Linda (far right) mans an outreach table at Gibbs Health Fair held during October BC month.

At the age of 49, I reinvented myself and went back to school, attending the Katharine Gibbs School in Melville, LI. Part of my education included an internship program pertaining to my individual field of study. In my case, this would be in healthcare management. The news that a fellow student and friend was diagnosed with breast cancer led to my involvement, and subsequent internship with the Huntington Breast Cancer Action coalition (HBCAC).

Karen Joy Miller, founder & president is brilliant and charismatic. It was amazing how she took stock of my knowledge and abilities, and constructed a flawlessly smooth integration for me into the HBCAC team.

HBCAC is an awesome undertaking in its own right, but its environmental campaign “Prevention Is The Cure” (PITC) is truly visionary in its mission to make groups such as HBCAC become obsolete by virtue of taking back
the good health that we are all deserving of and entitled to. It’s a generosity of spirit that wants health and wellbeing for future generations, an absence . . . even a deletion, of the pain suffered by past and present generations.

We are a country fond of honoring concepts related to solidarity of purpose in our people. Memorial Day, Thanksgiving Day, Veterans Day, and the Fourth of July, all lead us to feelings of pride and kinship with our nation and our fellow Americans. The PITC educational series presented every May gives me a similar feeling. The kinship that there are people willing to go the extra mile and let people know that there IS a way to protect themselves and their descendents, and the pride that I have been given the opportunity to be a part of it.

My role of Environmental Associate may have had its start as a temporary assignment in fulfillment of an internship requirement, but it will continue as I volunteer my own time towards this most worthy goal, the prevention of
disease.