News: Do'ers Profile
Sandra Schlenker

Name and profession: Sandra Schlenker, high school family and consumer science teacher

NEA local affiliate: Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Education Association

Position: Chair of SFEA's Project REACH--Raising Educators' Awareness Concerning Health--team.

Latest accomplishment: With a $2,000 grant from NEA's Vivian Roy Bowser Cancer Education Fund and help from NEA's Health Information Network, Schlenker and nine other activists have organized a Project REACH team in their district--one of seven such efforts in the Sioux Falls region.

The team goals: Promote local screening and early detection for breast and cervical cancer, create "educational resource options," and foster "hope and confidence" that cancer can be overcome.

Driven by stats revealing that women in education have higher breast cancer death rates than other women, the Sioux Falls team has brainstormed a variety of ways to educate the school community about the need to detect and treat cancers early.

"We've run booths at an in-service attended by 3,000 employees, issued reminders with necklace beads, and ordered copies of the NEA Health Information Network's Personal Health Pocket Calendar," reports team leader Schlenker. "And we plan to hand out 'reminder' emery boards and have volunteers at all district sites speak at staff meetings about the importance of early cancer detection."

The Sioux Falls team kicked off its campaign with a widely distributed brochure/poster featuring a photo of 23 district employees--men and women--who have survived cancer, along with a list of resources ranging from local free clinics to the NEA Health Information Network Web site at www.neahin.org.

"I had no idea if cancer survivors would want to make themselves so vulnerable," recalls Schlenker. "I was so pleased that people were so willing to share."

Words of Wisdom: "School employees are notorious for nurturing others at the expense of their own health. People put screening off or are deterred by the lack of access to private telephones in schools.

"But 80 million cancer survivors are alive today thanks to early detection. Screening and exams, when conducted regularly by a health care professional, can result in detection of cancers of the breast, colon, rectum, cervix, prostate, testes, oral cavities, and skin.

"When screenable cancers are found early, treatment is more likely to be successful. Self-examinations may also result in detection of tumors at earlier stages. If all Americans participated in a regular screening, this rate could increase to more than 95 percent."

For more information, go to www.cancer.org.