburn Alliance for Services to the Homeless (LAASH) and New Beginnings invite the community to join their annual candlelight vigil to remember homeless people during
the holiday season from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Friday, December 21, in downtown Lewiston.

For more than 10 years, LAASH and New Beginnings have held the vigil as part of a national movement of cities marking National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day on or near the winter solstice, the first day of winter and the longest night of the year.

Please meet at 4:30 p.m. in the courtyard of the Trinity Jubilee Center at Trinity Episcopal Church. The courtyard entrance is on Spruce Street near the corner with Bates Street. Vigil
participants are invited to bring nonperishable and canned food which will be collected at Trinity.

After a few words and lighting of candles, vigil participants will walk several blocks down Bates Street to Main Street. The procession will turn right on Main Street and continue up Sabattus Street and stop in front of Calvary United Methodist Church in the triangle between Sabattus, College, and Bartlett streets. Vigil participants are encouraged to bring signs to hold as the vigil remains in front of Calvary to raise awareness of homelessness to passersby during the evening commute.

Participants are invited to join the vigil at any point, and groups from businesses and service providers near the route are especially encouraged to join as the vigil passes.

Refreshments donated by Hurricane’s and the Bread Shack will be available indoors at Calvary. Staff from New Beginnings will provide van service back to Jubilee or the Park Street garage as needed.

The route is near local services for low-income and homeless people in downtown Lewiston:

. New Beginnings operates support services and housing for youth, including a drop-in center, 245 Lisbon, and 24-hour emergency shelter at 491 Main St., 795-4077.
. Trinity Jubilee Center, 247 Bates St., provides daily meals and food, a warming center, refugee assistance, and resources to those in need, 782-5700.
. The Nutrition Center, 208 Bates St., includes St. Mary’s Food Pantry, youth and gardening programs, and cooking and nutrition education programs, 513-3848.
. The Center for Wisdom’s Women, 97 Blake St., includes a women’s day drop-in center with activities, workshops, and support groups, 513-3922.
. The City Mission group at Calvary Church, 59 Sabattus St., serves hot supper downstairs 4:30-5:30 pm Wednesdays and breakfast 7:30-8:30 am Sundays, 782-3221.

Each year since 1990, the National Coalition for the Homeless has co-sponsored National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day to bring attention to the tragedy of homelessness. In an effort
to maximize the impact of the day, organizers have encouraged statewide and local groups such as LAASH to hold events of their own. Last year, more than 152 cities across the nation
sponsored events to recommit to the task of ending homelessness.

LAASH is a collaborative made up of organizations that serve local low-income and homeless
people. LAASH, along with the United Way of Androscoggin County and other local supporters,
has launched a 10-year plan to end homelessness in Lewiston-Auburn. For more than 30
years, New Beginnings has kept youth off the streets through their shelter, housing, and
outreach programs.

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Brann & Isaacson Attorneys and Counselors at Law Donate to St. Mary’s Food Pantry

Friday, November 9th, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

11.08.12

Diane McIntire (left) and Diane Greene (center) from Brann & Isaacson Attorneys and Counselors at Law recently made a donation to the St. Mary’s Food Pantry at the St. Mary’s Nutrition Center in Lewiston. Pantry Manager Joyce Gagnon (right) accepted a check for $179.00 and 107 pounds of food (valued at $214.00) on behalf of the Pantry. Gagnon reports the shelves have been particularly bare this year as the needed for emergency food assistance has increased and this donation is greatly appreciated.

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Mission Week at St. Mary’s

Friday, October 19th, 2012

This week, October 15 – October 19, 2012 has been designated as our Mission Week. Mission Week is a time when we reflect on our mission, our foundress and our roots. This year we have decided to create a Mission in Action Calendar Raffle to serve as our major fundraiser which raises funds for our Marguerite d’Youville Fund for the Needy. The calendar could not have been created without the incredible generosity of so many employees and local vendors. We thank them for living our Mission through their donations.

