The Vienna Business Association is reviving its Get Healthy Vienna! Expo for 2024.
First introduced last May, the health and fitness showcase will return to the Vienna Community Center (120 Cherry Street SE) on April 6, from 10 am. to 2 p.m. The event is intended to highlight health-related businesses and resources available in the local community, VBA Health, Wellness & Fitness chair Karen Kerrigan says.
“The 2024 Expo will connect attendees to an array of services, solutions and opportunities that promote wellness and healthy lifestyles,” Kerrigan said. “The process of attaining optimal health and wellness is all about connections, education and taking positive action. I am excited about the wide-array of exhibitors at this year’s expo who are passionate about supporting the health and wellness of our special community.”
This year’s expo will feature up to 50 exhibitors and follow the theme of “Connections to Wellness,” reflecting an emphasis on the importance of social connections to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Outside of the vendors, highlights will include a Kids and Families Zone with children’s activities and demonstrations, such as face painting. The Vienna Singing Princesses will also make “a special appearance” involving superheroes.
For adults, there will be a variety of panels led by health and wellness professionals, who will discuss the root causes of chronic disease, the importance of movement and stretching, and other topics.
Several former James Madison High School student athletes have been enlisted for a panel called “The Importance of a Positive Youth Sports Experience: Lessons for Young Athletes and Their Parents.” Confirmed participants include:
- Football player Nick Dorka (College of William and Mary, Canadian Football League, International Football League)
- Lacrosse player Katie Kerrigan (James Madison University, including a Division I national championship in 2018, and the Women’s Professional Lacrosse League)
- Baseball player Trey Ramsey (Princeton University)
- Soccer player Jack Traxler (Catholic University)
VBA Chairman Greg Kunstbeck said the business association’s board is “excited” to see the event grow in its second year.
“The event continues to grow, evolve and respond to the needs and presence of the many businesses and organizations that provide services in the wellness space, along with the people they serve,” Kunstbeck said. “VBA members are making a positive difference in the health of our community and positively transforming people’s lives.”
The expo will fall in the middle of the fourth annual Mayor’s Fitness Challenge, where Vienna will try to defend its title as the “most fit community” from the rival cities of Fairfax and Falls Church. The contest will kick off this Saturday (March 16) and continue through May 11.
A small business that specializes in all things granola is relocating its Chantilly location to Reston.
Dano’s Granola plans to open in 11495 Sunset Hills Road, Suite 105, by the middle to end of this summer, according to owner and mom of three, Dania Abimourched.
“I’ve lived in Reston since middle school and we started our family here,” Abimourched told FFXnow. “We love the Reston community and our customers that have become part of extended Dano’s Granola family.”
Abimourched’s passion for baking stems from her master’s degree thesis project — an endeavor that tied together her art and ideas together. After her eldest son was diagnosed with several allergies, she began experimenting with different ingredients for health food snacks and treats.
She sells mixes of granola that come in flavors like turmeric and vanilla, carob spice, coconut and seeds, and chocolatte (a combination of chocolate and coffee).
Dano’s Granola currently operates a retail location at 4520 Daly Drive, Suite 100, in Chantilly. It also appears at the Lake Anne Farmers’ Market every spring and fall and provides products to several partners around Northern Virginia, including Wegman’s in Reston, The Bike Lane and Beloved Yoga.
A local teen who was recently named the “Top Young Scientist in America” got a round of applause this morning (Tuesday) from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
Heman Bekele, a ninth-grader at Woodson High School, won the annual 3M Young Scientist Challenge in October for developing a soap that could potentially be used to treat skin cancer. He beat out nine other finalists for the 2023 contest’s grand prize, which came with $25,000 and the aforementioned title.
The Board of Supervisors recognized Heman’s accomplishment with a unanimously approved resolution at its meeting today.
“This is a legitimate breakthrough that Heman discovered and produced,” said Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw. “Especially for those of us whose science experiments ended with our ability to glue a picture of a tree on a board, to see and read about what you have done here is really amazing.”
According to the resolution read by Chairman Jeff McKay, Heman was inspired to create his Skin Cancer Treating Soap (SCTS) by his background as an immigrant from Ethiopia, where cancer is a significant but underreported cause of death. Though he was only 4 when his family moved to the U.S., Heman has said that he remembers seeing people work long hours under the hot sun.
Now 14 years old, Heman wanted to come up with a more affordable treatment option, as costs for existing treatments for the most common cancer in the U.S. have climbed.
According to a Fairfax County Public Schools profile, Heman created the soap by experimenting with different chemical compounds like alicylic acid, glycolic acid and tretinoin that can reactivate dendritic cells, which are part of the body’s immune system.
The final product could be manufactured for just 50 cents a bar. The county board’s resolution lauded Heman for his “enthusiasm and dedication, including long hours of researching and testing in his family’s kitchen and basement.”
For the 16th annual 3M Young Scientist Challenge, Heman was paired with one of the company’s scientists and spent four months turning his concept into a prototype. He was named the competition’s winner at 3M’s global headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Oct. 9 and 10.
After the board approved its resolution, Heman thanked his parents — including his mother, who works as a special education teacher at Lynbrook Elementary School in Springfield — as well as the teachers who have supported him since he began attending FCPS as a kindergarten student.
