20 minute read
COMMUNITY CALENDAR
FEB. 1 PARK LIFE FALCON 5K RUN/WALK 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 1, at Audubon Park K-8 School, 1500 Falcon Drive, Orlando. This annual community event, hosted by Park Life Orlando, will benefit the school. The race will begin and end at the campus and will weave through the Audubon Park neighborhoods. The race will be professionally timed, and award medals will be given out to the top winner in each age group. Event highlights include a race T-shirt while supplies last, finishers medal and swag bag. The event also includes a kids’ fun run. For more information, visit bit. ly/2TrIQ1v.
FEB. 5 PILATES FUSION 10 a.m. Wednesdays at the Enders Park Gathering Room. Pilates Method Alliance-certified Baldwin Park resident Adriana Duarte Pontual is offering something new for Baldwin Park residents — a fusion of Pilates, yoga and ballet to work the body, mind and spirit and help build strength, increase flexibility and improve balance and coordination. Beginners are welcome. Take a mat. If you are interested in signing up for stretching classes, contact Adriana directly at adriana.tmrj@ gmail.com.
WALK AND ROLL SCHOOL BUS 8 to 9 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5. This event is for Baldwin Park Elementary School students and their families. Tie up those laces for the next Walk ’n’ Roll, when the entire school community is encouraged to walk or bike to school. There will be participation prizes, a coffee bar and other fun surprises. Students and parents are encouraged to walk and roll on their own or join the “Walking School Bus,” where children and parents meet up at a designated stop and walk to school with volunteer chaperones. The walking school buses leave from Upper Union playground and Prospect park at 8:20 a.m., and from Enders Field at 8:10 a.m. For more information, visit bit.ly/2FP9IAN.
FEB. 7 BALDWIN PARK KIDS CLUB VALENTINE’S DAY PARTY 9:15 a.m. Friday, Feb. 7. This event takes place through the Baldwin Park Kids Club. For more information, visit meetup.com/BaldwinPark-Kids-Club.
FIRST FRIDAY FESTIVAL 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7, in the Baldwin Park Village Center. First Friday is a monthly event where patrons can shop, stroll and sip their way through Baldwin Park’s beautiful Village Center. With
FEB. 1: OUT OF THE DARKNESS COMMUNITY WALK 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 1, around Lake Baldwin. This event supports the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and proceeds will benefit local and national suicide prevention and awareness programs. On-site registration will be held across from 2420 Lakemont Ave. at 7:30 a.m. on day of the walk. The opening ceremony starts at 9 a.m., and the walk will begin immediately after. Free parking is available behind the Traveler’s Building. This is a dog-friendly event. To register, donate or to learn more, visit outofthedarkness.org, contact walk coordinator Vicki Long at vlong. afsp@yahoo.com, or call her at (407) 646-2227.
BALDWIN PARK LIVING | FEBRUARY 2020 live music, free samples, food and drink specials (plus much more), there’s something for everyone at First Fridays. This free monthly event is open to the public and is both family- and pet-friendly. For more information on the First Friday series, please visit baldwinparkevents.com.
FRIDAY MORNING YOGA 8:30 a.m. Fridays, in the upstairs gathering room at Grace Hopper Hall. Focus on strength, balance, stability and endurance. This 50-minute class is for yoga enthusiasts of all fitness levels. Instructor Becca Schmidt has more than 15 years of teaching experience teaching group classes, workshops and private sessions. Classes are $7. Go to bluemoon.yoga or text (407) 276-3478 to reserve a spot in class.
FEB. 11 AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION LUNG CANCER SUPPORT GROUP 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. the second Tuesday of the month at the American Lung Association’s Baldwin Park office, 851 Outer Road, Orlando. Those who are affected by lung cancer can come together; support topics range from educational to inspiriting. Dinner is available. For more, call (407) 425-5864 or email central@lungfla.org.
FEB. 12 THE ROTARY CLUB OF THE PARKS Meets from 6:15 to 7:15 p.m. the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. The Rotary Club of the Parks is a diverse group of working professionals and neighbors that like to have fun while doing good in their community and the world. Visitors and guests are welcome. For more information and the current meeting location, email RotaryClubOfTheParks@gmail.com or
visit our Facebook page for the latest events at facebook.com/ RotaryClubOfTheParksOrlando.
