Press Room
Below you will find our current newsletter/calendar, press releases, articles about The Gathering Place and by members of our staff.
You can also browse information about our tool Someone I Love is Sick: Helping Very Young Children Cope with Cancer in the Family, a customizable book designed to help very young children understand cancer in a parent or grandparent.
Contact Kristina Austin, MSEd, LSW, Director of Community Relations and Marketing with questions or for more information. To contact by phone call 216 595-9546.
April-June 2011 Calendar
THE GATHERING PLACE OPENS THE RICHMAN FAMILY WELLNESS CENTER
All Sun – Saturday, June 11, 2011 – “The Gathering Place in Beachwood opens the Richman Family Wellness Center.” The road to recovery for cancer patients just got a little easier, thanks to the opening of the Richman Wellness Center. Read more …
Cleveland Jewish News – Friday, June 10, 2011 – “Gathering Place opens facility.” The Gathering Place has opened The Richman Family Wellness Center, a new exercise facility in Beachwood. Located at 23295 Commerce Park across from The Gathering Place East, the wellness center’s mission is to offer exercise programs free of charge to individuals diagnosed with cancer. Read more …
Beachwood Patch – Friday, June 10, 2011 – “New Gym for Cancer Survivors Opens in Beachwood.” The Gathering Place has opened a new facility for cancer patients who want to get back to the gym. Read more …
SUN NEWSPAPERS REPORTS ON PARTICIPANTS WHO ATTENDED RACE FOR THE PLACE
Parma Sun Post – News Sun – Monday, May 30, 2011 – “Parma breast-cancer survivor wants to give back to gathering place.” Laura Yedlick wants to give back. She has gained so much over the past four years. Read more …
Sun Messenger – Sunday, May 29, 2011 – “Gwen Goss does not let cancer stop her from running. “ The hospital had a tough time identifying just what as causing Goss’ chest pain. Read more …
Sun Star Courier – Sunday, May 29, 2011 – “Positive attitude helps Strongsville resident battle cancer.” In January 2010, Strongsville resident Martha Randell was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. Read more …
Brunswick Sun-Medina Sun – Friday, May 27, 2011 – “Two-time cancer survivor is always looking forward.” Armed with an old-fashioned glass cutter and diamond head, cancer survivor Vikki Sabo scores a small, colored piece of glass out of a larger pane, fusing it to another diminutive piece of glass. Read more …
Sun Press – Thursday, May 26, 2011 – “Feldman pushes on despite brain cancer diagnosis.” Dan Feldman has fought back against his brain cancer and feels great, thanks to support from The Gathering Place. Read more …
Sun Post Herald – Thursday, May 26, 2011 – “Gathering Place helps Fairview park woman find the new normal.” Katie Geiger didn’t realize just how much her first mammogram would change her life. Read more …
Sun Sentinel - Thursday, May 26, 2011 – “Bay Village woman says Gathering Place’s Parachutes program is big help for her daughter.” For Bay Village resident Marie Lowther and her 9-year-old daughter Lilly, the best part about The Gathering Place is Parachutes, a biweekly support group for children dealing with the illness of an adult family member. Read more …
STAFF AT THE GATHERING PLACE COLLABORATE ON ARTICLE IN THE CLEVELAND WOMEN’S JOURNAL – CLEVELAND – February/March 2011
After finishing treatment for cancer or any chronic illness, it is normal for people to feel anxious and fearful that their disease might return. Fear affects everyone to varying degrees. Accepting this and focusing on ways to help yourself manage those feelings is the key to dealing with your fears. Read more…
INSPIRING PLACE OF HEALING
GCCreative Studio Blog
One of the many things to appreciate about the holiday season is the spirit of giving and interconnectedness. Candice and I visited a place that embodies that spirit throughout the year.
The Gathering Place is an amazing place, located in a business park on the east side of Cleveland (they also have a west-side location in Westlake). Their mission is to support, educate and empower individuals and families touched by cancer through programs and services provided free of charge.
