Middletown Magazine January 2024

One Wish at a Time Make-A-Wish Kentucky Makes Lasting Impacts

Charles Dickens and Jim Porter A Literary Giant Meets a Real One

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26 PUBLISHER COREY BOSTON corey@townepost.com 502.407.0185 KEY CONTRIBUTORS CHRISTY HEITGER-EWING STANLEY HEWSON ERIN KINNETZ GAVIN LAPAILLE DAVE MATHEIS CARRIE PETTY GRACE SCHAEFER CARRIE VITTITOE

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ONE WISH AT A TIME

Make-A-Wish Kentucky Makes Lasting Impacts

10

A TIME FOR TRUST

CASA Volunteers Can Make a Difference in the Lives of Abused and Neglected Children

14

DOGGED PURSUIT MisPits and Friends Rescue Helps to Find Temporary Safe Haven for Dogs

20

CHARLES DICKENS AND JIM PORTER

JANUARY 2024

A Literary Giant Meets a Real One

25

14 26

WELCOME TO WELLNESS

Vyfy Wellness Club Helps Clients on the Journey to Optimal Health

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ONE WISH AT A TIME

MAKE-A-WISH KENTUCKY MAKES LASTING IMPACTS

the foundation’s largest chapter, serving 300 counties across three states. Stephanie McCormick is the chapter’s chief executive officer. Despite the large scale, McCormick and her team stay true to the very first wish, just like the parent foundation. “We have a very simple vision,” she says. “We grant wishes for children with life-threatening critical illnesses. It’s pretty phenomenal what a wish can do.”

But what is the true work of Make-A-Wish?

Simply put, the team uses funding to create a bright spot in a child’s - and family’s journey through serious illness. From a road trip to starting a YouTube channel, from getting a puppy to giving to the community, Make-A-Wish makes a child’s dream come true at the crucial time when it seems least likely.

And it’s not just a moment of happiness.

Statistically, Make-A-Wish children see improvements in emotional well-being and treatment compliance, and 80% say their Writer / Grace Schaefer Christopher’s mother, Linda Pauling, Photography Provided wish helped them fight their illness. With saw just how important that experience the local chapter planning to grant 1,200 was, and knew that the impact could last Stephanie McCormick and her team have a far beyond a single wish. With a group of of these life-changing wishes in fiscal year very special job - they’re professional wish 2023, McCormick emphasizes that the friends, she started a checking account to granters. fund the fulfillment of wishes like her son’s, nonprofit’s criteria for wish-eligible children has changed drastically since its inception. and the Make-A-Wish Foundation was Their history goes back to 1980, when Wishes are not only granted for children born. For such a successful and expansive Christopher James Greicius, a 7-year-old who are terminally ill. “It’s for children with nonprofit, it’s still relatively young. In fact, boy with leukemia, wished to be an Arizona in a little over 40 years, the foundation has critical, life-threatening illnesses,” she says. highway patrol motorcycle cop. When a created 59 national chapters and has over 40 “[There are] 200-plus qualifying conditions group of Phoenix-based police officers made international affiliates. that fall under eligibility for a wish.” that wish a reality - making Christopher their only sworn-in honorary member - no This year marks the 40th anniversary of the And with 14 children’s hospitals providing one could have guessed just how much good Make-A-Wish Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana referrals, Make-A-Wish Ohio, Kentucky & would follow.

Indiana aims to reach every child in need. chapter, as well as its 20,000th wish. It is 6 | January 2024 | TownePost.com

“That’s what we do,” McCormick says. “We are trying to keep it very basic and simple, even though granting a wish is incredibly complex.”

wish child.

“Sometimes kids say, ‘You know, I don’t need a wish,’ or parents say, ‘We don’t need a wish.’ ” McCormick says. “They think that they can afford to do this or to do that on their own, [but] it has nothing to do with money. This has everything to do with the journey and the experience, so we focus on the experience. It has nothing to do with how much money you make or don’t make.

We make the magic.”

To McCormick, the most important aspect of the foundation is the impact of a wish.

“There’s nothing more powerful than the smile of a wish child,” she says. “It’s life transformational, not only for them, but for the family, the wish-granting volunteer and the community. The transformation that I have seen in children and their communities Still, Nadene turned down the opportunity and their families has been incredible. This three times before, at the age of 16, she has been life transformational for me.” made her decision. “Her wish was to have built, at Indiana Dunes, a boardwalk “Usually I get asked, ‘What was your favorite wish?’” McCormick adds. “I always that goes all the way to the water’s edge, say, ‘The next one, and the next one, and the so that people with disabilities that are in wheelchairs or have a difficult time next one.’ ” walking can go put their toes in the water,” McCormick says.

