Support Groups

The local chapter of the American Diabetes Assn. is looking for parents of young children with diabetes who are interested in starting a new support group. Although two support groups already exist for adults with the disease, the association found itself unable to help the parent of an 8-year-old who had contracted the illness, said the association's Lenore Gabel. The group is being formed at the request of Mary Lynn Evans, who recently learned that her child has diabetes.

When designer and entrepreneur Sarah Shaw wanted to start a venture, she skipped the traditional steps. She didn't do market research. She didn't write a business plan. Instead, she joined Ladies Who Launch, a support group and business incubator for women that recently held its first sessions in Southern California.

Parent Help USA will offer a series of free support groups focusing on positive parenting and prevention of domestic violence and child abuse. The groups will be offered in Anaheim and Newport Beach on Wednesday evenings and in Newport Beach on Tuesday evenings, starting this week and running through June.

More cancer patients and their families will be able to participate in free support groups, under a $25,000 grant recently awarded to the Wellness Community in Westlake Village. "This is a really wonderful gift," Wellness Community Executive Director Suzanne Wedow said. Wedow said the grant, from the New Jersey-based Fanny and Svante Knistrom Foundation, will be matched by other donations and used to build offices and meeting rooms at the group's facility at 530 Hampshire Road.

A benefit walk next month will raise funds for Women at Risk, an organization that runs a support group in Hermosa Beach for HIV-positive women from the South Bay and surrounding area. The Dec. 6 walk is the sixth of its kind organized by Aiding People With AIDS, a nonprofit group based in Santa Monica. About 400 walkers participated last year. This year's 3 3/4-mile walk in Santa Monica will raise funds for two Los Angeles-area groups working with HIV and AIDS patients.

Two new community outreach programs have been announced by Frank Richelieu, pastor of the Redondo Beach Church of Religious Science. They are an AIDS support group called Being Alive, and a support group for battered women and children. Both programs are under the direction of the Rev. Cecile Brazille, staff minister. Being Alive--for people with acquired immune deficiency syndrome, their families and friends--meets privately at the church on the last Monday of each month.

Dana Donnelly was 29 and working as a nurse three years ago when she was diagnosed with lupus, a little-known disease. "It was hard to cope with at first," said the Garden Grove resident, who has had inflamed lungs, memory loss and hip problems. "It was a loss. I was not the same person I was before. I couldn't do the same things." Donnelly said her situation has been eased by the Orange County Lupus Support Group, which will hold its next meeting April 20 at Anaheim Memorial Hospital.

Bob Morris, chief executive, was talking about his goals. "Every time I write down my fundamental life purpose, it comes out different," he said. "But they all have the word 'harmony' in them." His light blue eyes looking from face to face around the room, Morris explained his difficulty finding a rewarding role in his months-old company, which operates a child-care center in Cypress and plans to open several more. Sure, the sandy-haired 44-year-old said, he wants to earn $300,000 a year.

It was black-tie optional. It was $100 per couple. So how come it looked like a great big family reunion--or a meeting of 180 long-lost friends? A few words with the hosts and guests of last week's "Birthday Bash" for the Orange County Burn Assn. and the UC Irvine Burn Center provided ample explanation for all that cocktail-hour hugging and kissing and genuine emotion so rare at formal events.

Seventy-five to 100 relatives of people killed when a bomb exploded aboard an airliner attended a meeting in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., to form the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 committee. "We've come to assist each other in our grief," said Paul Hudson, an attorney and former counsel to the New York State Crime Victims Compensation Board who started the network. Hudson's daughter, Melina, was aboard when a terrorist's bomb on the plane blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, Dec.