NEREG and its patients have been really busy all of 2010:
We organized and participated in a lot of Epilepsy Walks, educational conferences for patients, booths, and even sponsored a baseball game at Dutchess Stadium to promote epilepsy awareness.
VIEW COMPLETE PHOTO GALLERY
1) EPILEPSY WALKS are excellent ways to raise donations for organizations dedicated to epilepsy and raise a lot of awareness and questions when hundreds of people band together to walk through a public area. Our teams are made up of our patients, our doctors and office staff. We were the Silver Sponsors of the two Walks for a Brighter Tomorrow organized by the Epilepsy Foundation of New Jersey and the Lunch Sponsors for the Stroll for Epilepsy organized by the Epilepsy Foundation of NENY.
Check out the pictures of our teams walking in Seaside Heights and Edison Park, NJ, Poughkeepsie and Dutchess County, NY! (bottom of this page)
May 16: Walk for a Brighter Tomorrow, Seaside Heights, New Jersey. Team Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group: 24 members and $2034 raised. NEREG is the Silver Sponsor.
June 6: Stroll for Epilepsy: Dutchess to Ulster Over 200 “strollers joined in and over $22,000 was raised in total. NEREG was the Lunch Sponsor
June 6: Sara’s Fifth Annual Walk for Epilepsy: 100 “walkers” in total.
Oct 10: Walk for a Brighter Tomorrow, Edison Park: +$110,000 was raised in total through the two 2010 Walks for a Brighter Tomorrow. Team Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group: 24 members and $2550 raised and Team Latinos Unidos contra la Epilepsia: 13 members recruited and $345 raised. NEREG was the Silver Sponsor
2) EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCES for patients: Our best ally is a well educated patient and loved one. In order to get to that goal, we organized a LOT of patient conferences throughout the year. And we spread them out in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to reach as many people as we possibly could since we know transportation can be hard to get.
Check out the pictures of the speakers (bottom of this page). Remember, all the lectures are available on our website under the Events tab for you to print out if you are interested in one of the topics.
New Jersey:
May 22: Epilepsy: Diagnosis, Treatments and Social perspectives: over 60 Spanish speaking audience members were introduced to updated information on epilepsy, social stigma and heard a moving patient testimonial.
Oct 2: Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group’s Second Annual Conference for Patients and caretakers: A fascinating array of topics in epilepsy diagnosis, treatment, surgery, devices, psychology, safety, legal assistance, among others were heard by the audience.
Oct 30: Epilepsy Advocate Event: NEREG’s Dr. Georges Ghacibeh was the medical speaker
Nov 6: Understanding Epilepsy organized by Overlook Hospital and the Epilepsy Foundation of New Jersey
New York:
June 3: Epilepsy Advocate Event: Dr. Olga Laban was the medical speaker
Sept 14: Educational Dinner for Patients: Drs. Chris Lambrakis and Gonzalo Vazquez-Casals were the speakers with 50 persons in attendance.
Connecticut:
Oct 16: Epilepsy Today Symposium organized by Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group and the Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut with simultaneous English and Spanish speakers.
3) BOOTHS are important ways to reach a diverse group of people who happen to be at a walk or a health fair. If you provide well-written educational material and have knowledgeable staff on hand, it can be very powerful way to spread awareness and education of the general public.
Check out all the booths we had at a baseball game, Hispanic Heritage Day, Autism Speaks Walk, National Caregivers Conference, and hospital lobbies. (bottom of this page)
July 3: Raising epilepsy awareness in a totally different place: Dutchess Stadium-home of the Renegades. The Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group was the sponsor that night providing the fireworks and placing posters about epilepsy and a booth in key stadium locations
July 25: Hispanic Heritage Celebration in Valhalla, NY: Dr. Olga Laban of White Plains Hospital Center’ Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group was present and answering questions.