But this kindhearted CEO can’t deny the special impact of a particular wish, and The chapter began work on Nadene’s wish in the case of Nadene, a young woman in last June. “The community came together Indiana, that impact doesn’t end with the

Stephanie McCormick

in such a huge way that [Make-A-Wish] built the first section of the boardwalk, and the community, in two weeks’ time, raised an additional $100,000 when they heard about her wish, to build the next section,” McCormick says. “They’re going to continue to do that every year until it covers the entire front of the state park. That’s the power of a wish.”

But the power didn’t stop there. A mother who attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony brought her 33-year-old, noncommunicative, wheelchair-bound son

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to the beach every day during the summer.

She brings him to the beach and down to the dunes every day because it makes him smile, but he’s never been able to go down to the water.

When the mother found out about the boardwalk she began to cry, realizing it would be the first time he would be able to put his feet in the water. Even though he was too old to go through the Make-A-Wish program, one selfless wish fulfilled his, and his mother’s, dream. “Now you tell me what kind of power that has,” McCormick says.

“It’s the wish that keeps on giving.”

The power of the wish isn’t unique to the Make-A-Wish staff. “We’re always looking for great volunteer wish granters,” McCormick says. “We’re looking for board members. We’re looking for committee members. We have a young leaders board.

We’re always looking for great young leaders who want to get involved in philanthropy.”

Whether donating funds, goods, airline miles, hotel points, vehicles, or taking the time to fulfill a wish as a volunteer, there is an avenue for anyone interested, and any contribution is welcome. “There’s Certainly there is great power in a wish fulfilled, not just for the child, but also for nothing more powerful than the smile of anyone and everyone around them - even, in a wish child,” McCormick says. “It is life Nadene’s case, fulfilling the wish of another. transformational, so I would ask everyone to “That’s what it’s all about,” McCormick says. join us in that magic.”

8 | January 2024 | TownePost.com

Make-A-Wish Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana certainly seems to have a bit of magic, and it’s not the sort of magic to disappear at the end of the day. The work continues, and each wish granted might be the fulfillment of yet another - compounding wishes, like Nadene’s boardwalk. Since that first wish in Phoenix back in 1980, these magic makers have been continuing their wonderful work without the slightest sign of stopping, and here in Kentucky it seems that the story is set to continue, with the focus always on one smile, one moment, one child.

One wish at a time.

To learn more about the Make-A-Wish Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana chapter, including how to refer a child and how to get involved, visit oki.wish.org.

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A TIME FOR TRUST

CASA VOLUNTEERS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF ABUSED AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN Writer / Christy Heitger-Ewing Photography Provided

Region. “We still have a lot of work to do in the area of child abuse prevention and a lot of kids who need support to overcome the trauma they have endured.”

Court-appointed special advocates (CASAs) are specially trained volunteers who give a voice to abused and neglected kids who need one.

Unfortunately, many kids do.

Nearly 2,000 children in family court (ages 0-18) had substantiated cases of abuse and neglect in CASA of the River Region’s seven-county service area last year. At the present time, 164 children are waiting for a CASA in Jefferson, Shelby, Spencer, Oldham, Trimble, Bullitt and Henry counties. Although Kentucky has dropped from number one in the nation in 2019 to sixth place in 2021, the child abuse rate remains nearly double the national average.

10 | January 2024 | TownePost.com

“While it is nice to see the ranking drop, we also have to recognize that due to the pandemic, many of the children during that time frame were still not being regularly seen in the classroom, at day care, on the practice field, and in other environments where abuse tends to be spotted and reported,” says Nicole Cardwell, director of development with CASA of the River

“Children and their families tend to receive more services when a CASA is involved,” Cardwell adds.

“Our CASAs get to really know the children and their specific situations. Then, they do a great job connecting them with resources like tutoring, medical and therapeutic services.”

CASA of the River Region typically trains between 50 and 60 new volunteers each year. They obtain most of them through word of mouth. People hear of friends who have volunteered and had a great

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Cardwell says one volunteer mentioned that she had heard about CASA on the radio, had seen them on TV, and had read about them in an article, so she took that as a sign that she was meant to become a CASA volunteer.

CASA volunteers undergo initial training to develop and strengthen the skills they need to be effective in the role. “Some people think you need to have a social work or law degree to be a CASA, but that is not the case at all,” Cardwell says.

“We provide extensive training and ongoing support to our CASAs. We have excellent volunteers from all different backgrounds, and more than half of our current CASAs work full-time jobs.”

The training is a 30-hour course.

However, CASA now offers inperson, virtual, hybrid and self-guided learning options to fit busy schedules, transportation or child-care constraints, and preferred learning styles. Upon completion of the preservice training, the time commitment is as little as one hour per week, depending on the case.

