Belly dancing event fights disease


Community pitches in time, money to help afflicted locals



By Joanna Hartman
Sierra Sun
July 11, 2007

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CHECK IT OUT
Sawtooth Ridge Cafe in Tahoe City will host “An Evening at the Casbah” July 13 and 14. Dinner is at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $75 and include both dinner and the show. Seating is limited. Tickets are available at Scraps Dog Bakery in Kings Beach, Sawtooth Ridge, Rainbow Bridge and New Moon Natural Foods in Tahoe City or New Moon in Truckee.

In 2002, Christine Karnofsky lost her brother to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative condition better know as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

This weekend she’ll produce a belly-dance extravaganza to raise money to benefit local residents affected by the same debilitating illness.

Karnofsky will host “An Evening at the Casbah” at Sawtooth Ridge Cafe in Tahoe City Friday and Saturday nights. All the proceeds from the event will go to the Expressions for Life Funding Foundation, which assists families who are impacted by the neurological disorder.

Karnofsky started the Mediterranean-themed event over a decade ago, but got sidetracked with other demands in 1997. This time around, Karnofsky has ulterior motives.

“We’re hoping to raise $10,000 if we can. I know it’s not a lot, but it’s a good way to start. And we can help some people with that,” Karnofsky said. “We’re here to pay a bill, pay a mortgage, provide cleaning, child care — just the daily needs that are so affected by this.”

Karnofsky has been a dance teacher and a dancer herself for decades. Of Greek heritage, she is particularly interested in belly dancing. She moved to North Lake Tahoe 20 years ago and has taught belly dancing in the region ever since.

“I love dancing and I’ve seen it all my life. [Belly dancing] ... is really a dance of life. It’s very passionate and expressive. It’s really a celebration of life. And that’s what this event is, too, a celebration of life,” Karnofsky said.

A handful of local residents and businesses are helping Karnofsky with her cause, including Sawtooth Ridge Cafe, which donated the venue.

“I’ve been very impressed with the pageantry and the dedication and the hubbub that’s come along with the rehearsal for the production,” said Nanci Davis, who co-owns the restaurant with her husband. “It has been very impressive.”

North Tahoe resident Kristen Mann has been taking belly dance classes from Karnofsky for about two years. When approached with the idea of dancing in a fundraising event, she jumped on board.

“Of course all of us said yes. It’s nice to be able to do a fundraiser for the community — and it stays in the community,” said Mann.

Mann said she and fellow dancers spend at least six or seven hours rehearsing for the show each week and many of them have donated their time in other ways, including with decorations and publicity.

“We’re dedicated,” Mann said. “It’s exciting — there’s a lot of energy.

Degenerative illness
ALS is a neuro-degenerative disease affecting the spinal cord and brain. Leg and foot muscles are controlled by motor neurons in the lower spinal cord. Arm, hand and finger muscles are controlled by motor neurons in the upper spinal cord.

Speaking, swallowing and chewing are controlled by motor neurons in the brain stem.

Karnofsky’s brother was just 44 years old when he discovered he had ALS and died within two years of his diagnosis.

“In my brother’s case, he was a strapping guy,” Karnofsky said. “He basically suffocated to death at the end. His heart was still strong but he couldn’t eat or drink. It’s always fatal, there’s no cure.”

While there are no known local support groups for ALS, Karnofsky said people here are indeed affected by the incurable disease — a Kings Beach resident died of ALS last year, she said.

Karnofsky said she intends to continue hosting the Casbah event to raise money to benefit community members impacted by Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

“I know funding for research is critical, but the immediate needs of the family aren’t necessarily met [by national foundations]. I wanted it to be for the community we live in. For people to be able to pay to see this event and know that the money if going directly back into our community, I think is really important,” she said.
http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/...1011/-1/REGION

2nd Annual Hot Air Balloon

Golf Ball Drop & Fund Raising Raffle

October 15, 2007

5:00 P.M.

