LAFAYETTE — Felice Heffenger gently tapped her foot on the floor, keeping a slow, steady rhythm.
“OK, we’re going to draw for two beats and blow for two beats,” she said.
She and her trio of students put their plastic harmonicas to their lips and filled the air inside the health and healing center at Lafayette’s Good Samaritan hospital with the warm, melodious tones of the blues harp.
Heffenger and the group are working their way through learning “You Are My Sunshine,” but the goal is not to train the next John Popper.
The harmonicas are at the center of a new therapy Heffenger introduced at the hospital to help people suffering from chronic pulmonary illnesses improve their lung function.
“When you have to do a series of inhalations and exhalations it is going to increase your lung capacity,” Heffenger, a respiratory therapist, said of bringing the instrument into the healing center. “What happens is you are using your diaphragm and intercostal muscles, and these are the muscles meant to be used for respiration.”
Heffenger leads six different therapy groups at the hospital, all populated by patients living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, and other chronic lung ailments. A significant portion of the session is dedicated to guiding patients through aerobic exercises on treadmills and other equipment, but teaching breathing techniques and pacing is also important.
With COPD, Heffenger explained, patients’ lungs are often inflamed and enlarged, pushing down on the diaphragm and preventing proper muscle use. People then start using “accessory muscles,” such as their trapezius, the scalene muscles in the neck and even their shoulders to help force out air and mucus that is clogging up their airways.
“When you use your accessory muscles you typically consume more oxygen than you can create,” she explained. “Then you are more likely to get out of control and out of breath.”
Heffenger said she first heard about harmonica therapy from a colleague in the respiratory therapy field at a seminar earlier this year. That colleague, now retired, used harmonicas with some COPD patients at University Hospital in Aurora, Heffenger said.
Heffenger said she got a 10 percent discount from Lafayette Music when she stopped in to buy 50 harmonicas. She introduced the soulful therapy technique last month.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Ruth Ross, manager of Good Samaritan’s Health and Healing Center said as she watched Heffenger lead her patients through the opening phrases of “You Are My Sunshine.” “It’s something that is innovative. It’s fun. It’s a way for these patients to use their respiratory muscles in a way that they might not have thought about.”
Heffenger says her family has a history of lung disease which guided her career choice. Her mother was diagnosed with COPD at the age of 30.
COPD can’t be cured, Heffenger pointed out, but with steady exercise and effort it has been shown that patients can improve lung function and their quality of life. She hopes her patients take their harmonicas on the road.
Thursday’s therapy group was a bit shorthanded because of the cold, but the three patients in attendance all raved about their weekly harp lessons.
“I think it really helps,” Northglenn’s Keiko Brokenleg-Kinn said. “Actually my doctor was surprised I was doing so well.”
Though Brokenleg-Kinn said she enjoys the harmonica therapy, she stressed that her improved lung function wouldn’t be possible without Heffenger and exercise physiologists Natalie Allinson and Jessica Stutzman.
Bill Miller, regarded as the best player among the trio, said the new therapy is helpful, and his dogs, which he calls his babies, seem to enjoy his new musical pursuits as well.
“When Felice first gave it to me and I brought it home my dogs started singing,” the Lafayette resident said with a chuckle. “I think it’s great. It helps loosen your phlegm up.”
Thornton resident Deb Lytle has been taking part in respiratory therapy at Good Samaritan for five years and said she has noticed an improvement in her breathing since the harmonicas have been introduced. She said is looking forward to mastering “You Are My Sunshine” and moving on to some bigger and better tunes.
“We’re going to get some country songs going in here,” she said. “How about some ‘Friends in Low Places?’ “
Joe Rubino: 303-473-1328, rubinoj@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/rubinojc
Few people would debate that hiking fourteeners is an intense workout, great for your heart and overall health. Matt Martinez’s volunteer crews, however, throw in a little weight training for good measure in the form of moving rocks and boulders, some of which weigh up to 400 pounds.
“You can burn about 400-600 calories per hour hiking at altitude and hauling rocks,” says Martinez. But as senior projects and training manager with , he adds that the workout isn’t the selling point. “The great thing about it is you’re able to give back to Colorado’s public lands.”