Initially, volunteers are presented with three to five different cases and get to select the one they think would be the

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best fit. Generally, new volunteers will take a case with one child, but it could be more perhaps a sibling group.

Volunteers check in on their kids weekly via phone, text, video chat and in person at least once per month.

“Because these kids have often been let down by the first caregivers they ever knew, building trust takes time,” Cardwell says.

The primary way volunteers build trust is through consistent communication and following through with their words and promises. On average, these kids go to three different homes over the span of their case.

“No matter how many homes or schools, or other variables in a child’s life change, their CASA follows them,” Cardwell says. “It’s that consistency that is so crucial.”

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events and individual donations.

“In our community, there are children who have endured unimaginable hardships due to abuse and neglect,” Cardwell says.

“We believe all children deserve a safe and nurturing environment, someone to stand by their side, and an advocate to be their voice of hope - especially children who have experienced abuse and neglect. As a CASA, you have the power to make a lasting impact on these children’s lives.”

Right now, the number-one way you can help is by becoming a CASA. If you do not have the time or the ability to volunteer right now, attending special events, making a financial gift, or simply spreading the word about the need for advocates to help children, are great ways to help.

CASA of the River Region is located at 982 Eastern Parkway, Box 9 in Louisville. For more information, call 502-595-4911 or visit casariverregion.org.

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DOGGED PURSUIT

MISPITS AND FRIENDS RESCUE HELPS TO FIND TEMPORARY SAFE HAVEN FOR DOGS Writer / Carrie Vittitoe Photography Provided

There is no shortage of worthy animal rescue organizations in Kentuckiana that work to keep dogs and cats off the street, and try to prevent them from being euthanized.

Many of them have local facilities where abandoned or unwanted animals can be housed and adopted. MisPits and Friends Rescue, founded in 2017, collaborates with many shelters and helps rescue dogs, but in a slightly different way than some of their peer nonprofits.

14 | January 2024 | TownePost.com

Janet Klein is friends with several of the founders of MisPits and Friends, and it wasn’t until several years ago that she became involved with the organization. “I was looking for something to do since my kids were grown,” she says. As a trained nurse she has a long history of taking care of others, so it seemed a natural transition to simply move to caring for four-legged individuals.

To help, Klein didn’t have to leave

the confines of her house, because MisPits and Friends does not have a facility to intake animals. It relies solely on foster volunteers who bring needy dogs into their homes until permanent placements can be made.

Volunteers coordinate on Facebook to help out when a dog needs to be in a foster home for a time. “We don’t ever place a dog that we don’t have a house for,” Klein says.

“We’re all in-home fostering.”

check with the vets they list to ensure they follow up on their pets’ health care needs.

The volunteers also check the references that potential adoptees have noted on their applications.

If adoptees make it through this first stage, MisPits volunteers reach out to meet them and any one who lives in the home, including other pets. Klein even walks the

perimeter of the yard to ensure it is safe for a new dog. If she notices something amiss, like a dip between the ground and a fence that could be dangerous for the dog, she will let potential adoptees know those things need to be fixed. “We do all those checks to ensure [the adoption] is going to be good for them and good for the dog,” she says.

Sometimes finding the best home for a dog means telling a prospective owner that

While the downside of not having a facility is that the organization members can’t help as many animals as they might want, there are special benefits for the dogs they do rescue. Because these dogs are in people’s homes, they are getting lots of attention and are frequently with other dogs, giving them a chance to socialize. “What makes it great is we get to know them and know what works for them,” Klein says. Having this intimate knowledge of the dogs makes it easier for MisPits and Friends to give adoptive families a strong indication of what type of living situation the dog will be most happy and successful in.

Because MisPits and Friends volunteers spend so much time and energy with the dogs they foster, they want to do everything possible to ensure an adoptive family is going to provide a permanent, lifetime home for the dog.

“The adoption process is three-tiered and pretty extensive,” Klein says. “If you’re not committed to filling out the application and going through the process, we would prefer you not adopt from us.”

Whether dogs are born into rescue situations or taken from a shelter, they haven’t had the best lives possible. In many ways, these animals have been failed in some way. “Our goal is for them not to be failed again,” Klein says.

The screening process at MisPits and Friends ensures that potential adoptees live where they say they do, and that there are no breed restrictions, due to neighborhood associations or apartment rental restrictions, for example. If potential adoptees have owned dogs before, MisPits and Friends volunteers

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the type of dog they think they want isn’t really the best dog for their particular living or working situation.

Many of the dogs that MisPits and Friends rescue come from other Kentucky counties that do not have a Humane Society, so Klein says they depend on rescue organizations. “If they can’t find any, their only option is to have the dog euthanized,” she says.

