Everybody Calls Me Jana Banana: Take care of your brain

Tucked away across from Lawton Park is a cute little house on Lanier Drive that is home to a group of women that work hard all year to promote something near and dear to my heart, brain related disorders. The Hartsville Pilot Club meets monthly to provide our community awareness in preventing brain injuries and awareness of brain-related disorders including traumatic brain injuries, Alzheimer’s disease, chemical dependency, and mental, physical and emotional disorders.

The new executive board members for the Hartsville Pilot Club for the 2009-10 year are President Danette New, President-Elect Billie Stoudemire, Treasurer Judy Barefoot, Recording Secretary Jean Fowler and Corresponding Secretary Michelle King.

Earlier this fall, the club sponsored a yard sale, and they completed their Annual Brain Power Walk on Saturday to promote awareness for their campaign Protecting Your Brain For Life!

The Pilot Club International has chapters around the world, and their headquarters are located in Macon, Ga. The Club sponsors the Anchor Club for students, and Hartsville High School has a strong club.

The BrainMinders, the signature project for Pilot International, focuses on traumatic brain injury and brain disorders. The project encompasses a public service campaign designed to promote brain awareness; prevention education programs for children and adults; workshop and speakers bureau materials; a partnership with Project Lifesaver, a tracking program; and support for brain-related programs. The BrainMinders Buddies for children uses cute cartoon animals to teach children about the importance of wearing helmets, wearing seatbelts, playground safety, crossing the street, boating and swimming safety, gun safety, and how to be safe in the home.

The BrainMinders Fact Sheet has some statistics that are chilling:
• Every 21 seconds someone in the United States incurs a brain injury.
• Every 16 seconds someone in the world sustains a brain injury.
• In the United States, approximately 90,000 people experience a life-long debilitating loss of function due to a traumatic brain injury each year.
• Most frequent causes of brain injuries are vehicular crashes, falls, sports and recreational injuries and assault.
• Brain injury is the most frequent cause of death among young people.
• Annually, 30,000 children become permanently disabled, 150,000 are hospitalized and 7,000 deaths occur due to brain injury in the United States.
• Many people are not aware that brain damage can occur after a near drowning or during a medical emergency.
• Currently, up to 50 percent of the American public is unaware that shaking a baby is dangerous.
• An estimated 3,000 children are diagnosed with the traumatic brain injury known as shaken baby syndrome.
• The only defense against brain injury is prevention education.

Why does this matter to me? Our family has two reasons: my late father suffered from Alzheimer’s and one of my older brothers suffers from a TBI (traumatic brain injury) as a result of a car accident in 1987. My brother Dwight did things that contributed to his accident. He was fatigued, fell asleep at the wheel and was not wearing his seatbelt.  In today’s world where people are using their cell phones for making calls and text-messaging while driving, the numbers of TBI’s and fatalities will rise unless we all take better steps to Protect Our Brains For Life!

Thank you, Pilot Club, for illuminating this very important cause!

Contact the Hartsville Pilot Club at: Hartsville Brain Injury Support Group contact person is Danny Weaver at (843) 332-5585, and the Alzheimer’s Caregiver’s Support Group contact person is Margaret Coker at (843) 332-7478.