Wellness Center needs a home base
Cancer support program has funding, seeks location
BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer

Ilene Winters with her late mother, Cissie.

Ilene Winters is not Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz." She can't just click her heels together three times to find a home.

Winters must reach out to the community and hope that someone will come forward with a suitable location for the cancer support center that she has been so instrumental in getting started.

Winters said last week that after laying the groundwork and fundraising for the past 18 months, the wellness center is ready to open, so it is essential that a temporary home be found.

"The programs are in place and people have been calling, but we don't have a place. Help is needed to find a suitable location for this essential facility," she said.

The Northern Jersey Shore - Diney Goldsmith Center is part of The Wellness Community, a national organization based in Washington, D.C. It is the largest support program in the country devoted solely to providing emotional and psychosocial support to people affected by cancer.

The cancer support center will provide free services to people in Monmouth and Ocean counties. The center's development is the result of the hard work of Winters and Barry Goldsmith, both of whom lost loved ones to cancer in 2004.

Goldsmith's wife, Diney, lost her battle with breast cancer after a valiant six-year fight. Her dream was to bring nonmedical therapies to people in her community who have been affected by cancer.

Winters' mother, Cissie, was a breast cancer survivor for 27 years, but died after a two-year battle with aggressive ovarian cancer. Her daughter realized that the cancer community could use more support and partnered with Goldsmith to bring free programs and services to the area.

Among the services the center will offer are: weekly support groups led by psychotherapists, networking groups, educational programs, nutrition and cooking classes, light exercise and social events.

Winters explained that until now, people affected by cancer could find some of these programs and services in the community, but not all of them under one roof.

"People with cancer are often weak and unable to travel from place to place," she said. "Having a facility where a person can go to experience many different nonmedical therapies can truly make a difference in one's quality of life and well-being."

Once the center finds a home, people will be able to attend a support group, take a yoga class, or participate in a cooking class.

"At the same time, their friends and family members can also attend programs and participate in groups," Winters said.

Goldsmith said the center needs an "angel" to provide a haven for a few years so it can begin to offer free services to those in need. He explained that ideally the site will be a 4,000-square-foot space in a safe, convenient, handicapped-accessible location with adequate parking.

"We are looking for anyone sympathetic to our cause to offer any number of scenarios: a rent-free building until [the center] is up and running; or a building at reduced rent for a few years; or best of all possibilities, a donated building for however long they need it," Goldsmith said.

"Our long-range plan is to get something for three to five years to get started, and then go on a capital campaign and purchase our own building," she said, adding, "Preferably, we would be looking for a home-like setting, but of course would move into anything if it makes fiscal sense for us," she said.

She explained that 25 other wellness communities around the country are in older homes, single-story office buildings, strip malls, and one is even in an abandoned mansion.

"They exist in all different forms, but the key is that people feel calm, comfortable and relaxed once they get to The Wellness Community," she said.

Winters said so far $206,000 has been raised from fundraising events held during the past year and a number of fundraisers are planned for the coming year.

"We have a ladies' luncheon at Barry Goldsmith's house planned for Sept. 14, a golf outing planned for Sept. 21, and we are taking a team of runners and walkers to the Reggae Marathon in Jamaica the weekend of Dec. 2."

She explained that the Reggae Marathon program, called Strides for Hope, is where people raise money for The Wellness Community in return for an all-expense paid trip to a destination to run or walk a full or half marathon.

"We are event-heavy this year because we have found that corporations and foundations are not quick to fund organizations that are not up and running and offering programs. Once we are open (the goal is by the end of 2006), foundations and corporations will be more likely to give us money, and we can have fewer events," she explained.

Winters asks anyone who knows of a location, has a referral and/or would like to serve on the facilities committee, to call her at (732) 263-0444 or e-mail to Ilene@twcjerseyshore.org.