While MisPits will accept any dog breed, its name comes from the need to help out bully breeds, which are overbred and make up a large percentage of dogs that end up in shelters. “They are constantly being bred for a specific look and that look can cause health problems,” Klein says. Many dog owners still don’t spay or neuter their animals,

which leads to an overabundance of certain breeds as well. Because of these issues, MisPits and Friends is always looking for foster volunteers.

“There is much more need than we have capability to respond to,” Klein says.

Becoming a foster means being welcomed into a network of committed and compassionate volunteers who are always willing to offer their support and experience via the Facebook group. MisPits and Friends provides toys, food, cages and health care, so fosters don’t have to pay a penny for their fostering service.

For some foster volunteers, bringing needy dogs into their homes can become a little addictive. “When I first started, I would look at [volunteers] with five or six dogs in their house and I thought, ‘I

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am never doing that,’” Klein says.

“Never say never.”

Klein has experienced many personal benefits as a result of fostering dogs, including watching the dogs evolve and experiencing their unconditional love. “You walk out to the mailbox, come back, and you are a rock star when you walk back in,” she says. She’s also met and made friends with people through working as a volunteer.

Fostering isn’t without its difficult days. Klein says dogs can sometimes come to foster homes from hoarding or neglectful situations, and are filthy. However, she says this pales in comparison to seeing a dog go from being scared to feeling confident and happy. Even better is when a MisPits dog is adopted and its new family posts pictures and updates on the MisPits and Friends alumni

Facebook group.

Despite MisPits and Friends’ extensive application and adoption process, sometimes an adoption is a miss, but the organization stipulates that if for any reason an adopter can’t keep the dog, the dog is returned to MisPits and Friends. The dogs are microchipped, with MisPits and Friends listed as a secondary contact, so any lost or abandoned dogs taken to shelters will be returned to the organization if no owner can be located. MisPits and Friends doesn’t take its commitment to the dogs it rescues lightly, and hopes its adopters do the same.

For additional information on fostering, adopting and donating to MisPits and Friends, please visit mispitsandfriends.org.

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49. Bedazzled 17. Attorney’s field 50. Gremlin 19. Miss. neighbor 51. Meadow, in verse 22. Ran in the wash 52. Delay 23. Coleslaw and fries 25. “Seven Years in Tibet” 53. Company perk, perhaps role 54. Mandela’s org.

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Charles Dickens

Jim Porter

CHARLES DICKENS AND JIM PORTER A LITERARY GIANT MEETS A REAL ONE Writer / Dave Matheis Photography Provided

In January of 1842, Charles Dickens arrived in America for his first tour of the country. Not quite 30, he was already what we would now call a celebrity, having published five popular novels including “The Pickwick Papers,” “Oliver Twist” and “The Old Curiosity Shop.” “A Christmas Carol” would be published late in the following year.

During his five-month tour of the country he visited Boston, New York, Washington, Baltimore, Montreal, Toronto, Cincinnati, St. Louis and, briefly, Louisville, among many other places. He met with many notable Americans including Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, the Kentuckian Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, former President John Quincy Adams, and then-current President John Tyler in the White House. Just a few months after his tour 20 | January 2024 | TownePost.com

“HE WAS MODEST AND RETIRING, THE VERY SOUL OF HONOR AND HONESTY…HE WAS A GENTLEMAN OF INTELLIGENCE AND WIELDED A CONSIDERABLE INFLUENCE AMONG HIS NEIGHBORS AND FRIENDS.” —JIM POTTER’S EULOGY

he published a book detailing his experiences and impressions, called “American Notes.”

During his brief overnight stop in Louisville, he requested to see one person, “Big” Jim Porter, regarded as the tallest man in the world, himself a local celebrity. Porter was born in Ohio in 1811, just 10 months before Dickens was born in England. His family soon moved to Shippingport Island in Kentucky, a short distance downriver from Louisville. It is now part of the city near the Portland neighborhood.

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Porter was of normal size and growth until age 17. He was even described as scrawny. In fact, when he was 14 he began a brief career as a jockey at the Elm Tree Garden racetrack. At 17, however, he began to grow very quickly. It was said he could grow an inch a week. For a time he allowed himself to be measured and weighed weekly, and locals placed bets on how much he had grown that week. By the age of 30 he had reached his full height of seven feet, eight inches, and weighed 300 pounds. His hands were 13 inches long and his feet 15.

He apprenticed as a cooper (barrel maker), but became too large to do the job. He then worked as a carriage driver or hack driver.

In one Courier-Journal article, someone was reported to have said, “His head and body towered over the hack like the steeple of a church.” He toured the eastern

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United States in 1836 and 1837 in a stage production of “Gulliver’s Travels” with a company of dwarfs. It was through this tour that he gained a measure of national notoriety. P. T. Barnum once offered him the opportunity to travel with his circus, but Porter was not comfortable with that kind of attention and turned it down. He became an operator of drinking establishments in Portland, the most notable being The Lone Star Tavern.

