Helping Hearts, Blog of Anne Sanders

February is a short but love-filled month. It’s a month when we think of others for various reasons, be it the Random Acts of Kindness week or Valentine’s Day. It also needs to be a month that we think about our own hearts. As the proverb goes, “guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Selfish, you might say, but important and not just in a spiritual way. According to the Centers for Disease Control, cardiovascular disease—including heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure—is the number 1 killer of women and men in the United States. It is a leading cause of disability, preventing Americans from working and enjoying family activities according to the American Heart Association. Million Hearts® is a national initiative to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. If you’re not sure of the state of your heart, there are some ways to find out. Million Hearts ® has a Heart Attack Risk Calculator, A My Life Check and Heart 360 which helps you tr...

OK, out there, who’s heard about Thon? You may be thinking of a well known telethon or marathon but this is a special kind of thon—a danceathon that started 41 years ago. Penn State's THON is the longest dance marathon in the country lasting 46 hours and engaging more than 15,000 students each year. It starts tonight at 6 p.m. and will go until 4 p.m. on Sunday. After 46 hours of staying on their feet, the students get a taste of the daily hardships that children fighting pediatric cancer endure. Other students and families come support the dancers throughout the weekend. Attendees always look forward to "The Final 4 Hours," which includes Family Hour, when every family battling pediatric cancer is recognized and families give speeches about their battles with cancer To date , THON has raised more than $101 million   to benefit the Four Diamonds Fund providing money to offset the cost of treatment that insurance does not cover as well as other expenses of...

Today is Valentine’s Day. Yesterday I had to stop at the store and I saw a guy coming out as I went in with a big box of chocolates under his arm. Then I saw another perusing the red nighties and flowers looking for something his loved one might like. Big pink and red hearts are everywhere and usually filled with chocolate. That’s my kind of heart. Well, not really. My blog and website are called Helping Hearts. If you look under the title on my website, there’s a passage from the bible. Proverb 4:23. “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” It’s packed in a wisdom-giving part of the bible just before admonitions to Keep your mouth free of perversity;       keep corrupt talk far from your lips. 25  Let your eyes look straight ahead;      fix your gaze directly before you. 26  Give careful thought to the [ c ] paths for your feet      and be steadfast...

  Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net   Okay, I’m overwhelmed. My new Christian novel Behind the Stage is coming out in two weeks. I’m getting my website ready, researching credit card machines you can use on your smartphone, setting up book signings and all this is on top of what I am usually doing (work, school, Relay for Life steering committee and, oh yeah, taking care of my family).  Not only that, but next Friday is the celebration of several great events, not just Valentine’s Day. It’s National Donor Day , V-Day , and International Book Giving Day . It’s also part of Random Acts of Kindness week and February 15 is National Make a Blanket Day . Whew! Now I’ve got that all said, I can’t write about all of those things in one week, so a few will have to wait until later.  It’s funny. I’ve had this feeling of being overwhelmed many times and also the feeling of having no control over things. But once I’ve decided that I can’t do it ...

I’ve talked about a lot of things on this blog. About women’s mental health, about men’s prostate cancer, about being raped when I lived in Japan and my thyroid problems. It hasn’t always been bad. I’ve also talked about how wonderful it was to raise money to fight back against cancer and the angels that helped me do it. Now it’s time to talk about something I’ve never covered before—cervical cancer. It’s Cervical Health Awareness Month. I have to be honest. I’ve never had it, but I’ve known many people who have had tumors and have had their ovaries or cervix removed because of them. In fact, I was so aware of this being a problem for women that I read a book about Fran Drescher’s experience having gynecological cancer. Her book and website is called Cancer Schmancer and is about how it took eight different doctors over two years of symptoms to finally diagnose her uterine cancer. Most of us don’t have the time, money or tenacity to go through that yet if we’re diagnosed ear...

This year marks the 20 th year of the federal AmeriCorps program. AmeriCorps is the network of local, state, and national service programs that connects over 80,000 Americans each year in intensive service to meet community needs in education, the environment, public safety, health, and homeland security. AmeriCorps’ members serve with more than 2,000 non-profits, public agencies, and community organizations. Today, I am interviewing AmeriCorps member Trevor Sikes about his experience in AmeriCorps. 1.       You’ve been an AmeriCorps member for how long now? Tell us a little bit about yourself, how you learned about AmeriCorps, and why you applied to the program.   My name is Trevor Sikes and I’m originally from Saratoga, Wyoming.   I went to college in Olympia, Washington at the Evergreen State College and majored in foreign affairs and cultural studies.   I have been an AmeriCorps NPRC member for about a year and a half. I am current...