Malibu hospice nurse Beth Hill Kin takes special pride as co-founder of the local chapter of the cancer care organization.
By Ward Lauren / Special to The Malibu Times
Agala fundraising dinner went over the top last Friday night to help the Wellness Community Valley/Ventura celebrate its 15th anniversary in Lake Sherwood. Tickets to the event were completely sold out as a total of 336 supporters of the local chapter of the international cancer care organization enjoyed cocktails, dinner, silent and live auctions, and dancing to a live orchestra.
Hospice nurse Beth Hill Kin of Malibu enjoyed the evening’s successful turnout with particular gratification. A member of the board of directors, she, along with program director Marty Nason of Simi Valley, is a co-founder of the local chapter, which has now served more than 10,000 people in various aspects of cancer treatment and recovery.
The two women, neighbors in Westlake in 1991, were equally concerned and passionate about the care and treatment of cancer patients. They saw in the national Wellness Community organization a means of answering a need, and went to work to form a chapter to serve the West Valley and coastal region.
“It took us three or four years to raise the money to get started,” Kin said in a recent interview.
Their efforts paid off to the extent that today their chapter, with more than 500 volunteers, serves more than 2,000 patients from Malibu to Santa Barbara, providing 1,000 hours a month or more of special care for recovering cancer patients.
“Wellness Community care involves all kinds of things,” Kin explained, “therapy, meditation, yoga, support groups, all kinds of activities to increase the opportunity for patients to recover from their illness. Through events like the anniversary gala we help raise money to pay for the psychiatrists and other professionals in the groups, so that all these services are free to the patients.”
The main office of the Valley/Ventura chapter is in Westlake Village. Satellite support groups operate in Camarillo, Oxnard and the San Fernando Valley. As a well-experienced, functioning operation, the chapter is now involved in the formation of a new branch of the national organization in San Luis Obispo.
“We have oversight of the new chapter and are currently helping them get started in a new building in that city,” Kin said.
The international Wellness Community organization was founded in Santa Monica in 1982. Twenty chapters currently operate in the United States and one each in Tel Aviv and Tokyo. Several more are in development.
The organization’s purpose and goal are summed up in its charter: “Dedicated to help people with cancer and their loved ones enhance their health and well-being by providing a professional program of emotional support, education and hope.”
Kin, who was an oncology nurse at Los Robles Hospital for more than 10 years after working 15 years with Amgen in cancer drug development, decided recently that she wanted to work with patients again, so now performs hospice care in patients’ homes.
Three days a week, one weekend per month, and on call two nights each week she visits patients in Thousand Oaks, Calabasas, Malibu and the Valley. They return to their homes after treatment in various hospitals such as Cedars Sinai Medical Center of Lebanon and City of Hope for the final stage of their battle with the disease.
“It’s different from The Wellness Community,” she said. “There, we try to help people make their treatment work better, to teach them how to live and improve the quality of their lives. Now I’m involved in a different part of their journey.”
As to why she does this work, Kin said: “I guess I just like being with patients.”
More information about the Wellness Community can be obtained by calling 805.379.4777 or by visiting the Web site www.twcvv.org.
Special guests honored during the gala evening program were Berniece Bennett, president of the chapter and former mayor of Westlake, cancer survivors Bob Ferber and Richard Jones, and Dr. Silvana Martino, cancer physician at St. John’s Cancer Center in Santa Monica and a member of the medical advisory board of the Wellness Community.