And that was what he was doing when Dickens arrived in Louisville. Dickens had been visiting Cincinnati and traveled down the Ohio by steamboat along with Peter Pitchlyn, a Choctaw chief returning to his tribe west of the Mississippi after 17 months of negotiations in Washington. They arrived in Louisville around midnight and went directly to the Galt House. The next day, he is said to have sent a request to Porter to visit him at the hotel. It was reported that Porter said in response that if it was so important for the author to meet him, he could come to him. And Dickens did, going by carriage from the hotel to what was then the suburb of Portland, where he was to catch another steamboat to St. Louis.

Porter left no record of his impressions of their meeting, but Dickens described it briefly in “American Notes.” He noticed that “the Kentucky Giant whose name was Porter” seemed to have a “weakness in the region of his knees and a trustfulness in his long face.” The author had trouble imagining Porter as a carriage driver because of his size. He noticed that Porter had with him a weapon Porter dubbed “the Little Rifle,” which was actually about as tall as Porter. It was something he carried with him everywhere. After their brief discussion, Dickens wrote of Porter departing that he “went bobbing down the cabin, among men of six feet and upwards like a light-house walking among lamp-posts.”

Although he might have been impressed by Porter, Dickens was not overly impressed with Louisville or, for that matter, the United States as a whole. In “American Notes” he described the buildings in Louisville as “smoky and blackened,” not unlike those in his native London, since both cities primarily used coal for heating. He passed “a Magistrate’s Office,” (essentially a police station) which he described as “nothing but a little lazy, good for nothing front parlor, open to the street.” Of his trip from the Galt House to Portland, he said “the road was perfectly alive with pigs of all ages, lying about in all directions.”

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As for America, in “American Notes” he made clear that he abhorred the institution of slavery, although failing to mention that his British Empire had largely made it possible.

He also criticized the American press for not keeping the American people better informed.

Dickens’ fame and popularity as a writer only grew after 1842. He wrote 15 novels in his lifetime, along with many, many short stories and a number of nonfiction books. He returned to America for a speaking tour in 1867 and 1868, and included an apology for his past harsh words about the country at many of his stops. He died at his home in London after suffering a stroke in 1870.

As for Jim Porter, he continued as a tavern owner, although he expanded his establishment at what turned out to be the worst time. As railroad travel become more popular, travel by steamboat declined, and this significantly hurt his Portlandbased business in the 1850s. His appearance in “American Notes” did increase his fame and he remained a celebrity for the rest of his tragically short life. In 1859 he was found dead in his bed, and the cause was probably heart disease.

It is generally accepted today that Porter had acromegaly, a disorder of the pituitary gland that results in the production of too much growth hormone in adulthood. A benign tumor known as a pituitary adenoma is the cause in 95% of the cases. People who have the disorder can grow very tall with long arms and legs, and often elongated faces. Diabetes, hypertension, joint pain, vision problems and headaches are common complications. About three in every 50,000 people develop the disorder, which can now be treated by surgery and medication. Acromegaly was probably the cause of Porter’s heart problems that resulted in his death.

A eulogy printed in a Louisville newspaper shortly after his death read, in part, “He was modest and retiring, the very soul of honor and honesty…He was a gentleman of intelligence and wielded a considerable influence among his neighbors and friends.”

Information for this article was gathered principally from articles in the Louisville Courier-Journal and from the book “American Notes” by Charles Dickens.

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FORTITUDE IN THE NEW YEAR Also, we should remember that all suffer and all are in need of compassion. Our own pain can be a reminder of the pain that others experience and thus remind us of the need to What virtues do you hold most dear? If you had to prioritize help reduce the suffering of others. them in order of most importance, which one’s would be at the very top?

Fortitude can be a collective virtue just as much as an Writer / Stanley Hewson Photography Provided

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what virtues I consider most important, not just for myself, but what I admire in others as well. Fortitude is definitely at the top of my list. For if one were not able to withstand the onslaught of challenges that life brings, then it wouldn’t matter if one were also kind, generous, patient and compassionate. Much like the air travel rationale for putting on your own oxygen mask before helping others, it would be hard to be kind, generous, patient and compassionate if you had already given up and lost the will to be a positive force for good.

As we march into a new year, I encourage everyone to resolve to increase their fortitude when difficulty arises. To be strong when we are facing uncertainty and to respond to hardships with a stoic commitment towards overcoming those downturns of life.

individual one. Our community can and should face our shared challenges with a shared spirit of fortitude and grit, to overcome what may come our way. Let’s encourage one another to be strong as individuals and to be strong for one another.

