"Get In Touch" March 2010 Newsletter

Here I am with GIT Mom-Extraordinaire, Kathy Brechon, mother of our 19-year old "Get In Touch Ambassador of Hope" Amy Brechon. Amy was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was ony 13 years old.

Get In Touch did the Chicagoland tour last month, signing up schools from Naperville to Madison, Wisconsin! Kathy and I were interviewed by the Rockford Register Star, along with the school nurse at Amy's Alma Mater, Belvidere North High School. Check out the article below, which prompted a phone call from an 81-year old
16-year breast cancer survivor who informed me that because of our Girls' Program & Daisy Wheel,
she finally feels hope in the world of breast cancer.

By Mike DeDoncker
ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR

BELVIDERE - Based on the experience of former student Amy Brechon, an awareness of breast health may be no stronger at any Rock River Valley high school than Belvidere North.

That awareness could be reinforced by a program offered to the school this week by Mary Ann Wasil Nilan, founder and executive director of the Get In Touch Foundation which advocates teaching girls in grades 5 through 12 the importance of and how to do a breast self-exam. The Connecticut-based foundation honored Brechon - a breast cancer survivor after she discovered a lump at age 13 - as its 2009 Woman of Strength last fall and asked the high school for a chance to present its program.

"I'm talking to the other school nurses to see what they want to do and if they are as receptive as I," Belvidere North school nurse Phyllis Dake, who met with Wasil Nilan on Tuesday, said in a telephone interview. "It's promoting health and having the connection with Amy just seems the reason to bring it home."

Dake said she sent information about the foundation's program to the nurses at Belvidere High and Belvidere Central and Belvidere South middle schools to gauge their interest.

"If the middle schools are going to be involved," she said, "I guess that would have to be approved by the school board, but I'm assuming that if the nurses are on board that would pretty much be the determining factor." Dake said, if the other school nurses approve, going to the board would be her next step. Wasil Nilan, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2004 at age 39, said the foundation's copyrighted Get In Touch Girls' Program and Daisy Wheel "is not about breast cancer, it is all about breast health.

"We developed this program specifically because we want girls to be aware of their own bodies, to know what is normal for them. We target girls grades 5 through 12 specifically because fifth grade is typically the grade in which school nurses or health educators begin to talk to girls about health and hygiene and we feel like it's a golden opportunity to incorporate breast health practice into an educational program."

A key to the program is providing the foundation's Daisy Wheel that guides users through eight easy-to-understand steps or "petals" to a breast self-exam using age-appropriate language. The final "petal" encourages the user to discuss any concerns with their mother, a school nurse or teacher or another trusted person.

"You shouldn't be afraid to know what your breasts feel like," Wasil Nilan said. "Be smart, not scared. I say that over and over."

When a school joins the program, the foundation provides Daisy Wheels to a school nurse or another health educator who gets them into the hands of the students.

"What they do with it at that point is up to them," Dake said, "but the idea behind the foundation is that it's repeated year after year (from 5th grade through senior year) so that, by the time they graduate, they've heard it eight times.

"It's like washing your hands. You know the importance of doing it and you just automatically do it. You don't have to analyze why you put soap on your hands when you're washing your hands, so this concept will make it a learned behavior so you don't have to have this grand all-out effort."

The Daisy Wheels are provided free to the schools but students and faculty are asked to participate in a "GIT Your Pink On" Day on the third Friday in October each year and make a $1 donation to Get In Touch. The foundation also provides a free breast self-exam video on its Web site at getintouchfoundation.org.

More information about the program is available on the Web site or by calling 203-283-5127.

Click here to check out the interview with Amy in the Marquette Journal...
Get In Touch Girls' Program video shoot

Here I am with my hero, Principal Frank Glowaty, from SS Peter & Paul School in Naperville, Illinois
(home of Men's Figure Skating Olympic Gold Medalist Evan Lysacek!) I often tell Frank that
he taught me everything I know about development, marketing and providing the best education
possible to the most important people in the world - children!