Community Singing and : "We Care" Saturday 8:30-5pm, September 28th, in Partnership with CHI Memorial Hospital
Saturday, September 28th from 8:30am - 5pm at Willow Creek Farms, 609 Post Oak Road, Ringgold, GA 30736
This annual event is free to attend and open to all ages! "We Care" Saturday is "an amazing day filled with fun and celebrating life,” according to Cindy Mills, market vice president of oncology at CHI Memorial. “People going through cancer treatment, survivors, and family members are able to connect with others who are walking the same journey and provide support and encouragement to each other. It’s so uplifting to see so many smiles and hear all the laughter as we have fun and celebrate together.”
Activities include a question and answer session with physicians, yoga, community drumming and singing, story time, face painting, trolley rides, expressive art workshop, yard games, popcorn and coke floats, chair massages, catch and release fishing, and more. Members of the CHI Memorial Rees Skillern Cancer Institute staff will also be at the event including nurses, dietitians, social workers, chaplains, and art and music therapists.
Food trucks will be available and picnic lunches are also welcome. Free meal tickets will be available while supplies last. Participants are encouraged to bring a lawn chair and their own fishing gear.
To register for this free event, call the CHI Memorial Center for Cancer Support at (423) 495-7778.
Whether you come for the whole day or drop in for an hour, everyone of every age will find something to pique their interest.
Finding Your Voice Through Music Workshops facilitated by Lexi Rodriguez and Naomi Griffin Self
12:00pm – 1:00pm
2:00-3:00pm
3:00-4:00pm
Naomi Griffin Self is a Chattanooga native and regularly facilitates singing circles in Chattanooga and Knoxville, TN where she shares in the art of supporting community connection through the exploration of songs, rhythms, rounds, layer songs, and chants. “Making Our Chattanooga Engaging Through Community Singing” is an opportunity for participants to use their voices to create playful beauty through song. In this 60-minute facilitated Singing Circle session we will meander through a variety of songs, drop into our bodies, play with sounds, and sing with delight and presence at our shared creative experience. All voices are welcome; no singing experience is necessary. songs are taught in a call and echo style and every voice is a perfect part of the whole!
Alexandria Rodriguez, MA, MT-BC, NMT-AF is a board certified Music Therapist & Community Relations Coordinator at CHI Memorial. She supervises undergraduate music therapy practicum and internship students in the region’s first approved medical music therapy field placement. Alexandria received a masters degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling: Music Therapy from Lesley University, Cambridge Massachusetts in 2022. Following an internship at CHI Memorial Hospital, Alexandria served Hamilton County schools as a school-based therapist before returning to the hospital to continue and expand her work through offering neurologic music therapy with stroke patients, music therapy in cancer care, music-based mindfulness skills with nursing teams, and music therapy for building social-emotional skills in the community. She has a humanistic and person-centered approach to her work to support creativity, self-expression and self-empowerment through music and arts engagement. Her mission is to serve her community and advance social justice by honoring the humanity of every individual through providing them the tools to cope, express, and heal creatively.