Oct 23: Autism Speaks Walk, Suffern, NY: Ann Marie Bezuyen, Executive Director of our Epilepsy Life Links was present and answering questions about services for epilepsy patients
Oct 26: National Caregivers Conference, Woodbridge, NJ: Ann Marie Bezuyen and Dawn Brace were there representing our Epilepsy Life Links group and answering questions posed by caretakers
Nov 18: Epilepsy Awareness Day at the White Plains Hospital Center: Dr. Olga Laban and Ann Marie Bezuyen present.
4) Let’s hear what the Audience had to say: We are so happy that it seems like our patients got a lot out of our educational conferences. We loved to hear the positive feedback from some of the people who participated in some of our events this year and want to share with you.
CONFERENCE TESTIMONIALS
1. The conference was great! I am a nurse and work with children who have seizure disorders in a pre- school for special needs children. I will look forward to your next conference as will other nurses I work with. Thank you again, Carolyn Toth
2. One of the sessions with the video presentations of sleep eeg monitoring of complicated cases will definitely help a lot of medical people about evaluations. Umakantha Sannesy
3. Words can't express how overwhelmed I was attending the Conference. (In a good way) Here in Rockland County for 40 yrs there's been just an office with the name Epilepsy something or other. The one or two people in the office could never answer any questions or guide you to anyone who could give you information. (My son was diagnosed with Epilepsy 40 yrs ago). I was a young mother scared to death. So you can imagine when I went to the Conference how I felt. It was as perfect as perfect could be. It was just wonderful I loved it. Words can't express how grateful I am that you've brought this issue out of the closet, brought every type of professional associated with Epilepsy together in one place and gave such support to those who have epilepsy and their families. Thank you so much for your wonderful work. I'm so glad that I can access the presentations via an internet site.
Thanks so much - Best Wishes, Jackie Delaney
5) SCHOLARSHIPS: We are really thrilled about having given out ten scholarships this year. It is really important and healthy for kids to have the chance to go to summer camp and we helped nine little children do just this. We are also so happy to have given out a college scholarship to Travis Thompson and wish him the best in his future career.
This year the Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group is proud to have granted 9 ($250) summer camp scholarships and one ($1000) college scholarship to persons with epilepsy of all ages. Congratulations to all the winners!
August 23, 2010
Dear Doctors of the NE Epilepsy Group:
I would like to thank you for selecting me as a 2010 scholarship winner. I will use my scholarship funds to continue my studies in Business Administration at Monroe College. I completed my Associates Degree in June 2010 and will continue towards my Bachelors Degree. Upon graduation I plan to begin a career in business management with a large company. I would like to encourage other patients with epilepsy to pursue their education and their dreams. Epilepsy does not have to hold you back it should be motivation to work harder and go after what you want in life. I am thankful for the wonderful doctors at NE Epilepsy Group, especially Dr. Lambrakis who has treated me for several years and for giving me this opportunity. I appreciate the interest you’ve taken in me and the support you’ve given me to continue my education. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Travis Thompson
2010 $1000 College Scholarship:
Travis Thompson
MonroeCollege
18 year old
Moving Wheels & Heels Intensive Dance Workshop
“I can learn many different dance styles with music to express myself. It makes me happy. I can make new friends.”
9 year old
Welwin Farms
“I would like to go to camp this summer so I could be with my friends and have fun riding horses because it’s my favorite thing to do.”
19 year old
Camp Warwick
“Camp Warwick is so much fun because you get to swim in a pool there, and there is a dance there, and a talent show and you get to hang out with the counselors there and have so much fun.”
14 year old
Camp Courage
“At camp I feel like a different person.”
11 year old
White Plains YMCA
“I would like to go to camp this summer because I was always sick with seizures all my life and I never got to go and do sleepovers. I end up playing video games and watching TV all summer.”
6) SUPPORT GROUPS: Our epilepsy support groups are up and running again until June 2011 (when we will take a break during the summer). Patients are encouraged to attend; these groups give a real sense of community and also give patients a chance to hear mini-lectures on epilepsy topics throughout the year. There are many locations to choose from and there are groups for teens, adults, veterans and in Spanish. Go ahead and click to see all the groups that are available; there may be one close to you.