Sheryl Nathanson Sachs and Miracle 4 Melanie

When it comes to the field of Prosthetics & Orthotics, it seems that many of us have a unique story as to how we came to work in the field.  And I would like to share mine with you:

While I was a junior in college, trying to figure out a career path, I was leaning towards applying to physical therapy school, with the ultimate goal of working with the military.  I was lucky enough to attend school near Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), and my roommate’s mother, Melanie Strudler, happened to volunteer in the physical therapy gym; at the time, she had been volunteering there for the past two years.  I was able to shadow her at WRAMC for a few days, and it was while I was there that I stumbled upon the world of prosthetics and orthotics.  I was lucky enough to volunteer in the prosthetics lab at Walter Reed, where my passion for the field grew, before ultimately going to prosthetics & orthotics school for my master’s degree.

Throughout our lives and our professions, we come across individuals who we can learn from, as much as they learn from us.  Melanie Strudler was one of those people.  I have her to thank for helping me find a career that I love.  However, Melanie was unable to see me get to where I am today.  Nine months into my residency at Dankmeyer, Melanie passed away from pancreatic cancer. She was a fighter to the end, and despite her treatments and struggles, her priority was still focused on giving back to the service members who had given up and done so much for our country. Melanie’s daughter, and my good friend, Erica, decided that the best way to continue her mother’s legacy was through the foundation of a non-profit in her honor—and thus, Miracle 4 Melanie, Inc. was born.

I have been involved with this non-profit organization since its foundation.  In continuing her legacy, Miracle 4 Melanie, Inc. raises funds to honor and support wounded service members and their families.  Our largest fundraiser is our Golf Outing, held in May; this upcoming May will be our 6th golfing fundraiser.  The main beneficiary of the funds we raise is a program open to service members and their families located just outside of the Atlanta, Georgia area.  While in graduate school at Georgia Tech, I was part of a group volunteering with Camp Twin Lakes, which helped develop the Family Warrior Weekends.  These weekends are free to the service-members and their families, and Miracle 4 Melanie helps sponsor four weekends each year.

I am thankful to be able to give back to such a worthy cause, while honoring an amazing woman to whom I owe helping me find this amazing field.  For more information on Miracle 4 Melanie, Inc., please visit their website by clicking here.  For more information on the Family Warrior Weekends, please visit their website by clicking here.  I wish to thank Matt Ryb Pictures for most of the photos in my story. I took the Camp Twin Lakes one myself! 

- Sheryl Nathanson Sachs, CPO

Mark Treasure Makes Music

Although I grew up working with my father, with clay, with plaster, pouring molds and vacuum forming plastic to make our own molds, my dad was also a musician and song writer.  Like my father, one of my lifelong hobbies is music. In fact, I once thought I was going to be a music teacher, prior to my career in O&P.   My wife, Linda, and I write music together and we share our music at various churches and events.  We also enjoy helping lead worship services.  For a majority of my life, one of my father's favorite questions was "Have you written any new songs lately?"  

Many years ago, after recording in a local studio and sending the demo to my dad, he loved the songs but thought we could do better with our own recording equipment. He made it possible for Linda and I to have our own recording studio with a major mobile component.  This has made it possible to record at various locations. A friend who played bass guitar and helped Linda and I at our larger venues is father to some very talented young men. I recorded them when they were small and a few years ago recorded and produced a CD of them.  They actually did very well with this CD - and by word of mouth, there are some others who wish to do a recording project. 

In addition to writing and sharing those songs on YouTube and at various churches and events, we have also had a few song contracts over the years with small music publishing companies. Although this is exciting, having a song contract with a publisher is only a first step, as the publisher works at connecting the song with an artist and record company.  In addition, there are other steps a song usually goes through before even being released.  

A few years ago there was an opportunity to use my recording skills to produce a very special CD. When a patient receives a prosthesis or orthosis at Dankmeyer there are written care and use instructions for that device. When the patient is blind the usual written instructions are not helpful. Since this person is able to operate a CD player the solution was obvious to me. I recorded the care and use instructions with an announcement of each track and its content. This way they could easily navigate through the instructions.  I knew this was a success when the person came back for the follow-up appointment and told me how helpful the recording was, and began telling me the instructions as they demonstrated donning and doffing the device, including how to clean each part.