Whatever 2023 brought your way and regardless of how you responded to it, look to 2024 with a determination to respond to bumps in the road with even more fortitude and strength than previously displayed. If we can be strong for ourselves, that means we’ll be more present to be strong for others as well.

Happy New Year!

TownePost.com | January 2024 | 25

Alane Paulley

WELCOME TO WELLNESS VYFY WELLNESS CLUB HELPS CLIENTS ON THE JOURNEY TO OPTIMAL HEALTH Writer / Gavin LaPaille Photography Provided

Alane Paulley rarely sits down. As the President and Chief Executive Officer of two different health and well-being companies, MagnaWave and Vyfy Wellness Club, Paulley has plenty of reasons to stay on her feet.

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Founded in 2006 by Paulley’s parents, Pat and Debi Ziemer, MagnaWave uses PEMF technology to help support animals’ overall wellness and optimize balanced functions.

went from selling four machines to eight machines to 25, 50, even 100 each month.”

Due to the increased popularity of the machines, Paulley set her sights on growing the manufacturing side of the business and expanding into elements focused on Initially, the Ziemers traveled throughout humans, while her parents began their North America providing MagnaWave wellness sessions, before focusing on selling retirement plans. AURA Wellness uses the same PEMF technology as MagnaWave, but machines in 2011. The following year, “I start my day at 5:30-6 a.m. to get in a is geared towards the health and well-being Paulley left her job as a producer at a local workout and take my children to school,” television station to join the family business, of humans. It is registered with the Food Paulley says. “Then I go to MagnaWave and Drug Administration as a medical and has since seen MagnaWave explode in offices where I have a standup desk and I device manufacturer and is certified to growth and expand into other areas. never sit down. I knock out all my emails meet federal regulations under the Medical and I have a meeting usually in the morning, “My dad was selling three to four of these Device Single Audit Program. From there, and then come over to Vyfy, and then back Paulley opened Vyfy in Middletown on machines a month at a $20,000 price tag,” over to MagnaWave and wrap my day up Watterson Trail, which houses PEMF Paulley says. “He mentioned to me on the there. Sometimes I’ll do full days at one or phone he needed help. I had two children of machine technology with other modalities the other - back and forth all day working my own and I didn’t see them a lot because I for recovery, pain relief and wellness all in with customers. I love talking to people on worked nights, so I quit my job and jumped one place. the phone.” ship to work for him. We rented an office “I knew a lot of people in this industry off Frankfort Avenue and he was able to MagnaWave offers the latest wellness teach me how to sell and grow the business. because I was in it,” Paulley says. “I ended technology to animals through pulsed up getting the best of the best equipment I started improving our website and online electromagnetic fields (PEMF), used to sales and training program. We very quickly and putting it all in one place, and found my 26 | January 2024 | TownePost.com

own procedure for getting optimum results - created something that is not like anything else in the area. We have the latest and greatest wellness equipment. If you have a problem that you’ve tried everything for and your only options are drugs or surgery, then we have a plan for you. We offer safe and alternative high-tech wellness that changes lives.”

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are the ones who don’t believe because they have nothing to lose, so come try it.”

There are also time-based and action-based “We can work out a plan for you and coach you in all things, including personal services, sold in monthly & individual training,” she adds. “As a woman who has session packages, for such services as float had three children, being in a gym where therapy, red-light sauna and hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Other services Vyfy offers you are intimidated, and around a lot of people and not knowing what you are include local and full-body cryotherapy, doing, is scary. Whoever you are, if you are cold plunge, intravenous infusion therapy, personal training, and aesthetics. Vyfy offers intimidated, we have an entire room that free initial consultations where someone on is just personal and we do entire workouts staff explains which machines and programs there.” can generate the most success. The target Vyfy stands out from other wellness clubs audience is anyone between the ages of 14 and 75 who have some sort of pain issue, be because of the varied and complementary services under one roof. They also assist in it physical or mental. making sure the services are administered in the correct order, to increase chances of “Usually if it’s not a chronic problem, we success. can almost immediately give you results,” Paulley says. “If you have issues with just Paulley says life is much different for her pain and discomfort, you could feel a difference after one session. We partner with now than it was in her previous career, but a physical therapist and he helps them work she has been able to use some of those skills as a business owner. towards their goal. Usually you will leave here feeling something. My favorite people cryotherapy session.

“You have to think on your feet as a business owner,” Paulley says. “As a television producer, when a story lands on your feet, you have to do so much research and figure out all the ins and out to write that story, no matter what the topic is. There is a lot of understanding and learning you have to do every day. When I started, I just wanted to learn. I read books and self-educated myself, which is very similar to the news industry, when you might be talking about dogs one day and scientific research another, but you have to understand both.”

