Survivors' Day, 2002

Rhythm Quest Drum and Dance Troupe greeted the more than 600 guests as they arrived at the annual Cancer Survivors' Day Celebration-Celebrating the Rhythms of Life-on Sunday, June 9, at Washtenaw Community College. The free community event was sponsored by the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and Saint Joseph Mercy Cancer Care Center.

Several local groups, from Girl Scout Troops to Senior Citizen Centers to the U-M Cancer Center Art Therapy Program, worked to create more than 500 instruments for the event. Each instrument was crafted from items found around the house-coffee cans, cookie tins and shoeboxes -and colorfully decorated with messages of hope.

The instruments were used during a fun-filled talk by Deforia Lane, Ph.D., director of the Music Therapy Program at Ireland Cancer Center in Cleveland, OH. Dr. Lane revealed the healing power of music by demonstrating the omnicord musical instrument, conducting the "Paper Plate Band" and sharing her inspirational story as a breast cancer survivor.

Attendees at the event also enjoyed an information fair on survivorship issues that included Saint Joseph Mercy Hospice, Ann Arbor Area Music Therapists and the U-M Cancer Center's Complementary Therapies Program.

Rhythm Quest Drum and Dance Troupe led workshops on drumming and dance.

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