It is most certainly “a community of sharing and support that promotes healing and wellness.” Read more…
THE GATHERING PLACE AND UH IRELAND CANCER CENTER WIN LIVESTRONG GRANT,
Local Organizations Are Top Vote Getters in National Voting Campaign
CLEVELAND–Nov. 15, 2010 –Thanks to Cleveland’s social media power, The Gathering Place & University Hospitals (UH) Ireland Cancer Center are winners of a LIVESTRONG® Community Impact Project award. LIVESTRONG, an organization founded by Lance Armstrong to serve those affected by cancer, created the awards to fund cancer support programs in communities nationwide. Read more…
EILEEN SAFFRAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE GATHERING PLACE,
Speaks at Ladies Who Launch Global Conference -
CLEVELAND-September 2010
Ladies Who Launch Website
The Gathering Place is the realization of a dream for Featured Lady Eileen Saffran, LISW-S. In over two decades as a clinical social worker facing the constraints of health care, she envisioned a place for people touched by cancer to find the services and resources they needed integrated with their medical care and focused on enhancing quality of life with dignity and hope. Through a grassroots movement, Eileen followed her vision to launch Cleveland’s The Gathering Place, a community of sharing and support that promotes healing and wellness – all free of charge. Since its inception in 1999, The Gathering Place has helped over 20,000 people, which translates to more than 115,000 visits. Read more…
STAFF AT THE GATHERING PLACE COLLABORATE ON ARTICLE IN THE CLEVELAND WOMEN’S JOURNAL – CLEVELAND-August/September 2010
Every year, hundreds of women (as well as men) walk through the doors of The Gathering Place, a cancer support center with locations in Beachwood and Westlake, to learn or enhance ways to cope with either their own or a loved one’s cancer diagnosis. It’s a big step to walk through the doors because asking for and accepting help isn’t always easy, especially for those who are accustomed to being the one that others come to seeking help. Read more…
BEAUMONT SCHOOL’S ALIQUE TOPALIAN, CANCER SURVIVOR, IS GRATEFUL FOR THE GATHERING PLACE – CLEVELAND-June 3, 2010 – Sun News
Alique Topalian, a junior at Beaumont School in Cleveland Heights is a cancer survivor, but she doesn’t remember much about her battle with it. She was only 4 when she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer that starts inside the bone marrow. But Alique, 16, knows it was an intense experience for her family, and The Gathering Place assisted her family a lot during that time.Read more…
THE GATHERING PLACE OFFERS PATIENTS A PLACE TO WAGE WAR WITH CANCER CLEVELAND-November 2, 2009 – The Plain Dealer
In 1998, Eileen Saffran of Orange began to work on the blueprint for what would become Northeast Ohio’s first nonprofit cancer support center, The Gathering Place. She had nearly 20 years of experience in the health care industry as a social worker from which to draw. She also had the experience of being a daughter whose two parents were diagnosed with, and died of, the disease.The center opened its doors in January 2000. Since then, it has moved from its original space, a storefront with 6,100 square feet in Beachwood, to an expansive, 12,000-square-foot facility and added a West Side location. Saffran, 56, recently sat down with The Plain Dealer to reflect on the center’s beginnings and 10-year journey. Read more…
SUPPORT GROUP FROM THE GATHERING PLACE ESSENTIAL FOR YOUNG WOMAN WITH CANCER – CLEVELAND-November 2, 2009 – The Plain Dealer
She’s known as the Chicken Soup girl. Last January, 23-year-old Amy Chmielewski of Cleveland became a published author when a chapter she submitted was included in “Chicken Soup for the Surviving Soul: 101 Healing Stories About Those Who Have Survived Cancer.” It was only fitting that organizers of the annual Race for the Place, the biggest fund-raiser for The Gathering Place, asked Chmielewski to read from her chapter at the June event. Read more…
CANCER AFFECTS THE WHOLE FAMILY; COLUMNIST REGINA BRETT OFFERS TIPS CLEVELAND-October 14, 2009 – The Plain Dealer.
The kindergartener doesn’t like that her mommy is bald, so she avoids snuggling when the wig comes off. How do you explain to a 5-year-old that chemotherapy makes you cranky, that bald is temporary, that cancer isn’t catching? You read aloud Kathleen McCue’s new book “Someone I Love is Sick: Helping Very Young Children Cope with Cancer in the Family.” Actually it’s two books. One covers moms and dads, another addresses grandmas and grandpas. Both are geared for children ages 2 to 6. Read more…
PRESCHOOLERS COPING WITH A PARENT’S CANCER; HOW A NEW BOOK FROM THE GATHERING PLACE CAN HELP – CLEVELAND-June 23, 2009 – The Plain Dealer.
Kathleen McCue had been working at the crossroads of children and cancer for 30 years, but she could not find a book to help preschoolers cope with a parent’s cancer. They were too grim. Or too technical. Or they only talked about a specific cancer.”For preschoolers, it has to be very concrete and accurate and specific to the situation,” says McCue, director of children’s programming at The Gathering Place, a cancer support center with locations in Beachwood and Westlake. Read more…
HOW THE BOOK, SOMEONE I LOVE IS SICK CAN HELP PRESCHOOLERS COPE WITH CANCER IN THE FAMILY – May 2009 – Ohio Magazine. Cancer
It strikes fear in the hearts of everyone it affects – including children, who are often confused and frightened when someone they care about is diagnosed with it. Kathleen McCue, Director of Children’s Programming at The Gathering Place, a cancer support organization with locations in Beachwood and Westlake, has made it her mission to help allay that anxiety. Her new book, Someone I Love is Sick is geared toward helping children ages 2 to 6 understand and deal with the disease. Read more…
HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOUNG CHILDREN WHEN THERE IS A CANCER DIAGNOSIS IN THE FAMILY - March 2009 – Oncology Nursing News.
Communicating to young children about cancer can be difficult – the book, Someone I Love is Sick can help. For those afflicted with cancer, dealing with the illness is difficult enough. But when a patient’s family includes young children, the psychosocial components of the cancer experience are magnified immeasurably. Read more…
BLOGS
The Space Between
No Time Mom
On Healthy Survivorship
INTERVIEWS
Click here to see Kathleen McCue, Children’s Program Director at The Gathering Place on the The Today Show with Kathy Lee & Hoda on October 16, 2009
Click here to listen to Susan Marinac, program staff member at The Gathering Place on air with Regina Brett on October 16, 2009
Someone I Love is Sick is a unique, customizable tool developed by The Gathering Place to help very young children understand a parent or grandparent’s cancer diagnosis. The loose leaf pages allow families and health care professionals to choose the pages that reflect the specific cancer situation happening in the family and questions and emotions the child may be experiencing. Visit the website of Someone I Love is Sick for more information or to purchase the tool.
PRESS RELEASES
Someone I Love is Sick:Helping Very Young Children Cope with Cancer in the Family
Kristina Austin, MSEd, LSW
Director of Community Outreach and Marketing
austin@touchedbycancer.org or 216-595-9546