Paulley says her long-term hope is to continue to grow all the businesses and perhaps franchise Vyfy into more locations.

“My goal ultimately is to franchise,” Paulley says. “The beautiful thing is I have really close relationships with the manufactures for all the machines in the building. If you’re trying to go out and start a business and you want to start something like this, it can be difficult to know where to start. I’ve spent

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the last two years knowing what works and I have a great team of people here. They are all on the same mission. My goal is to be the biggest pulsed electromagnetic field maker in the world. I want to bring this therapy to the masses. I believe this therapy should be something we are offering to everyone. I

really want to talk about how to use what I know, to get us back to what works instead of drugs and surgery.”

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BEETLE LARVAE: These beetle larvae were found nestled under a rotten log.

BUG OUT

WHERE DO ALL THE INSECTS GO IN WINTER? Writer / Erin Kinnetz, Education Specialist, The Parklands of Floyds Fork Photography Provided

Spending time outdoors during the winter has its advantages. The bare trees allow you to really see the bones of the land. The shorter days give way to enjoyably cool, crisp weather. For bird watchers, the bare trees spotlight our resident birds. For some, an advantage might be a whole season of hiking and biking free from biting insects.

But where do all the insects go in winter?

In Kentucky we have mild winters but animals in the wild still have two major concerns - the cold and less available food.

Famously, our monarchs choose to leave the north behind, migrating to the Michoacán mountains of Mexico. This is a fascinating adaptation of the hardy, high-flying eastern monarch, but for most of our bugs, this would be an insane decision.

All our arthropods (hard-shelled creepy crawlies like insects, spiders, millipedes, 30 | January 2024 | TownePost.com

crawdads and more) are ectothermic.

You may have heard of this referred to as cold-blooded, although, bugs’ blood looks and moves differently than our own blood.

Having to regulate your body temperature using your environment may seem like a detriment, but in fact it’s a great advantage.

dead, but once the days get longer and warmer, they come out of diapause none the worse for wear. Some of our arthropods even have a special adaptation through which they fill their body with antifreeze proteins. This allows the arthropod to freeze solid and still live.

When you are cold-blooded, your body can handle a wider range of temperatures and you need less food to do so. Even in Kentucky, most days in winter are still too cold for our bugs on land to move around easily. Instead, they go into a state of diapause, which is a kind of dormancy.

Their bodies do as little as they can to stay alive. They don’t need to eat or drink, and they aren’t capable of movement. They can go into diapause at any stage of life including egg, larva, pupa or adult. If you were to stumble across one of these bugs in diapause, you might wonder if they were

Going into diapause helps our bug friends survive the cold and low food availability, but it leaves them vulnerable to predation and drying out. A bug in diapause is an easy meal and can’t move out of the dry winter air. To prepare for their winter diapause, many bugs seek out or prepare a safe place to survive winter - a hibernaculum.

One bug home that I find delightful to try and spot is called a gall. This is a deformity on a plant part such as a leaf or stem. Many of these galls were induced to form by an insect such as a gall wasp or gall fly. This is

GOLDENROD GALL FLY GALLS: These large balls found on the stems of dead standing goldenrod each house a tiny larva. It’s not foolproof protection, though! One of these galls has a hole pecked into the side where a chickadee ate a winter bug snack.

If you are headed out on a winter bug hunt, a sure bet for finding some bugs is to flip over a log. If the day is warm enough, you may even see them moving around and going about their day as if it were spring and not winter. Our mild winters do make it easier on our arthropod friends to survive the winter and emerge once more in the spring.

In the Parklands, one important bug habitat is our stream, Floyds Fork.

Interestingly, for our aquatic arthropods such a dragonfly larvae, mayfly larvae, and crayfish, the water isn’t too cold.

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Insects aren’t known as deep thinkers, so they are happy to take advantage of obvious hiding spots such as under logs, mixed in among the plentiful leaf litter, in the crevasses of tree bark, and underground. While they may be obvious, they are very effective. I challenge you to find a silk moth cocoon wrapped in their leaf amongst the piles of leaf litter in our forests. If you were a hungry turkey, you could do it but you’d have to work at it.

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usually part of a longer life strategy for which they get food from the plant in the previous summer. It also serves as a safe place to overwinter until they emerge as adults in the spring.

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POLYPHEMUS MOTH COCOON: This cocoon has been left behind from last winter.

Otherwise, park staff wouldn’t have been able to spot it. These large silk moths wrap a leaf all around themselves and then drop to the forest floor. They depend on the leaf litter to keep them moist and protected during the winter.

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WHEEL BUG EGGS: These tiny sushi rolls on the tree each contain a wheel bug in diapause.

