Support for Wellness Community encouraging to its staff

JOHN LOESING/Acorn Newspapers 'WE PAWS FOR THIS MESSAGE'- Wellness Community volunteer Cassie Godwin, left, hands over a pet cocker spaniel to Christy Wasserman of Santa Clarita, who won the 9-week-old puppy with her bid of $650 at the Wellness fundraiser and auction. The event occurred recently in Westlake Village. On May 30, the Wellness Community Valley/Ventura celebrated 17 years of providing support and hope to people fighting cancer with its annual gala dinner and fundraiser in Westlake Village.

More than 700 people attended the awards presentation and live auction at the Four Seasons Hotel. The event raised donations for Wellness Community assistance programs.

Grammywinning singer Melissa Manchester provided entertainment.

Four awards were given during the evening's festivities.

Nancy Colton, a working mother and metastatic breast cancer survivor, received the Wellness Community's Celebration of Hope award for her inspiration and perseverance.

"The most amazing aspect of this lifechanging event is gaining the perspective of how important it is to live life in the moment," said Colton, whose mother, Harriet Wasserman, is a Wellness board member.

Colton credited Wellness programs for giving her hope in her battle against cancer.

"I came in, and it's a warm, loving, healthy living environment that can only help anybody who walks in," Colton said.

Andrea Roschke, an active volunteer in Wellness programs, earned the organization's Celebration of Life award for her fighting spirit and determination to remain positive during a series of health challenges that rocked her family.

Four years ago her husband, Mark, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Andrea and Mark joined the Wellness brain tumor networking group, while Andrea took an active role on the Strides for Hope charity team. As if not enough, the couple's son, Ryan, 16 at the time, was hospitalized with a rare disease that required a kidney transplant. In August 2007, their son Jason, just one year older, donated a kidney that gave his brother the freedom to live a normal life again.

Dr. Henry Montes was given the Celebration of Excellence award. Montes serves on the Wellness Latino advisory board and gives lectures and presentations on behalf of the organization's popular Latino Outreach Cancer Program.

The Amgen Foundation, a longtime financial backer of Wellness cancer education programs, won the Celebration of Philanthropy award.

Since opening its doors in 1991 the Wellness Community Valley/Ventura has served more than 12,000 cancer patients and survivors. The organization annually assists more than 2,000 people and utilizes a volunteer staff of more than 500.

Today, there are 22 Wellness Communities across the United States, and five in development. The local office is at 530 Hampshire Road in the Westlake portion of Thousand Oaks.

For more information, visit www.twcvv.org.

- John Loesing