814-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 8, 1993
Berks Spring Awareness Da
Laughter
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
LEESPORT (Berks Co.)
“Laughter is the secret ingredient
to health. It needs no prescription,
is always available, doesn’t cost
anything, and is one of the few
things that hasn’t been taxed,” Dr.
Julia Cummings told 180 persons
who attended the Spring Aware
ness Day at the Berks County
Cooperative Extension on
Tuesday.
With the premise that if negative
emotions have a negative influence
on the body than positive emotions
have a healthy influence on the
body, Norman Cousins, who had
been given one chance in 500 to
survive, surrounded himself with
people, movies, and things to make
him laugh with genuine belly
laughter. Soon he was able to sleep
without pain and returned to com
plete health.
Cousin’s experience with the
healing phenomental of deep belly
laughter has prompted the scientif
ic community to explore how
humor plays an important role of
relieving stress.
“The internal perception of the
way we see problems causes stress
not the external problem,” Cum
mings said. She encouraged the
audience to leant to look for humor
in every situation.
“It’s important to laugh at your-
Faye Strlckler, right, home economist, presents awards to
Elaine Mauchllne, center, and Lucy Brubaker.
Joan Cook, right, presents scholarships to Lynelle Har
bold, center, and Susan Leiby.
Lightens Changes, Challenges, Choices
self,” Cummings said. A vain,
frightened, angry person can not
laught at his or herself. Humor
increases self awareness and
enables us to see ourselves in rela
tion to others.
Recently Cummings overheard
a discussion between an elderly
couple in the grocery store: “Ethel,
don’t buy that; it’s loaded with pre
servatives,” a man said to his wife
who had picked up a box.
“Fred,” the woman replied, “at
our age, we need all the preserva
tives we can get.”
For those who are dismayed at
the political systems, jokes that
poke fun at the system relieve
stress. For example, “They say
George Washington couldn’t tell a
lie. Today, politicians can’t tell the
truth,” Cummings said.
According to Cummings, humor
can diffuse the most volatile situa
tions. She reported that a company
had effective results when sending
humorous letters to past due
account such as the following; In
checking our files, we found we
did more for you than your own
mother. We carried you for 15
months.
Cummings said, “If it were not
for laughter, we would all be sicker
than we are.”
Many of the audience agreed
with the sentiment as (he morning
les With Issues
Gra
Cindy Bishop, left, tells participants at the Awareness Day about the use of herbs.
This committee planned the annual Homemaker’s Awareness Day for Berks Coun
ty. From left, Nancy Farmer, Bettye Grleff, Jane Trelchler, Fay Strickler, home eco
nomist; Stella Richards, and Elaine Mavchline.
session focused on issues of child
abuse, neglect, and AIDS.
Child abuse
Berks County has two times the
amount of child abuse cases than
its neighboring counties, according
to George Kovarie, executive
director of Berks County Children
and Youth Services.
He attributes the'higher incident
of abuse to the fact that countians
are not as tolerant of abuse and
promptly report suspicious cases.
While the agency seeks to pro
tect innocent children, the irony of
the system is reflected by the abun
dance of babies born addicted to
drugs and the government’s inabil
ity to intervene.
“A pregnant women who is
addicted to cocaine or other drugs
cannot be charged with abuse
because the child doesn’t have sta
tus until birth,” Kovarie said.
One in four women, Kovarie
said, will have had some type of
sexual abuse between the ages of 0
to 18 years.
AIDS
Berks County also has one of the
highest rates of AIDS in the state.
Amy Ortiz of Berks AIDS Net
work and Pat Childs of Rainbow
Home told of the county’s services
for those infected and of the educa
tion to stop the spread of AIDS.
Rainbow House is a 12-bed resi
dential facility for people 18 years
and over who are terminally ill
with AIDS. Rainbow House is a
wn-profit corporation supported
by private donations.
Herb scents
Patrice Dyer, manager of the
Village Herb Shop in Blue Ball,
and Cindy Bishop, owner of
Aromatic Essentials in Elizabeth
town, demonstrated ways of grow
ing and using herbs.
When container gardening,
Dyer said that half potting and half
gardening soil should be used. Gar
den soil should be sterilized by
placing it in a 200-dcgrce oven for
two hours.
Herbs should not be
overwatered.
Oil scents are stronger if herbs
are not overwatered,” Dyer said.
Dyer told of the uses for the
many different herbs that she dis
play. In addition to using herbs for
cooking and for aromas, some
herbs also repel insects and some
such as lemon balm remove offen
sive odors from the air.
Pennyroyal leaves repel fleas
and ants, patchouli! herbs repel
silverfish, sweet herbs such as mint
or lemon balm, repel moths, and
tansy or ciuonclla repel mosqui-
toes. Mice do not like the smell of
mint, but if you want to attract
them to a mousetrap, use anise seed
with peanut butter.
Scholarships
Two $4OO scholarships, given
by the Berks County Extension
Homemaker’s Scholarship, were
presented to two Albright students
who are pursuing nutrition or home
economics education. The reci
pients are Lynelle Harbold and
Susan Lciby, who is a 4-H program
assistent working toward a degree.
Dr. Julia Cummings