GROWW E-Mail Newsletter
February 15, 2003	Volume 1 Number 4
Editor · Pat Sirni Associate Editor · Margot Hill Newsletter Staff · Angela Dyer · Lori Petersen GROWW Officers · Anne D’Ambrosio, Executive Director · Ted A. Modjeski Jr. Deputy Director GROWW Staff · Libby Morningstar, Director of Branches · Pat Sirni, Grief Recovery Room Manager · Rachel Frank, Message Board Manager · Phil D’Ambrosio, Director of Security	Message from the Executive Director - Anne D’Ambrosio Well, the Fundraiser continues, to date we have raised $325.00 in donations from our members. Please remember to send in a contribution if you can. It is fully tax deductible, we are a non-profit company approved by the IRS 501c3 corporation. We have quite a ways to go just to cover the chatrooms, but I have faith and know that we will reach our goal of approximately $2,500.00 to pay for the chatrooms in advance. We are a member of GuideStar. The National Data Base of non profit organizations. You can look us up and see what we’ve posted in past years. www.guidestar.org type in GROWW in the search Mission Mission Even a product like 'care' needs funding. The GROWW program is made available at no charge to the bereaved community because it is the right thing to do. The cost to join this community is high enough. GROWW needs support however, to continue in this manner and to be able to meet the increasing numbers finding the comfort we provide. Linkage is provided to additional resource sites and services to allow visitors to take advantage of the full capabilities of the Internet. GROWW offers many areas where the bereaved can share experiences with their peers. The success of GROWW's interactive environment is measured by the number of men, women and children who move on and the numbers who remain to volunteer their support to the newly bereaved. . Comments Measurements of success in the pursuit of grief recovery are impossible to discover especially when the covenant of anonymity is supported. Our success stories can be found in the message boards of the website, (especially "Email to Heaven") and the numerous sites on the Internet who choose to link to GROWW. Corporations, Union shops and associations are welcome to bring their bereaved to GROWW to assist in the grieving process and the return to productivity. There are no dues or fees. As a condition of using this site, you agree to follow GuideStar's policies, including the policy that any resale of this information or use for commercial gain is prohibited, except in accordance with a GuideStar® licensing agreement The above can all be found on the GuideStar page. Meet Your Host Our featured host this month is JoDee. She has been coming to GROWW since July 2000 and is a host in Reluctant Angels, our room for those who have lost a loved one to suicide. JoDee lost her 21 year old daughter in 1998. She is married and has two teenage sons. She also has 2 grandchildren. JoDee graduated from college in January 2002 and is currently a substitute teacher. She especially enjoys teaching in the school that her grandchildren are attending and would like to gain a permanent position there in the near future. When asked what advice she would give to someone who is new to grief, JoDee replied “This is a very different world for you, be gentle on yourself, you will find a new “normal”. It won’t be the same but it will be OK. Grief is a very lonely process because no one else had the same relationship with your loved one as you did. Come to GROWW, talk and lean , while we can’t know exactly what you are going through we have probably had many of the same feelings.” JoDee credits GROWW and the many friends that she found here with helping her on this painful journey through grief. She says “I found people who would walk with me and let me lean on them for whatever I needed. I was allowed to repeat my story over and over, somehow just typing it out and finding I wasn’t alone helped me accept the things I have no control over”. With the love and support from hosts like JoDee, GROWW will continue its mission of reaching out to those who need us. Message from the Director of Branches - Libby Morningstar Yes it is February, and yes Valentine's Day has come and gone. How did you do? Isn't it times like this that you just want to yell? You remember your loved ones. You miss them and the people around you are either suffering along with you...or they just don't get it. A death in your life is significant to you. Wouldn't you like to tell the world to stop and look at your pain? Well the world can't stop, so for that comfort you are seeking, you have the many branches of GROWW. With it's many branches to meet your needs, GROWW continues to grow in compassion and caring. One of our most active areas in GROWW would be our Heavenly Angels group. This group is headed by Maggie, but is enhanced by all the caring people she has assembled to host with her. Heavenly Angels deals with the loss of a child. It matters not the age of your child it is still your child. While we never compare deaths, this has to be one of the hardest losses. As parents we never expect to see that beautiful child we brought into the world die before us. There is just something not natural about that, but it happens everyday. Heavenly Angels meets every evening except Sunday, and has recently added more times to their already busy schedule. Through the Chat Index and Site Map select Heavenly Angels and check out all the meeting times available. As always we are here for you. GROWW is continuing to feel the pulse of our members and trying our best to meet your needs. Our rooms were created with love and caring for all who have experienced the death of a loved one. As that Valentine's Day heart is filled with love and hope, we want to give you hope of a better tomorrow. Guest Columnist NORMAL Grief If you think you are going insane, that's NORMAL If all you can do is cry, that's NORMAL. If you can't taste your food or have any semblance of appetite, that's NORMAL. If you have feelings of rage, denial, and depression, that's NORMAL. If you find yourself enjoying a