Each session will be held at the Radisson Hotel Duluth (505 W. Superior St.) in the Great Hall from 6:30 – 8:30 pm. Prior to each session from 5:30 – 6:15 pm, facilitators will lead listening circles in the foyer to give attendees a chance to talk about their concerns.

January 26, 2012
Title: Steppin’ Up With Courage
Speaker: Alana Friedman, MA, National Olweus Bullying Prevention Trainer

• General overview/definitions of bullying
• The roles of bullying
• How to intervene when you observe bullying

March 1, 2012
Title: Understanding Power and Abuse
Speakers: Nathan Kesti and Ed Heisler, Men as Peacemakers

• Overview of issue/definitions of bullying
• Understanding power, control and abuse
• Creating communities free from bullying and abuse

March 29, 2012
Title: Becoming an Advocate for Change
Speaker: Ron Lake, MSW, LICSW, Climate Coordinator, ISD 709

• Overview of issue/definitions of bullying
• Understanding behavior as functional and communicative
• Using the tool kit to advocate for change

The cost to attend is $10 per session. Register online at www.slhduluth.com/classes-programs and select Class Information & Registration. Or, mail a check payable to St. Luke’s Hospital to Education Department (Bullying), St. Luke’s Hospital, 915 East First Street, Duluth, MN 55805. These sessions are sponsored by the Miller-Dwan Foundation, St. Luke’s Hospital and the St. Luke’s Foundation.

Parents, teachers, health care practitioners and community members are welcome to attend this session. 2.0 contact units of continuing education are available through Essentia Health.

More about the speaker: Dr. Emmons received training in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction from Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and completed a Bush fellowship studying the integration of natural and alternative therapies in psychiatry. He has co-developed and facilitated “A Year of Living Mindfully” and “The Inner Life of Healers” programs through the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality and Healing. He practices general and holistic psychiatry and consults to several colleges and organizations in and around Minneapolis-St. Paul. He currently practices general psychiatry at The Penny George Institute for Health and Healing at Abbott Northwestern Hospital.

If you plan to attend:
Date: Thursday, January 19, 2012
Location: Holiday Inn Great Lakes Ballroom (200 West First Street in Duluth)
Time(s): 5:30-7:30 pm (doors open at 5:00 pm)
RSVP: There is no cost to attend, but please call the Miller-Dwan Foundation at 218-786-5829 to reserve your seat by January 16

Looking for a great gift idea? You can also make your gift in honor or memory of a loved one. Click here to learn more.

Happy holidays from your friends at the Miller-Dwan Foundation!

• Cancer Treatment/Radiation Oncology Services
• Burn Care
• Mental Health Services
• Adolescent Chemical Dependency Services
• Physical Rehabilitation
• Specialty Surgical Services

The following grants were awarded in 2011:

Miller-Dwan Foundation Unrestricted Fund

$50,000 to the University of Minnesota, Duluth Psychology Department to examine parent participation and beliefs in child and adolescent partial hospitalization programming.

$20,500 to Well Being Development to expand Ely’s Northern Lights Clubhouse, a program designed to support educational, employment and life goals and reduce social isolation of those who are suffering with mental illness.

$30,000 to Essentia Health Nutrition Services to purchase a Calorimeter that will allow burn and rehabilitation patients to receive the most accurate up-to-date medical nutrition therapy available, improving patient outcomes, enhancing health, decreasing patient days on ventilator and decreasing numbers of days spent in the Intensive Care Unit.

$13,950 to the Caring Ways Cancer Resource Center located in the Duluth Clinic to study the impact of expressive writing and journaling on the emotional/social well-being of cancer survivors.

$2,580 to Essentia Behavioral Health’s Intensive Outpatient Program for Young Adults. Funding will allow the program to add a new twice-per-week yoga session to its current psychotherapeutic group work. The provision of yoga will help modulate the stress, increase emotional awareness, and allow patients to more adeptly manage thoughts, feelings and behavior in conjunction with the cognitive behavioral therapy currently offered.

$3,000 to the Essentia Behavioral Health Adolescent Chemical Dependency Program to update the patient and family education resource library.

$5,000 to Essentia Health – Duluth Clinic Social Work Services for patient emergency funds that will provide a safety net for cancer, wound care, and  physical rehabilitation patients in the event that an emergency would preclude them for accessing necessary health services. 

$5,000 to Memorial Blood Centers for a Leuko-Reduced Red Blood Products Cell Refrigerator for the processing of blood for our region.

Van Gorden Fund of the Miller-Dwan Foundation focusing on physical rehabilitation

The Van Gorden Fund provides support to organizations in our region dedicated to providing people with injuries or physical disabilities assistance to reach their highest possible level of function. The following grants were awarded from this fund.

$22,580 to the Scottish Rite Clinic for Childhood Language Disorders to help attract a new Speech/Language Pathologist and replace a copy machine.

$4,780 to CHOICE, Unlimited to add an advanced yoga class to its programming repertoire for people with disabilities, increasing the number of yoga classes from one to two.

$3,000 to the Minnesota Ballet for the weekly class “Creative Dance for Children with Physical and Developmental Challenges.”

$2,865 to Essentia Health – Miller-Dwan Medical Rehabilitation for the provision of weekly music therapy sessions that include the services of a harpist and certified clinical musician.

$12,229 to the Essentia Health Fitness and Therapy Center for equipment that serves elderly and disabled individuals.

$8,000 to Courage Duluth for the 2012 Great Lakes Mono-Ski Madness which provides instructional mono-skiing opportunities to people with spinal cord injuries and other low extremity disabilities via three-day mono ski camp for children and adults.