Writing and sharing our music has always been a fun way for Linda and I to connect with people in various communities, and recording others is also fun and rewarding.

- Mark Treasure, CP, BOCO

Mary Reedy and Girl Scouts of the USA

Once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout.  This is how Mary Reedy, CP sees her role as a volunteer with the Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay.  Growing up, she was active in her local Girl Scout troop.   She participated in fundraising through the famous Girl Scout Cookie Campaign, bake sales at the mall and selling calendars door to door.  The money raised helped her troop fund many great adventures over the years.

“I was blessed to have a very active troop and great female role models as leaders.   I didn’t realize and appreciate how much of an impact my Girl Scout experiences would have on me until later in life.”  Putting on plays such as “A Christmas Carol”, traveling to campsites all over the Tri-State area, organizing and implementing camps for over 300 scouts, which earned her the Silver Leadership Pin.   “I have fond memories and lasting friendships.  I knew I wanted to give back as an adult, especially if I had daughters.”

For the past 10 years, she has been able to complete her goal of volunteering with her daughters’ troops.   Camping on the beach, geocaching, hiking in local state parks,  and traveling to historic Savannah, Georgia (birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts) are just a few of the many adventures.   Click here to read about Low's home.

But those fun filled activities come with a price tag.   “All scouting activities and badges are financed through fundraising.  Our largest financial support is through the Girl Scout Cookie Campaign.”   Cookie sales have been a Girl Scout tradition for over 100 years.  You can read about Girl Scout cookies here.

Mary selling cookies with the troop.

For three months, the girls brave the snow, rain and cold weather selling door to door or standing outside local businesses, selling their famous products.   It is more than selling.  The girls are required to know their products, design table displays, and learn how to understand “supply and demand”, customer service techniques and money management.   There are even “secret shoppers” in the local Girl Scout Council, who check in on each troop during the selling season.  Every weekend you will find this Girl Scout Mom braving the elements to support the troop. 

“There are so many more opportunities for girls today than there were when I was a kid.  The girls just don’t sell cookies and make crafts.”  

Today the Girls Scouts offer a multitude of programs including:  STEM classes, leadership camps and spending a day at the Maryland General Assembly.    “It is about discovering each girl’s strengths and helping her find her place in this world.”  You can read more about Girl Scouts making a difference here.

Becky Snell and Girls on the Run

If we are blessed, a wake-up call comes in time to make a difference in our lives.  My wake-up call came when I turned 49 and I realized that if my health were to follow the health patterns of my father's family, I could be dead in 12 years. Unless I did something to change that path I was looking at potential diabetes and a total lack of heart health.  I took a good look at what I was eating and my activity levels, and decided it was time to make a change.  

I joined a gym.  Yeah, I know.  A lot of people do that and it lasts maybe 3-6 months.  But I was on a mission, and I got a trainer because I had no idea what to do with all the equipment.  I started logging my calories in an app, and parking farther from the entry to the grocery.  I walked and walked, but what I wanted to do was run again.

I had run some during my twenties before running was cool and Nike and Addidas were just starting their marketing efforts.  I wasn't a natural athlete, but I enjoyed it, and I wanted to get back to that.  It took awhile.  After all, a girl who has made her living at a computer keyboard for 25 years has to learn how to exercise unused muscles!  I made a lot of rookie mistakes - the wrong shoes and form and starting out too hard and too fast led to stress fractures.  But once I was past that, and got some help I set my sights on a half marathon.  My husband was very supportive and took up cycling again - at first to accompany me on long training runs.  Eventually my daughter started running as well, and we went on running vacations together for some mother-daughter time.  Since that first half marathon six years ago there a lot a runs and medals under the bridge.  I am not fast, I am slow and steady, but I get it done.

Joe and his dog Yeti sucked me in!

I meet a lot of people running and have joined various groups - often we run races together.  One of these running friends, a retired Navy officer, suggested I might be interested in volunteering for an organization that focused on empowering young women using running and teamwork as a vehicle.  Joe is a coach for the local Girls on the Run chapter and thought I might like to coach as well.  I went to a local 5K (3.1 miles) where over 900 local girls were doing their 5K celebration run - to wrap up their semester of training - and he introduced me to the local director.

