Monday, July 24 found me deep in thought throughout the 13.5 miles walked about the individual members of the Native American Support Group, and in thankful reflection for Sheena Greenstone, the NAU Doctoral Counseling student from Shonto, Arizona who led the support group for over a year. I feel incredibly lucky that Sheena was available to help CSCAZ launch this very important support group. She helped each member of the group share their story and assisted them to determine ways they could support one another through the touch-point of the group despite the fact they didn’t know each other before joining and come from different Tribes, backgrounds, and beliefs. Their common thread is cancer and their common goal each week is finding ways to make a difference in each other’s lives. They have been open through sharing their journey and receiving nurturing from one another.
We hope that this group will continue to grow as we outreach to those Indigenous individuals across Tribal lands and in rural and urban centers across Arizona. This group is an example of an ethnicity-centric group, inviting individuals to share their journey with others who may share similar beliefs in the roles of traditional medicine and western medicine.
In addition to the specialized Native American Support Group, CSCAZ has launched other weekly specialty groups, such as the Youth and Teen Support Group (no longer meeting), the Men’s Only Support Group (meeting each Monday afternoon/evening), and the Breast Cancer Support Groups (one in person in Flagstaff on Tuesdays and one on Zoom on Thursdays) in addition to other cancer-specific groups that meet once each month. These, combined with weekly patient and caregiver support groups offer a wide range of options for those interested in joining a support group. Details about each group, along with meeting dates/times are on the programming calendar for both central Arizona and northern Arizona found on the cscaz.org website and in the flyer linked below.
Tuesday, 7/25 I will be walking in memory of Marisa Bowen and in honor of Rich Bowen. Back in the fall 0f 2021, Rich and Marisa shared the following sentiment with us during our “I Care Because I’ve Been There” grand-opening campaign.
“People want to help – let them.”