Spa Day Cares for Those Who Need It Most

For women living with breast or ovarian cancer, the JCC’s Shirley Kohn Spa Day--now in its 13th year--serves as a much-needed respite from the daily stress and worry that having a devastating illness can bring. But they aren’t the only ones who benefit. The event volunteers, some of whom have had cancer and been participants at past Spa Days themselves, get as much, if not more, than the attendees.

Volunteer Yelena Strakhan has done "a little bit of everything” at Spa Day for the past four or five years, and every year plans her schedule around the event, which takes place in June. (This year's event is scheduled to take place virtually on Sunday, June 28.) Strakhan is a firm believer in "paying it forward. Spa Day is always a priority for me," she says, "and it's a wonderful experience to bond with others for whom giving back is also a priority."

Tina Crockett has volunteered at five Spa Days. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, she says, there was nothing comparable available. A friend going through treatment urged her to volunteer, and she never looked back. "Between Reiki, massage, and movement, there's a really peaceful feeling," she says. "There's really a sense of belonging." Monica Hughes first attended Spa Day in 2014, after she was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer, and the fear she felt was immediately eased. From the greeting she received to the massage to the catered lunch, "it was beautiful. I had to come back and tell someone else about my experience.” She has been a volunteer since 2016.

Learning from Listening

Spa Day began at the Comprehensive Breast Center at Roosevelt Hospital, now a part of the Mount Sinai Healthcare System, says Caroline Kohles, the JCC's senior program director for health and wellness, but very quickly patients were saying they didn’t feel comfortable going to the hospital for complementary care, which included Spa Day. That feedback inspired the hospital to ask the JCC to host the next Spa Day. Roosevelt ran the event, enabling Kohles and her staff to see how it was done. The next year, when the JCC took it over, Kohles and her team were able to “treat women living with cancer to a beautiful day of pampering and renewal.’’

In 2013, Spa Day was named in memory of Shirley Kohn, a past chief development officer at the JCC, who had ovarian cancer. The JCC's Cancer Care program began to build from that point. Alison Estabrook, M.D., chief of what is now known as Breastlink New York, Mount Sinai's Comprehensive Breast Center, was able to provide medical expertise and guidance. "We learned as we went," Kohles said. "Together we became experts in listening to what cancer patients needed and wanted most in complementary care to aid in their recovery.

"This communication became crucial to increasing our knowledge," says Kohles. “We asked, what did they want to see, what was most effective? Spa Day became an organic way of learning about this population from the inside out." Future programming, both in the Cancer Care program and Spa Day itself, was based on that intel.

The desire to replicate the success of Spa Day throughout the year was the impetus for the many programs now offered at the JCC through a partnership with Breastlink, whose mission is to help women with expert breast cancer treatment, prevention, imaging, and diagnosis. Most JCC Cancer Care programs are free to those being tested or treated through Breastlink; for those being treated or tested elsewhere, there is a discount of 50%.

Celebrating Vitality Together

At Spa Day. participants sign up for the morning or afternoon session, and do most activities--including Nia dance, Moving for Life, art therapy, yoga, and breath work--as a group. There’s also a keynote speaker. Twenty massage tables and 20 Reiki stations are set up for treatments, and lunch is served in the auditorium. Women go home with a generous goody bag and an orchid. Volunteers welcome and check in participants; set up and break down massage tables and Reiki stations; prepare lunches; and more. Over 40 massage therapists and 60 Reiki practitioners volunteer their time. Twenty-five to 30 volunteers help set up the day before, and 25 volunteers show up on Spa Day itself, to give the experience of a lifetime to the approximately 85 women who attend each year. Priority goes to first-time attendees.

While It’s not uncommon for new volunteers to fear they may feel depressed by being with those currently living with cancer, says Kohles, "exactly the opposite happens. Spa Day is so much about life and celebrating vitality."

That the day is free to participants is especially important. "Cancer is expensive," says Kohles. The fact that Spa Day is a one-time experience, rather than a continuing class, and on a Sunday, makes it very accessible--and welcoming to all. (Spanish interpreters are on hand, and some ongoing programs are in Spanish or bilingual as well.) “Breast cancer doesn’t discriminate,” says Kohles. “Everyone comes together to help people feel like people, not patients,” adds Yelena Strakhan.

Kohles says, “People who haven’t experienced Spa Day have told me that they didn’t know the JCC had a spa. "We don't," she tells them. "We create one."

Cancer Spa Day is cosponsored by Breastlink New York, the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, SHARE, Sharsheret, Young Survival Coalition, and Movin’ On Aerobics. It is made possible with support from Sandy and Ron Diamond in memory of Paul and Ethel Diamond and from Christine Schwarzman in honor of the good work of Caroline Kohles, a gift from Morgan Stanley, as well as the generosity of other individual donors.

Sherri Lerner is the former editorial director at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan. She has written and edited for numerous publications and is currently on the staff of the Wechsler Center.