Shortly after that I applied to volunteer, possibly coach, for Girls on the Run.  This is a national non-profit organization that has self supported chapters all over the country.  A background check and personal reference were required.  If I couldn't coach, I wanted to volunteer in any other way I could.  Once the local director contacted me, I realized that the coaching commitment was something I couldn't do based on my work schedule. Since I have some social media experience, they thought it would be a great contribution if I could help them with their YouTube efforts.  While I am far from an expert, they had recently lost some marketing volunteers and this is where I could do the most good. I started putting together simple slideshows and videos using material they had stashed away.

I had spent years in Girl Scouts, both as a girl myself, and then with my daughter's troops.  GOTR is in some ways like Girl Scouts in trying to help girls and young women develop self confidence and respect for others.  GOTR members meet after school regularly and their coaches combine running with fun activities and community service projects to teach these skills.  Each semester of participation results in a 5K where the local teams run together and family and friends cheer them on.  

While I am not coaching currently due to work commitments, I am very glad I can help this organization in some way.  There is a video I did on YouTube for the Fall 2017 GOTR 5K which explains a lot about the program and the event.  You can click here to watch it.  I hope that at some point I can coach, but in the meantime I will spread the word about the organization and contribute in any way I can. 

- Becky Snell, Director of IT & Marketing

Adrienne Castle and The Church at Severn Run

The Church at Severn Run is all about reaching people for Jesus. Our motto is to “Love Well, Live Jesus, and Believe Big”. We want to be a church that emulates the church in Acts, that steps up and sees the needs and the brokenness around us and does something about it (like the parable of the Good Samaritan). We want to exist in such a way that if our doors closed tomorrow, the community would notice and our presence would be missed. In order to accomplish this, we have prayed a lot, and implemented a foundational principal of “Integral Missions”, where we do life outside the walls of the church building in a way that focuses on relationships, and loving people the way God calls us to.

We have several initiatives that we are working on for 2018 including launching a recovery center for the massive Opioid/Addiction problems facing our area. (Anne Arundel County is 4th in the nation right now with overdoses and deaths.) We also are starting ministries geared toward hungry and homeless children and families through backpack programs in the schools and by visiting and forming relationships with people in the many homeless camps in our area. (There are a lot of camps - and many of them have children, especially teens.  Social services often takes the children from the parents.)

Other ministries we run through our campus are things like the Kairos prison ministry, CAP -Christian Assistance Program, Celebrate Recovery, God's Heart, and Operation Christmas Child (OCC). We are not only a regional OCC drop off center, but each year we have several hundred people sign up to go to the processing center hub in Columbia and help them get the boxes packed, inspected, and shipped. (Adrienne and her son Gavin took Cindy French's son Tyler to volunteer recently for OCC, pictured left.) 

We also currently partner with a few amazing local ministries including the Transformation Center, The Well, and The Broken Wall that are also living out Integral Missions.  Currently, the Transformation Center in Brooklyn, MD has a weekly clothing and food distribution program for over 100 people and it is growing. We partner with them weekly through resources, food, and volunteers to make it happen. But it doesn’t stop there.  In fact, this is only a stepping stone in the vision they have for the future of the community that includes a scholarship based school, job program, GED program, etc. You can find more information at:

The Transformation Center (click here.)

And their Facebook page (click here.)

The Well runs mentorship programs, especially for at risk women and children in the Curtis Bay area. They want to empower people to change, so it's not a hand out, it’s a help up. We just partnered with them for their Christmas toy store where over 1200 toys were available at the cost of $2 per toy, so that parents could have Christmas presents for their children. Their vision and information can also be found by clicking on these links for their website and Facebook pages:

The Well (click here.)

And their Facebook page (click here.)

The Broken Wall is in Catonsville and they seek to reach as many people in their area as possible, especially by working through the local school, North Bend Elementary School. They have been welcomed with open arms into the community and the school in order to bring about lasting change for the better.  They do a lot with the youth in the area and are able to reach them through activities especially sports.  You can find their information by clicking on these links:

The Broken Wall (click here.)

And their Facebook page (click here.)

For more information about The Church at Severn Run you can click here.

Adrienne Castle is one of Dankmeyer's Patient Services Coordinators.  Many of the projects she lists above are independent of the church.  She notes that many school programs require community service to graduate and some of the links she provides above might be helpful to those looking for ideas to complete their service hours.  Prison and addiction programs are limited to those 18 and over.