FEB. 15 QUACK ATTACK ON POVERTY 5K 8 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, at Harbor Park at Lake Baldwin. Looking for a fun and memorable way to make an impact in Central Florida? Join friends and neighbors to run, jog, stroll or roll 3.1 miles, all while wearing an inflatable, duck-shaped pool float around your waist. The goal of this one-of-a-kind 5K is to raise funds and awareness for the nonprofit United Against Poverty, whose mission is to inspire and empower people living in poverty to lift themselves and their families to economic self-sufficiency. For more information, visit quackattack.org.
FEB. 20 TASTE OF BALDWIN PARK 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, in the Baldwin Park Village Center. Taste of Baldwin Park makes an amazing, fun night out with friends, a date night or girls’ night happening in beautiful downtown Baldwin Park. All tickets include all-inclusive unlimited food and drink from 35 top vendors plus live music. This event benefits Caring By Sharing United. Tickets start at $37. For tickets and more information, visit bit.ly/357pRfS or email events@bebestevent.com.
FEB. 29 ORLANDO MARGARITA MADNESS 5K 2 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 29, at Harbor Park at Lake Baldwin. The Margarita Madness 5K Run/Walk is a unique, nighttime 5K fun run focused less on speed and more on margarita fun with friends and family. Participants must be 21 or older. For more, visit bit.ly/30oE1aH.
PET FAIR-APY 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 29, at Blue Jacket Park. This event benefits the pet therapy program at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. There will be vendors, games, a DJ, a costume contest and more. Talia’s Legacy Pet Fair for Childhood Cancer is raising awareness for childhood cancer and bringing joy through the pet therapy program. To register, visit bit. ly/2RihMzm.
SIXTH ANNUAL OCBA LAW DAY 5K 8 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 29, at Orlando Veteran’s Memorial Park, 2380 Lake Baldwin Lane. Orange County Bar Association, Inc.’s Law Day 5K Run/Walk is an event that supports free civil legal aid programs and attracts runners and walkers from the Orange County and Central Florida legal community. For more information, visit runsignup.com/ocbalawday5k.
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Andrea Malinsky Mason loves sharing her story with others in hopes that it will resonate with and encourage them.
Danielle Hendrix
Spreading her wings
Baldwin Park resident Andrea Malinsky Mason’s book ‘Chemical Butterfly’ contains her original collages and poems she inspired by her battle with Stage III metastatic breast cancer.
DANIELLE HENDRIX ASSOCIATE EDITOR A ndrea Malinsky Mason has been dealt a difficult hand of cards in life — one that would cause many to fold.
Mason has battled multiple sclerosis, Stage III metastatic breast cancer and depression. She has weathered abusive relationships, an alcoholic spouse and divorce.
But rather than letting her circumstances dictate her outlook on life, Mason chose positivity. She grappled with obstacles but never let them stand in her way. Instead, she decided to share her story with others in the form of her own book, “Chemical Butterfly.”
THE DIAGNOSES Mason has been a writer ever since she was young. She always was fascinated with literature, and her mother instilled in her a respect and appreciation for proper grammar, spelling and penmanship. Those carried her through college, and it led to a career in corporate writing.
“I worked for Revlon in New York City,” she says. “I started writing press releases and announcements, and eventually, I worked my way up to annual reports and writing speeches and presentations for Fortune 100
— ANDREA MALINSKY MASON
CEOs. I always had a reverence for accurate, clear and compelling information.”
Soon after her career took off, she experienced her first health crisis — a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis at age 24. It came as a shock for Mason, who considers herself a health-conscious person. At the time, she thought it was easier to just push the symptoms to the side and hide them.
“At that time, the world wasn’t as accommodating of people with disabilities,” she says. “I was working, traveling, well on my way to throwing the world off its axis, and then I got this surprise diagnosis, and I thought my life was over. The medication wasn’t very good then, and I ended up hiding it for fear of being ostracized. I hid it from everybody except my family and managed it for a long time.”
After her stint in New York City she moved to Boston to work for TJX Companies. At age 31, she was diagnosed with Stage III metastatic breast cancer.
“When you’re doing everything ‘right,’ and what everyone is telling you to do, and then you get handed these major health challenges, you just kind of have perpetual feelings of injustice,” she says. “(But) my life was never driven by fear. I always had the perspective of, ‘OK, what are we going to do? We can beat this.’”
After learning she was a writer, many people Mason met during her grueling treatments told her she should write about her experience. But Mason had no desire to write about the long road she was traveling. Her feelings were complex and profound, and it was difficult to translate them into words on a page. That’s when she found collages.