funny moment and immediately feel guilty, that's NORMAL. If your friends dwindle away and you feel like you have the plague, that's NORMAL. If your blood boils and the hair in your nose curls when someone tells you "It was God's will," that's NORMAL. If you can't talk about it, but you can smash dishes, shred up old phone books, or kick the garbage can, that's NORMAL. If you can share your story, your feelings with an understanding listener, that's a BEGINNING. If you can get a glimmer of your beloved's life rather than his or her death, that's WONDERFUL. If you can remember your loved one with a smile, that's HEALING. If you find your mirrors have become windows and you are able to reach out to other bereaved persons, that's GROWWING. If you would like to submit an article for publication in this newsletter, please send your submission to newsletter@groww.org Angel Paths – Ted Modjeski Our Angel Paths page at http://groww.org/pathsmile/ is provided for our members to share their poetry and inspirational writings. We have many creative authors among us who have a wonderful gift, and we thank them for sharing their talent with us. Phil’s Fix It Corner - Phil D’Ambrosio While most of us are in the coldest part of the year I’d like to talk about that magic box on the wall that controls the comfort level we all take for granted, your Thermostat. Thermostats do two things: (1) Compare the thermometer reading of a room's temperature to the "ideal" thermostat temperature you select. (2) Give start-and-stop commands to the heating or cooling system in order to achieve an indoor temperature that is as close to your "ideal" thermostat setting as possible. By doing those two things, a thermostat plays the role of a "comfort detective" in your home. First order of business and most important is where we place it. Ideally, the thermostat should be located in the part of the house where people spend the most time. It should be about 5 feet (1.5 meters) off the ground and at least 18 inches (46 cm) away from an outside wall. It should not be exposed to any heat sources other than the air in the room, such as sunlight, other appliances, heater vents, windows or hot-water pipes. It is also best not to put a thermostat near a stairway or in a corner because they affect the circulation of air. A digital thermostat can do a few things that your standard mechanical thermostat cannot. Newer electronic thermostats are far more accurate than older, manual thermostats. An older thermostat could allow temperature variations of up to five degrees. New electronic thermostats can be accurate to within a half a degree. That means less wear and tear on your furnace and air conditioner from too much turning on and off. One of the most useful features of a digital thermostat is its programmable settings; you can set four different temperatures for each day of the week. Thermostat setback is simple: when you need heating or cooling, you program the thermostat to order your system to work achieving the ideal temperature. But when you don't need as much heating or cooling, you program the thermostat to "setback" the ideal temperature for awhile. On a winter night, for example, you and your family are comfortable under blankets and don't need the whole house heated to 72 degrees. So you'd program your thermostat to setback the temperature to say, 65 degrees from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., and then bring it back to 72 degrees so the bathroom floor is nice and warm when your bare feet hit at 6:15. Just that simple nighttime setback can save you up to 15% on your fuel bills. Initial purchasing may range in price from anywhere from $25-$100, depending on how may functions you want it to perform. This is made up in cost savings easily. If you turn down the heat 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 degrees Celsius) for 8 hours a day, you can save about 1 percent of your heating energy costs. Turn it down 10 degrees F (6 degrees C) to save about 10 percent. The same goes with the air-conditioning: Turn the temperature up 10 degrees F for 8 hours a day to save approximately 10 percent on your energy bill. And you can achieve the same kinds of savings with summer cooling setbacks when the house is empty during the day, or after you've fallen asleep in your cool, comfortable bedroom. HelpGROWW – Ted Modjeski We have just finished the upgrade on our HelpGROWW website. It was literally rebuilt in its entirety. Each of the 20 pages had a much needed face lift. All pages were created on a common template with the menu displayed on the left side of each page. The same menu in a different format is displayed at the bottom of each page as well. We are proud of the new site and hope it will improve our fundraising efforts to keep GROWW maintain its status as the “Premier Grief Support Site” on the internet. Please take some time to look over the new pages and give us your opinion. And while you are there look over the many ways you can HelpGROWW.
GROWW, INC.© Judy Divers 11877 Douglas Rd - #102-PMB101 - Alpharetta GA 30005 501(c)(3) Non-Profit EIN: 59-3445877	Recipes From Members Stephen’s Mediterranean Chicken 5 chicken leg quarters or breasts (cut up pieces) ½ - ¾ cup olive oil 1 ½ teaspoons minced garlic ½ teaspoon salt (optional) 2 teaspoons Greek Seasoning (Cavender’s) ½ teaspoon basil 1 teaspoon oregano lemon juice Mix oil and seasonings together. Hand rub all over chicken. Marinate for 12-24 hours in refrigerator in a tightly sealed container. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rerub chicken and sprinkle additional Greek seasoning on it. Bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours. To include potatoes cut up potatoes add melted butter with salt, pepper, Greek seasoning, basil and oregano and bake with chicken. If you would like to submit a recipe for publication in this newsletter, please send your submission to newsletter@groww.org To unsubscribe to this email click reply with UNSUBSCRIBE in the Subject Line. For questions about this Newsletter or to submit an article, email newsletter@groww.org