The Vero Beach Heritage Center was stitched up with skein after skein of yarn at the Indian River Arts & Concerts event last Saturday evening, which featured singer/songwriter Sarah Lee Guthrie to benefit the cancer support group Friends After Diagnosis. Attendees had been asked to bring skeins of pink and teal yarn, which will be used to knit meditation blankets for women dealing with the devastating disease.
Event organizer Cathy Woolsey, a former merchandiser for Arlo Guthrie, recently began holding monthly concerts at various venues around town, opting to focus on a different charity each month and provide the nonprofits with a platform to share their mission.
“It gives artists passing through a venue to play their music between gigs,” Woolsey explained, noting that the evening was fashioned after similar small-space “house concerts” which have become popular in recent years. “And to be able to help out the nonprofits makes it even better. We all need to give back.”
Thomas Wesley Bowman opened the show playing some of his original music before Guthrie shared her original works as well as some old favorites; her instrumentals and vocals a rare treat for the appreciative audience.
Sarah Lee Guthrie grew up in Sebastian and is the youngest daughter of folksinger Arlo Guthrie and granddaughter of Woody Guthrie. Additionally, from a personal standpoint, her mother Jackie eventually succumbed to a second bout of cancer after having beaten breast cancer 12 years earlier.
“This is what it’s all about,” said Guthrie. “The arts and community should work together, and Cathy has the right connections to bring in some big names. I think people are drawn to this type of venue for the original music.”
Lin Reading was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001 and founded Friends After Diagnosis to assist others through their own experiences. Seven years after its inception, the group continues to support survivors, caregivers and loved ones by nurturing the mind, body and spirit.
“We began meeting once or twice a month as a breast-cancer support group at the hospital. That’s all we ever envisioned it to be. There was just so much need for so many other things it just grew into so much more,” said Reading, noting that the group has grown from six cancer survivors to 35. “There were so many resources in the community but no one was pulling them together and I felt like that was something I wanted to do.”
They hold four meetings a month at Sebastian River Medical Center and the First Presbyterian Church in Vero Beach, with programs that include education, speakers and life-affirming activities such as participating in equine therapy and Pilates.
A new Row Beyond Diagnosis eight-week program in partnership with the Vero Beach Rowing Club will kick off with a demonstration at noon on Jan. 29 at MacWilliam Park Boat Basin, on the northeast side of the Merrill Barber Bridge. Studies show that exercise reduces depression and fatigue, improves bone density and quality of life, and has been found to reduce relapse rates in cancer survivors.
“I think it’s going to be a great program for survivors and we’re opening it up to survivors of all female cancers, not just breast cancer. All the women are very excited to be going to a rowing class,” said Reading.
For more information, visit FriendsAfterDiagnosis.com. On Feb. 5 Indian River Arts & Concerts will feature the Celtic group Runa.