With their mission to engage the people of Colorado to be active stewards of natural resources, VOC is only one example of local volunteer opportunities that can be good for both heart and soul. In fact, Colorado is rife with volunteer projects that can simultaneously help you get or stay fit and give back to your community.
Take for instance the , which has headquarters in Winter Park and Denver, and uses about 1,000 volunteers per year.
“Our ski program alone, from November through April, we need about 700 volunteers just to make the program function,” says Katie Gibson, the organization’s volunteer services supervisor.
Each year, NSCD hosts programs for more than 3,000 children and adults with disabilities, and while the majority are served on the ski slopes, the organization also offers programs in kayaking, horseback riding, rock climbing, parkour, dancing, yoga and more, most of which operate thanks to volunteers.
“There’s something special about sharing what you love with someone else and seeing their face when they’re able to link a turn, or turn a horse on their own,” says Gibson. “That’s a big part of why we attract so many volunteers. They’re doing something active and watching another person learn and grow.”
Active is right: If you’ve experienced the exertion of skiing, imagine how much it takes to tether a disabled adult on an assist ski. Such an assignment would only be given to a volunteer with sufficient expertise, of course, and though all NSCD’s winter volunteers receive lessons to improve their own skills and impart teaching techniques, there are positions for skiers of all levels.
For ‘s winter volunteers, all that’s required is a shovel and a penchant for physical labor. Through their Snow Buddies program, VOA matches about 300 local seniors with a buddy that will shovel their snow.
“My buddy’s name is Ann, and every time it snows, within 24 hours I go over and shovel her walk, shovel her steps and make sure her car is cleaned off,” says Jordan Kellerman, communications specialist for VOA’s Colorado branch and Snow Buddy participant. She’s become friends with Ann, who lives only blocks away and will not have to worry about slips and falls in snowy weather — or about getting fined for not shoveling.
“The added benefit for me was actually that I didn’t have to drive to the gym afterward, because I’d just shoveled ton of snow,” says Kellerman. (The work is seasonal — Snow Buddies is an extension of a larger landscape-help program that, among other chores, rakes leaves in the fall.) VOA also offers fitness classes for seniors, which often require volunteer help.
Another great resource is Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which can claim 300,000 volunteer hours in 2013 for tasks like trail maintenance, planting and guiding hikes. Though winter is their slow season for , summer opportunities exist across the state as well as closer to town in parks like Roxborough, Chatfield and Cherry Creek.
The opportunities for physically active volunteer work in Colorado are plentiful, says Shari Tishman, director of engagement for , which is a nationwide, online volunteer-engagement network.
“Folks in Colorado tend to be more active,” says Tishman. “They like to get out there, out into nature, and we see tons of opportunities for that.”
In fact, out of almost 30 categories, 40 percent of Coloradans matched with volunteer opportunities on the site chose causes in the three most active categories: environment, health and medicine, or sports and recreation.
Trail maintenance and clean-ups are great one-day options, says Tishman, but be prepared to find that many active opportunities will require a longer-term commitment due to training, background checks and other requirements.
There’s nothing wrong with volunteering in a way that is good for your own health, she says.
“Everyone goes to volunteer because they care, but it’s OK to find benefits for yourself, as well,” Tishman says. “Bottom line, you’re out there making a difference in the world.”
Plus, you may be doing an activity that you love and would be doing anyway. Such is often the case with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado.
“A lot of our volunteers end up signing up for a project because they’ve seen us when they’re out recreating themselves, either mountain biking or hiking,” says VOC’s Martinez.
The organization’s fourteener projects are popular, almost always garnering volunteer wait lists, but VOC’s volunteers also plant urban gardens, preserve and restore habitats, and restore fire and flood damage.
Active volunteering is an experience that sticks with you, says Martinez, citing one of his favorite projects: building a trail in Washington Park with about 100 volunteers.
“Literally thousands of people every weekend will utilize that part of the trail and the park,” he says. “(The volunteers) all got a great workout, but that gives them so much more, because they can also all go back to see and admire the work they did.”