WHEEL BUG EGGS: These tiny sushi rolls on the tree each contain a wheel bug in diapause.

It would be hard for us warm-blooded animals to imagine thinking the stream was comfortably warm in the winter, but for many of our ectothermic arthropods, the water feels fine. Remember, we said cold-blooded animals are more tolerant of a wider range of temperatures. Aquatic bugs need to be wary of the edges of the creek where the shallower water is more prone to freeze and hungry, clever predators such as mink may find them.

bugs, like their terrestrial counterparts, can go through diapause, but they often don’t need to.

Instead, they continue eating the decomposing leaf litter and other smaller bugs to get bigger for the next year. Sorry, this includes the much maligned but important mosquito larvae as well.

EASTERN BAGWORM COCOON: Unlike most moths, this caterpillar lives inside its cocoon long before it is ready to pupate. As winter approaches, they seal themselves inside and will emerge as moths in the spring. Look how well they mimicked the color of the tree behind them!

extreme cold. They are good food for many of our animals and play a role in population control of some species. However, I do hate getting ticks, so I’m not too sad about losing a few ticks.

For a real impact on our bug population, we would need freezing temperatures in the -20 At this point you may be thinking about that to -30 degree range for a sustained period - at least a couple of weeks. For Kentucky deep freeze in December due to the polar our winters are much easier than that, and vortex. I often heard the phrase, “At least we’ll have fewer bugs next year.” Fortunately, luckily in the spring we can celebrate the return of the bugs as all the animals that that’s not true for most of our arthropods!

During summer, the edges of the creek are depend on them for their food surely will.

If our bugs are given the soils, leaf litter, alive with activity, but for the winter, many For now, enjoy the bug break during the logs, brush piles, streams and ponds they of the cold-blooded bugs travel into deeper winter. pools. The deeper pools act as a buffer keeping need, they can survive the mighty cold. It the temperature steady around 42 degrees. must be nice to be cold-blooded. Ticks do You can’t expect a warm day in the creek, but it tend to choose more exposed overwintering also doesn’t get much colder than that. Aquatic spots and they’re often the first affected by

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34 | January 2024 | TownePost.com

THE GARDEN CYCLE BEGINS WITHIN THE SEED Writer / Carrie Petty

The real birth of any garden begins within the seed. Seeds are incredible to work with and teach your children about, particularly when it comes to teaching about where our food originates. While it is way too soon to begin your seeds for the garden indoors, now is a perfect time to begin planning and dreaming a bit about what you would like to accomplish once the rush of spring chores arrives. This is the time to get organized!

This is the month that seed catalogs begin to arrive in the mail. It is like Christmas all over again for the gardener. I love the organic, non-GMO seed providers like Seed Savers Exchange, Seeds of Change, and Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, but my two favorites are Renee’s Garden Seeds and Johnny’s Selected Seeds. They have a fantastic selection and a great corporate culture. Renee often answers her own phone while working in her California garden. I have trusted the germination (when the seed pops open) of their seeds for many years. All can be found online.

It is so important to select heirloom and non-GMO varieties. Heirloom seeds are defined as seeds found prior to World War II, and mostly passed down through generations in a certain area. Organic non-GMO seeds are defined as seeds that have not been genetically modified or crosspollinated with GMO seed pollen. Non-GMO seeds are not TownePost.com | January 2024 | 35

owned by mega companies. I think food and seeds are a natural born right, just like food. If you own the seed, you own the food. And if you own the food system…well now, don’t get me started.

you guessed it, they love the cold. Cool, fun fact - did you know pansy flowers are in the spinach family and are also edible? They are a cold crop too and you may begin sowing pansy seeds really early.

Now, I am from a big-ag family and I appreciate the great need to feed the world. I am a woman who has fought for justice in the poverty arena all her life. But there is a deep need today for balance in the farming world. More and more companies are seeking agricultural balance, which is wonderful. And in the home garden, where our small batches of food are grown, the organic path is easy to accomplish. Besides, who wants a GMO seed with salmon DNA in your homegrown tomatoes? Yuck!

Organization is the key to excellent seed germination and success. Keep a journal and a garden calendar. Note when you started and when you see the first leaves emerge. The back of your seed envelope will have all the instruction you need, so keep them for further seasonal instructions.

Keep your seed packets in an airtight container. I love a product called the Seed Keeper Deluxe.

If you need help, ask your local garden center for instruction. Gardeners in general love to teach, and I love This is an excellent month to search seed catalogs and find sharing these tips with you all to help you learn how to grow a more beautiful life! the type of plants you would like to begin indoors in the month of February. You can begin with your cold crops like kale, spinach, kohlrabi, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage Happy planting! and more. These veggies are called cold crops because,

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