On the Town: Cancer support grows, Pasadena Historical Museum features wedding-centric exhibit

The folks at Pasadena’s Cancer Support Community revealed on Wednesday (Feb. 20) their new connection to the Ronnie Lippin Cancer Support Program benefiting cancer patients. The two cancer support community resources involved are the Cancer Support Community’s Pasadena and West Los Angeles facilities and the Tower Cancer Research Foundation.

The new program will provide emotional support and eliminate barriers to services including financial, housing, transportation, employment, counseling and legal referrals. The program is named after the late publicist-manager Ronnie Lippin.

Lippin, who died of a rare form of breast cancer in December 2006, worked with rock stars such as Eric Clapton, Brian Wilson and Prince. At the time of her death she was president of the Lippin Group, a marketing and public relations firm based in Los Angeles founded by her husband Richard Lippin.

The Ronnie Lippin Cancer Outreach Program at Tower Cancer Research Foundation was established in Lippin’s memory to assist others in overcoming difficulties similar to those they experienced. Initial funding with two $50,000 grants was provided by Richard Lippin, daughter Alexandra Lippin and friends and colleagues of the Lippin family.

The Tower Cancer Research Foundation staff will serve as the communication center for the information flow between Richard and Alexander Lippin and the Cancer Support Community facilities in Pasadena and West Los Angeles.

Locally, Laura Wending, program director at the Pasadena facility, said the influx of funds will help cancer patients in Pasadena and the surrounding communities.

Free ongoing programs will be enhanced with the addition of 250 hours of one-on-one cancer support. Mind-body programs may be increased and enlarged. The popular “Yoga for Sleep” workshop will continue to provide basic yoga and meditation. Strategies are provided to help reduce anxiety so that the student may relax into better sleep.

Those not interested in sleeping at midday take the more rigorous Wednesday yoga workshop at noon. Certified Yoga Instructor and Pasadena resident Susan Debonne put her nine students through their paces. Student Frances Lee from Monterey Park is a leukemia survivor. For two years Lee has taken the workshop because she “likes the teacher.” Echo Park resident Mary Brooks is caregiver to her husband who has lung cancer. She has taken the yoga workshop for 18 months to “concentrate on something else.”

Debonne reminds her students to “Let everything go. The Earth is supporting you….There isn’t anything you have to do but be.” Debonne volunteers at the Cancer Support Community but receives payment for teaching yoga to children at the Lycee International de Los Angeles. She also teaches private yoga lessons.

All services provided by the Cancer Support Community are free of charge for cancer patients, their families and caregivers.

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I Do! I Do! Pasadena Ties the Knot is the timely title of the latest exhibit at the Pasadena Museum of History.

The exhibition that opened Feb. 14 showcases the wedding dress as an icon of social customs through the decades from the mid-19th century to the present. The more than 40 historic wedding dresses are from the museum’s Costume and Textile collections. Visitors will see the evolution of the wedding dress from a woman’s best dress worn in weddings of the 1860s, to the lace and high waists of the 1900s, the long silk trains of the 1930s and the hourglass silhouettes of the 1950s.

On Wednesday (Feb. 20) Pasadena resident German Robles brought his out-of- town guests from Mexico to the museum. They had fond memories of Pasadena. Juventino Rodriguez married his bride Eustolia Hernandez in Pasadena last year. Hernandez reminisced about her wedding and compared her wedding dress to the dresses on exhibit. “They are beautiful styles,” she said. “But I wore a simple dress with no train.”

Museum guest Marilyn Johnson from Pasadena visited the exhibit because she is interested in “costume fashion, construction and history.” Arcadia resident Carol Sartain accompanied Johnson.

I Do! I Do! will be on exhibit through July 14.

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RUTH SOWBY may be reached at ruthasowby@gmail.com.