Nutrition Seminar, come one, come all

Mary Ann Moylen, dietician at Willow Grove Giant Supermarket. I refer everyone I know to her.

If I live 2 miles from the Willow Grove Giant Supermarket, why did it take me 20 minutes to get there this morning?

We were having a nutrition seminar by Mary Ann Moylen and I didn't wanna be late. 11 a.m. was the starting time.

The traffic on Davisville Road, which I dub the Willow Grove expressway, was so thick it took me 3 minutes to make a left onto it. Add to that the arrival of the train.

I park my car in a section away from the fray and relish the luxury of being able to walk briskly in the sunshine, with an occasional glance at my shadow, and let the sliding glass doors swallow me up.

I take the stairs. And there was Mary Ann at the top. My sister Ellen was off to the side.

Are we the only ones here? I asked in desperation.

No, said Mary Ann, there's two more in the room.

Oh no, I thought. My worst fear. Four people to hear this woman's words of wisdom.

By 11:20, many more people showed up. I had gone to massive lengths to advertise the program, phoning people that very morning, and having sent email reminders to vast numbers of people.

When I told Scott I thought we had about 16 people, he actually thought it was a lot.

We had 5 people from a drug halfway house. They only stayed halfway thru the lecture.

One of em said she liked my sweater. "Four bucks at Impact Thrift," I said. I handed out two copies of my Yes I Can book which I told them tells the story of my manic-depression.

We also had a married couple from NAMI who told me they had a married bipolar son who is doing very well.

The main thing about the lecture is understanding the concept of healthy eating. You've gotta balance every meal you eat and every snack. Otherwise your body can't use the food properly. It goes to waste.

Eat protein with every meal or snack plus a starch such as bread or cracker and a carb such as fruit or veggie. The woman sitting next to me was astonished she never knew this before. "It's gonna change my life," she said to me.

Chatting w/Mary Ann at the end, she said she'd gotten three of our people to sign up for one of her consults. I was happy for her. I also realized, hours later, I'd forgotten to give her a special New Directions gift. Kremp's grows their very own sunflowers so I'll probly bring her one next week.

I was particularly pleased to see a newcomer who drove in from Doylestown. You're the actor, I said. He hooked up with our Mike who runs our hiking group.

I'm trying to get funding for Mike's Hikes. Mary Ann suggested I asked store manager Shawn and told me he was standing right there out in the lobby.

The two of us hurried on out where I gave my spiel. He listened politely and said he was certain 'corporate' would not be interested in funding Mike's Hikes.

Any ideas? I'm thinking of simply sending out a donation letter and asking people to donate $25 or more apiece for this very worthy cause which...

- increases the physical health of our members
- increases our awareness of our beautiful and valuable environment
- shows the community that people with mental health concerns are assets to the community and might spur them on to do their own nature hikes and also think better of folks w/mental health issues, thus helping abate stigma

Actually, you know what? I think I convinced myself to start a letter-writing campaign.