“I had never made a collage before in my life,” she says. “Like a madwoman, I was sitting on my floor ripping apart magazines and assembling shapes and colors, and for me, it was just an easier and quicker way to consolidate a very complex situation. After I finished them, I was relieved, and then I
Andrea Malinsky Mason’s book, “Chemical Butterfly,” comprises a collection of her original poems and collages depicting her battle as a cancer survivor. She believes sharing her experiences and knowledge — as well as others sharing theirs — helps elevate awareness and their ability to be a positive influence for those also on the journey.
Proceeds of sales from “Chemical Butterfly” merchandise support cancer survivor initiatives.
For more information, visit andreamalinskymason.com or facebook.com/thetruechemicalbutterfly.
didn’t know what to do with them, so I put them in a file cabinet and never thought about them again.”
LIFE AFTER CANCER Shortly after beating cancer, Mason found herself thrown back into what felt like a different version of reality than the one she had known before.
After spending the bulk of two years in a cancer treatment center, she realized she was expected to go back to her previous life.
But for Mason, her previous life no longer existed.
“Everything in the world has changed and you have changed after battling cancer for so long,” she says. “Your innocence is gone, and it’s hard to fit back in. It is life-changing, and there are obstacles that cancer fighters face after their treatment is complete. First of all, you constantly live with this cloud over your head that, ‘I had cancer, and will I ever get it again?’ Plus, you’re marginalized for important things like employment, health insurance and life insurance.
“It’s isolating and very lonely,” she says. “That’s when I had even more feelings of unfairness and betrayal, which caused me to revisit my collages and start writing poetry.”
Mason describes her poems as honest, realistic, somewhat raw and reflective of the emotions she felt at the time.
As her friends and family read the poems and saw the collages, they told her she should try to get them published. Her big break came when pediatric surgeon Dr. Bernie Siegel, who was writing a book, read one of her poems and asked if he could include it in the book.
After joining him for some book signings, she decided to pull all of her collages and poems together into one unit. Between the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019, “Chemical Butterfly” was born.
The poems and collages in the book are honest, in-depth evaluations of Mason and her journey. Some question her beliefs and self worth, while others highlight both her achievements and her failures. But out of the cocoon of cancer treatment emerged a butterfly.
“I call it ‘Chemical Butterfly,’ because I was overwhelmed by how driven treatment was by the numbers of everything — your red blood cell count, your white blood cell count, how many treatments you have left, what’s your weight, what’s your height — everything was numbers,” she says. “I felt like I was just swimming in a sea of numbers. In addition, I felt like this lovely thing that’s being dissected and saturated in all these chemicals.”
Mason enjoys speaking to groups and helping other people through her own experiences. She wants to expand upon “Chemical Butterfly” with more speaking opportunities and book signings.
“I feel really good that I’m helping people,” she says. “In the end of all of this, I wouldn’t change my experiences for anything in the world. It made my heart grow bigger; it made me more aware of people’s struggles and challenges. … (Cancer is) a crushing blow can happen to anybody. Life doesn’t discriminate, but it’s not the challenges you’re faced with that define you. It’s how you respond to those challenges.”
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Groups & gatherings
Connect with like-minded neighbors. Choose from dozens of activities every month. For a complete list of groups, visit baldwinparknetwork.com.
WRITERS’ BLOCK WRITING GROUP A group gathering for bloggers, writers, authors, poets and aspiring authors. This group will discuss many topics to help writers, like thinking outside the box, preventing stagnation, practicing new vocabulary words, research and more! You don’t have to be a published writer, but come with a desire to meet other writers and learn to hone your writing skills. Contact Rich at powerofselfentertainment@gmail.com.
BALDWIN PARK ART Baldwin Park’s art club is a mixture of art classes, studio tours and gallery openings for art lovers. It’s open to everyone; see what’s happening in February! Contact Pat at plremingt@gmail. com.
BALDWIN PARK KIDS CLUB Activities for children ages infant to 5 years old. Parents and kids enjoy a variety of casual get-togethers, including story time, play dates, park picnics, mom’s night out and more. Join the Valentine’s Day party in Union Park on Friday, Feb. 7, with food and crafts! For details, contact bpkidsclub1@gmail.com.
COOKING AROUND THE WORLD Learn the artful craft of cooking ethnic foods and much more! Every meeting features edible, hands-on demonstrations. Free for all members, but space is limited. Contact Dianne at dianne. brownmorin@gmail.com.
28 BALDWIN PARK LIVING | FEBRUARY 2020 NEW! WOMEN INNOVATORS NETWORK WIN! This brand-new group is for Baldwin Park women who operated their own business, big or small. Come for lunch to exchange ideas, support each other and hear guest speakers. Reservations can be made by contacting Bekah at beautifiedbybekah@gmail.com.