Someone will win:
1st Prize: $1,000
2nd Prize: Durham Bulls skybox for one regular season game
3rd Prize: Free foursome of golf at TPC Wakefield
4th Prize: 2 lower-level tickets to a Hurricanes regular season game
5th Prize: 4 tickets to the State Fair and 4 ride ticket books

The ALS Association-Jim “Catfish” Hunter Chapter Golf Ball Drop will take place at 5 p.m. on Oct. 15, 2007, at the TPC at Wakefield Plantation in Raleigh, N.C. More than 1,000 golf balls will be dropped from a hot air balloon and the people whose balls fall closest to the pin win! You may reserve as many golf balls as you’d like for $10 each.

To participate, print this form and send it, with a check made out to "ALSA" for the number of golf balls you’d like to reserve, to the address below. You do not have to be present to win.

The ALS Association
Jim “Catfish” Hunter Chapter
120-101 Penmarc Drive
Raleigh, NC 27603

Good luck!

Fundraiser to benefit ALS

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By Patrick Ball
GateHouse News Service
Thu Jul 12, 2007, 10:44 AM EDT

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Bedford, Mass. -
By Patrick Ball
Staff Writer

Serenity Yoga Studio will hold a July 20 fundraiser in the name of Mary Ann Whitmore, a Bedford resident who was diagnosed with ALS in November. Admission is free, and 100 percent of the proceeds will be donated to Compassionate Care ALS, per the request of Whitmore.

The event will be a workshop entitled “Explore Intuitive Healing,” in which local healers Leslie Gabriele and Joel Kaplan will be donating their services.

Toni Bradley, owner of Serenity Yoga Studio, hopes to raise awareness about ALS, because it is “the kind of disease we hear about on TV a lot, and we have someone here in Bedford with it.”

Bradley said Gabriele had been asking to help promote Serenity for some time. As conversations progressed, Gabriele suggested the event could benefit a charity, and Whitmore, with whom Bradley began doing yoga in late April or early May, immediately came to mind.

“I was really very moved by her story. … She’s 51 years old – a young woman with young children, and she relatively recently got the news that she was dealing with this disease. Her determination to keep her family as normal as possible and trying to adjust to the huge changes happening to her body, and dealing with this. [ALS] is not a curable disease, and the lifespan is relatively short. To retain as much normalcy as she can – it’s just a huge adjustment in a short period of time,” she said.

She said organizations like Compassionate Care operate outside the medical community, but are instrumental to the healing process.

“Compassionate Care deals with the practicalities that these people have to deal with,” said Bradley. “They deal with, ‘OK, here’s how you live with this disease.’”

Gabriele described Compassionate Care as the “gold standard of ALS help.

“They’ve helped Mary Ann quite a bit. When we told her we wanted to do a charity event, she said she wanted it to go there. Compassionate Care has supplied her with the things she needs to maintain some kind of lifestyle,” she said.

“Explore Intuitive Healing” has not been advertised, save flyers at the studio and on the Web site, serenityyoga.com. Still, Bradley and Gabrielle expect a good turnout – somewhere between 30-50 people.

Gabriele said Kaplan’s healing powers were strengthened by a near death experience.

He died for approximately 10 minutes, and “revolutionized the defibrillator system in the United States,” when he was shocked seven times (instead of the typical three) and “came back without brain damage and with gifts,” she said.

Gabriele said her powers developed over time.
“Unlike Joel, I did not have a tragic event. I just slowly but surely took responsibility for what I consider a gift,” she said. “It’s like you’re doing it, and it’s really working, but it takes a while to let it in – it’s not concrete and it’s not average.”

Gabriele said both she and Kaplan “work in the moment,” so the recipients of the healing will have as much an effect the event’s outcome as the healers.

“We will encourage people not to try to figure out what’s going on, but to trust their feelings and heart to get things done,” she said.

“If you try to figure out what we do, and you figure it out, please let me know. I can’t figure it out logically, but I know after years of this, it can help people feel better. And I’m hoping that’s what happens when we get together at Serenity Yoga.”