$51,418 to the Polinsky Medical Rehabilitation Center Voice Rehabilitation Program for Stroboscopy, digital laryngeal imaging equipment that will enable practitioners to provide local state-of-the art voice disorder assessment and treatment for patients who’ve experienced stroke, trauma and other disorders that affect their ability to speak.

$65,175 to Essentia Health – Miller-Dwan Rehabilitation for the Hocoma Armeo Spring, equipment that works to reeducate the neuromuscular of the upper arm for patients who have suffered a stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury or other diagnosis with muscular atrophy.

$1,600 to Essentia Health Rehabilitation for Rehabilitation of the Client with Hemiplegia: Functional Standing and Ambulation, training designed for the Essentia Health neurological disorders rehabilitation team.

$4,744 to the Essentia Health Therapy and Fitness Center for Kinesio Taping training, a muscle taping method that enhances the body’s natural healing processes and provides muscle support that can be used with all patient populations in all areas of rehabilitation.

Since opening in 2007, Solvay Hospice House and its compassionate caregivers have provided dignity, comfort and peace to hundreds of local patients. This holiday season, visit Super One Foods, purchase one or more paper house ornaments, and make a difference in the lives of local hospice patients and families who will call Solvay Hospice House home.

Look for our displays at each check out counter!

List of participating Super One Foods locations:
Duluth: Kenwood, Lakeside, Miller Hill Mall, Plaza, West Duluth
Superior: Belknap, East 5th, Oakes
Cloquet
Two Harbors
Hibbing

ARTcetera 2011 featured 137 silent and live auction items, live music and dancing with the Randy Lee Ensemble, and special guest and music legend Judy Collins, who sang and spoke about her personal struggle with depression and the tragic death of her son by suicide at age 33. 

While ARTcetera attendees ate dinner in the DECC’s Harbor Side Ballroom, Dave and Lisa Goldberg surprised the audience with a challenge: they offered to match every dollar raised throughout the evening, up to $250,000. The audience responded enthusiastically and met the challenge goal with generous gifts.

The $500,000 raised will be used for building Amberwing, the children’s mental health and chemical dependency center that is currently under construction in Duluth and expected to open in 2012. We are continuing to raise the remaining $300,000 left to reach the project’s $6,000,000 construction goal.

Since its inception 13 years ago, ARTcetera has raised a net of more than $2.3 million to advance medical initiatives in our region.

The $6 million, 22,000-square-foot center is scheduled to open in the fall of 2012 and will serve up to 60 young people per day.

Donors, staff and friends of the Foundation will be on hand to supervise as Board members help break ground. Among those scheduled to speak are Don Ness, Mayor of Duluth; Diane Bodin-Link, Miller-Dwan Foundation Vice-Chairperson; Dr. Tom Patnoe, Essentia Health President and Chief Medical Officer; Dr. Steve Sutherland, Essentia Health Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Section Chair of Psychiatry; Rick Gertsema, Essentia Health Behavioral Health Psychotherapist; Patricia Burns, Miller-Dwan Foundation President and Sister Kathleen Hofer, Essentia Health East Region Board Chair.

If you come: Take Rice Lake Road to the the Summit Ridge Apartment lots on Boulder Drive. The entrance to this lot is directly adjacent to the construction site entrance. We received special permission to park in the lots on the left side. Once you park, walk back down the drive to Rice Lake Road and then over to the construction entrance.  (Look for the Foundation staff, who will be helping direct traffic!)

If you plan to attend, please give us a call at 786-5829 to let us know. We hope to see you there!

We have a truly spectacular line up of live and silent auction items this year, including exclusive international travel opportunities, unique experiences and dinners, luxury items, jewelry and fine art. Just a few of this year’s artists include Anne Labovitz, Ann Jenkins, Cathee Clausen, Adu Gindy, Tim Cortes, Pam Dull, Adam Swanson, Craig Blacklock, Michael Tonder, Donalee Kennedy and Henry Royer.

The event’s signature live auction item is an English countryside mini-cottage, custom designed by architect Rebecca Lewis of DSGW, constructed by carpenter Keith Olafson, designed by Suzi Vandersteen of Kitchee Gammi Design Co. and furnished by Slumberland-Hayward, with additional donations from numerous individuals and local businesses.

Since its inception 13 years ago, ARTcetera has raised a net of more than $1.8 million to advance medical initiatives in our region. Every dollar raised at ARTcetera 2011 will be used to create Amberwing, an innovative mental health and wellness center that will support youth and parents in achieving greater health and happiness. Ground is being cleared now for this 26,000 square foot building scheduled to open in 2012.

ARTcetera will be held on Saturday, October 15 starting at 5 pm in the DECC’s Harbor Side Convention Center and Ballroom. Tickets are $150 or $250 and may be purchased online or by calling the Miller-Dwan Foundation at 218-786-5829. A limited number of $250 VIP tickets include special seating and a private reception with Judy Collins.

Tickets are available now – click here to register!

1. Vote daily online: Visit www.refresheverything.com/amberwing

2. Text your vote: Text 107608 to PEPSI (73774). Standard text messaging rates apply.

3. Power vote: “Power vote” by using a code from specially-marked Pepsi products to earn up to 100 votes. This is the fastest and easiest way to make your votes really count!

4. Spread the word: Pass this message along via email, Facebook, Twitter, and your other social networks so we can continue to spread the word and gain votes!

If we receive the $50,000 grant, it will go towards the last $700,000 in building costs for Amberwing, a $5.5 million Duluth-based mental wellness and chemical dependency center for children, adolescents, young adults and their families. Construction started just last week; we plan to open the doors next summer.

Please vote often. Every vote counts. Thanks for your support!