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Sixth Annual Alive in Lewiston

Wednesday, October 10th, 2012

Friday, October 26
6:30 to 9:00 pm

A delicious home-style meal featuring local farm ingredients, live Americana music from some of Maine’s best musicians, and a space covered with wall to wall community inspired art? What’s NOT to love about this year’s sixth annual Alive in Lewiston!  A celebration of local food, music and art, Alive in Lewiston has been bringing friends, family and neighbors together each year to enjoy an artful and relaxing evening out while helping to support the community gardening, food access and cooking and nutrition projects of Lots to Gardens and the St. Mary’s Nutrition Center. This years Alive in Lewiston will also coincide with Food Day, a nationwide celebration and movement for healthy, affordable, and sustainable food. Hosted at this historic Wallace School Building (home of the Nutrition Center) at 208 Bates Street in downtown Lewiston on Friday, October 26, Alive in Lewiston begins at 6:30 pm and runs to 9:00 pm.  For those eager early birds, tickets are an affordable $15 through the week before the event and $20 at the door.  Kids under 12 are $5 in advance or the night of the event.  For more information or to RSVP please contact 207 513 3844 nutritioncenterme@gmail.com.

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Posted in Lots To Gardens, News, Nutrition Center of Maine | No Comments »

Eat a Rainbow of Fruits and Vegetables for Better Health

Tuesday, October 9th, 2012

Scientists are frequently reporting new health benefits associated with consuming fruits and vegetables. Eating more fruits and vegetables is an important goal. Nutrition research shows that colorful vegetables and fruits contain essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytochemicals that your body needs to promote health and help you feel great. Accordingly, eating a variety of different colors of fruits and vegetables every day is a great way of meeting this goal. Colors you should be sure to include in your diet daily are:

Blue/purple

Blues and purples not only add beautiful shades of tranquility and richness to your plate, they add health enhancing flavonoids, phytochemicals, and antioxidants, such as anthocyanins, vitamin C, folic acid, and polyphenols. These nutrients help your body defend against cancer, reduce the risk of age-related memory loss, help control high blood pressure, and reduce the risk of diabetes complications and heart attacks.

Green

Not only do green vegetables look great and taste wonderful, they are also rich in the phytochemicals (like lutein, zeaxanthin, and indoles) and essential vitamins (folate), minerals, and fiber that keep you healthy. These nutrients protect your eyes, and may reduce the risk of cancerous tumors.

White

White fruits and vegetables vary from sweet to strong. Vegetables from the onion family, which include garlic, chives, scallions, leeks, and any variety of onion contain the phytonutrient allicin. Research is being conducted on allicin to learn how it may help lower cholesterol and blood pressure and increase the body’s ability to fight infections and cancer. Indoles, sulfaforaphanes, and phytonutrients in cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower may also inhibit cancer growth.

Yellow/Orange

The colors of the blazing sun are a must have in your daily diet. Yellow and orange vegetables and fruits contain beta-carotene (which turns into vitamin A), vitamin C, vitamin E, folate (a B vitamin), and bioflavonoids. Research shows that these nutrients reduce the risk for cancer and heart attacks, boost immunity, help maintain good vision, and strong bones/teeth/skin.

Red

When you add deep reds or bright pinks to your daily diet, you are also adding powerful antioxidants called lycopene and anthocyanins. Diets rich in these nutrients are being studied for their ability to fight heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s disease, as well as skin, breast and prostate cancers.

How are you doing? Can you think of ways you could add some color to your plate?

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You Got the Beet! Walk, Run, Cycle

Friday, September 14th, 2012

You Got the Beet! Walk, Run, Cycle - September 16 through October 7 - Sponsored by St. Mary's Health System, Healthy Androscoggin, and the Lewiston-Auburn Bicycle Pedestrian Committee

 Like to walk, run, or bicycle? Then join others in the L-A community September 16 through October 7 for

“You Got the Beet! Walk, Run, Cycle.” Sponsored by St. Mary’s Health System, Healthy Androscoggin, and the Lewiston- Auburn Bicycle Pedestrian Committee, “You Got the Beet” is a non-competitive, participant driven, and family-friendly walk, run, or bicycle ride each week at the Lewiston Farmers’ Market. Perhaps you are someone who participated in Healthy Androscoggin’s’ “Get Fit and Win” and are looking for a way to continue to your healthy routine. Perhaps you are planning to participate in the upcoming Dempsey Challenge and are looking to get it in some extra practice. Whatever your reason, “You Got the Beet!” is a great way to get some exercise.