This is a brand-new, sports bar guys’ group. Come out to Tactical Brewing for the playoff games and a friendly chili-making competition! Three prizes will be awarded for the most unusual ingredients (elk, anyone?), the hottest chili and overall favorite. For February’s game night schedule, contact Craig at cgile@cfl.rr.com.
CRUISE AND TRAVEL Hear guest speakers, share travel tips and plan group travel in this popular Baldwin Park group. Contact Kathleen at kmpeters2009@gmail.com.
ETHNIC FOOD ENTHUSIASTS Craving global cuisine? Explore an epicurean eatery every month. Experience a chef talk or food flights and bites at local restaurants. Singles and residents new to the area are encouraged to jump in and enjoy food and conversation. Contact Shannon at sfaith14@gmail.com.
NEW! GAMES GALORE Adults are invited to play a variety of games on Saturday, Feb. 29, from 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at Grace Hopper Hall. Try some new games like Settlers of Catan, Scattegories, King of Tokyo and some of the old favorites like Pictionary and trivia contests. Snacks and non-alcoholic beverages will be provided. Contact Robyn at rhzgrodin@gmail.com.
MAHJONG Ready, set, play Mahjong. Mahjong is a tile-based game played by four people at a time. New players at all levels are welcome. Contact Christopher at cfc106@ gmail.com.
MIGHTY MOMS STROLLER WALKS The mission of this group is to get Baldwin Park moms together doing something good for themselves while building friendships. The group meets at the flagpole in the Village Center on various days for walks around the lake. Children must be willing to sit in a stroller or be worn for the duration of the walk. Contact Dana at dana@drobinfitness.com.
NIFTY FIFTIES PLUS Socials for active couples and singles, age 50 and up, meet several times a month for a variety of social activities including ladies coffee, happy hour, luncheons, parties and more. Reach out to niftyfiftiesplus@ gmail.com.
NOVEMBER PROJECT Unlike the name, this group meets all year round. Run, squat, plank and laugh while you work out with this all-levels fitness group. Meets at 6:29 a.m. every Wednesday at Harbor Park. Contact Dyani at novemberprojectorlando@gmail.com.
PICKUP BASKETBALL Basketball enthusiasts meet at Blue Jacket Park basketball courts at 8:15 a.m. Saturdays for five-on-five play. Contact Rick at rickschreiber2@gmail.com.
WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? Novice tennis players are seeking other beginner level tennis players to practicing hitting, serving and improving their game without keeping score. Amateur players are encouraged to come out to Glenridge Middle School and get some exercise in a non-competitive atmosphere. Tennis balls and drinks are provided, but players should have their own racquet. As the group expands, a tennis coach will come out and provide free lessons. Contact Ceci at crmdesign@yahoo.com.
BOOK CLUBS All book clubs listed below welcome new members! Find the day of the week and type of book that best suits you. Book Clubs meet once a month at a member’s home.
BOOK BUDS This fiction book club welcomes new members. This group will meet on Feb. 18 to discuss the book “The Perfect Couple.” Book Buds meet at 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of every month at various members’ homes. Contact Audean at audean63@gmail.com.
HOOKED ON BOOKS This club is welcoming new members who love fiction. It meets on Mondays at various members’ homes. For February’s book selection and location for its gathering, contact Melissa at melissajay522@ gmail.com.
REAL DEAL NON-FICTION BOOK CLUB This group reads and discusses biographies, memoirs, business books and contemporary non-fiction. For February’s book selection and location for this month’s gathering, contact Kathy at klhgibbons@gmail. com.
PAGE TURNERS BOOK CLUB This club meets on the second Monday of each month to discuss a variety of books. New participants are always welcome! Ask about the next book selection and the location of the February meeting by contacting Genie at bsrocky@ hotmail.com.
YARN CIRCLE FOR A CAUSE This month, the Yarn Circle is knitting and crocheting pouches for kangaroos and koalas to help in the rescue effort of the animals of Australia. Throughout the year, the club works on projects for charitable causes. Yarn Circle meets at various members’ homes. For details about February’s time and location, contact Dawn at finddawn@gmail.com.
What kind of Baldwin Park residents’ group would you like to join? Community service? Golf? Single moms and dads? Empty nesters? Sailing? Cigar club? Optimist club? Speakers round table? Wine tasting? Frisbee football? Friends of animals? If you don’t see your interests reflected in the groups listed here, consider spearheading a new group. Contact Becca Schmidt at lifestyledirector@baldwinparkpoa.com for directions on how to get started.
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