“You Got the Beet!” 

will begin and end at the Lewiston Farmers’ Market located at the municipal parking lot on the corner of Lincoln and Main Streets (Bates Mill 5 complex). Participants are encouraged to meet at the market and be ready to go by 10 am. Start times, however, can be individualized and tailored to the needs of each person. The most important part is to complete the route! Those who do, and return to the market when they are finished, will be entered into a raffle to win $125 credit with the market! Each week a participant completes the route, they earn additional raffle entries increasing their chances of winning!

For more information on “You Got the Beet! Walk, Run, Cycle” please contact us at lewistonfarmersmarket@gmail.com (207) 513-3848 or visit lewistonfarmersmarket.blogspot.com or at www.facebook.com/lewistonfarmersmarket

To see the suggested routes for the walk/run and ride please visit the following sites respectively

http://goo.gl/maps/JNsiF

http://goo.gl/maps/zI333.

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HealthSteps at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center Announces its Fall Core Classes

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012

Pictured Rick Dodge, Gert Chasse, Elaine Freeman, Normand Demers, and Grace Trainor participate in HealthSteps' Walk-Jog class conveniently located at the beautiful indoor track at Bates College.

HealthSteps is part of the Prevention & Wellness Services offered through St. Mary’s Health System. HealthSteps is an award-winning health education and prevention program for adults. At HealthSteps you will get a program that meets the needs of the whole person – body, mind, and spirit.

HealthSteps has a wide range of classes with the core membership fee including:

MULTIPURPOSE ROOM

CARDIO MIX

This is a great class for people who get bored with exercise! Try everything from step to circuits for a fun calorie burning class.

Mondays, Wednesdays, 7:45-8:15am

 

CORE STRENGTH
Enjoy a great abdominal and lower back workout to help increase core strength and stability.

Tuesdays, Thursdays, 8:00-8:30am

TIME TO STRETCH

Enjoy a full body stretch for relaxation, peace of mind, and an increase in flexibility.

Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 8:15-8:30am

TNT (TONE -N-TIGHTEN)

This weighted workout focuses on total body strengthening. It’s also a great way to increase your metabolism!

Mondays, Wednesdays, 7:00-7:45am

Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 12:10-12:45pm

X-TRAIN INTERVAL

Alternate between bouts of high and low intensity exercises for a calorie blasting class.

(Please note: low impact options will be provided for all exercises.)

Fridays, 7:15-8:15am

YOGALATES ON THE BALL

Join us for a fusion of yoga and Pilates on an exercise ball to improve coordination and increase flexibility and strength.

Tuesdays, Thursdays, 7:15-8:00am

ON THE TRACK

WALK JOG

Enjoy the indoor track at your own pace. Includes an optional group warm-up, strengthening, cool-down, and stretching.

Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 6:05-6:55am

IN THE POOL

LAP SWIM

Swim at your own pace and enjoy this individualized form of exercise in the 25-meter, 8-lane pool supervised by a certified lifeguard.

Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 6:05-7:30am*;

*Beginning Oct. 29, 6:30-7:30am

Tuesdays, Thursdays, 6:05-7:00am** and 11:00-12:00pm;

**Tues/Thurs 6:05am swim time available until Oct. 25, 2012

AQUATIC FITNESS

Join us for a great workout that’s easy on your joints using the water as resistance! While swimming skills are not needed, a comfort level in both deep and shallow water is important.

Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 6:30-7:15am

Tuesdays, Thursdays. 11:00-11:45am

Core classes are held in the beautiful Bates College Merrill Gymnasium. Classes run from September 5 – December 14, 2012. The cost of a core membership, which includes unlimited access to all of the above classes, is $112.00. Monthly and weekly rates are available as well.

HealthSteps core classes take place in the morning, so you can exercise before you start your day. All instructors are certified and ready to take you through a safe and productive workout no matter what your fitness level. Call today and start your way to a new healthy lifestyle where you will feel better, have more energy, meet great people, and enjoy exercise even more! For more information or to register, call HealthSteps at 777-8898 or visit them on the web. 

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