“What I’m hoping to do is turn this passion project into more than that,” Heman told the board. “I’m hoping to turn it into more of a nonprofit organization where I can provide equitable and accessible skin cancer treatment to as many people as possible, so that’s the end goal, just to help people, see a real change and a positive impact on the world.”
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is marking Women’s History Month with a menstrual supply drive.
Starting today (Monday) through March 29, sites throughout the county will collect new, sealed packages of tampons, pads, liners and menstrual cups.
Those supplies will go to local shelters and nonprofits, including Bringing Resources to Aid Women’s Shelters (BRAWS), Western Fairfax Christian Ministries and Food for Others.
All Fairfax County Public Library branches are collecting donations, as are all nine magisterial district offices, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay’s office and the Sully Community Center. The PARC at Tysons (8508 Leesburg Pike) is also accepting supplies from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday).
Support our local shelters and nonprofits by donating new and sealed packages of tampons, pads, liners, and menstrual cups, from March 4-29 https://t.co/pHXnhzXeow
Questions? Email: Kimberly.Jaramillo@fairfaxcounty.gov pic.twitter.com/yeziKqOh4U
— Fairfax County Government 🇺🇸 (@fairfaxcounty) February 29, 2024
At the board’s Feb. 20 meeting, Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik announced that all supervisors would support the drive to help community members “for whom access to menstrual supplies can pose a financial burden.”
“These essential hygiene products are costly, and the lack of access to safe and clean menstrual products can negatively impact someone’s overall physical and emotional well-being,” Palchik said at the meeting.
This is the first time that Fairfax County has conducted this drive, and it comes more than a year after Virginia stopped charging sales tax on menstrual products.
BRAWS, one of the supply drive’s beneficiaries, says one in five Virginia residents don’t have access to needed menstrual supplies.
“By hosting this drive with collection sites all over the county, we are raising awareness while helping meet these basic needs,” Palchik wrote in a statement to FFXnow.
Other Women’s History Month events in the area include classes and programs from the Fairfax County Park Authority and a panel of local female authors at the City of Fairfax Regional Library.
Photo via Natracare on Unsplash
The community has kept VHC Health’s primary care office in West Springfield busy since it opened last June.
Officially welcomed by Fairfax County leaders with a ribbon-cutting and open house on Jan. 31, the practice at 5803 Rolling Road, Suite 110, started with one physician but added a second in October to meet the demand for services, according to Darryl Ernst, the senior vice president of VHC Health Physicians.
He says the nonprofit health system anticipates adding two more physicians into 2025, bringing the office up to VHC’s typical primary care staffing levels. With each physician usually seeing up to 2,500 patients annually, the West Springfield practice could ultimately care for as many as 10,000 to 12,000 patients.
“The office itself has gotten busy fairly quickly,” Ernst told FFXnow. “That’s been very encouraging for us because I think it reinforces why we’ve been asked to come and provide care in that community.”
Located in a brick office building south of the Kings Park neighborhood, VHC Health’s West Springfield facility provides primary care services to people 18 and older, including physical exams, wellness visits and other preventative care, lab testing and chronic disease management. Same-day urgent appointments and telehealth visits are available.
The practice may expand in the future to also offer cardiology services, but a definite decision on that hasn’t been made yet, Ernst says.
Decisions about what services to offer where are driven by community need and possible gaps in a given neighborhood’s health care network, according to Ernest, who says a lot of patients who get cardiology services at VHC Health’s hospital in Arlington live or work in the West Springfield area.
“We want to be in communities that don’t have many providers in a certain specialty,” he said. “So, we believe cardiology is the need in that community, and so, that’s one of the reasons we would do it, in essence, because there’s not the kind of access that we think it should exist for cardiology services.”
The West Springfield practice was among several new VHC Health facilities to pop up in Fairfax County over the past couple of years. Rebranding from Virginia Hospital Center, the nonprofit now also has facilities in Annandale, Tysons, McLean, Vienna and Kingstowne.
A digestive health center that focuses exclusively on gastrointestinal issues also opened this past Tuesday (Feb. 13) at 3025 Hamaker Court in Merrifield.
Ernst says VHC Health has been “very intentional” with its expansion into Fairfax County, which was in the works before the COVID-19 pandemic but got temporarily slowed down as medical providers pivoted to virtual services.
In addition to seeking to give its existing patients a more convenient option, the nonprofit has gotten a “tremendous amount” of outreach from elected officials and business leaders requesting facilities in different parts of the county, including West Springfield, according to Ernst.
Though VHC’s offices have been concentrated in the eastern part of the county so far, it’s developing plans to expand to the western side. Ernst says they’re not at a stage yet where he can disclose specific details, but the focus will likely be around Fairfax City and its surrounding areas.
“We think [our facilities are] special, and we just really want them to be a resource for the community and for the residents,” Ernst said.
A health provider that specializes in treating eating disorders has expanded into Tysons.
Monte Nido announced yesterday that it has launched a day treatment program for adolescents in Tysons. Located near The Boro at 8180 Greensboro Drive, the center is initially serving youth aged 11 to 17, but it plans to add services for adults “soon,” according to a press release.
“With eating disorders on the rise for both adults and adolescents, expanding access to care has never been more important,” Monte Nido & Affiliates CEO Cassie McLean said. “We’re striving to make treatment more accessible to everyone who needs it, and this new program will connect more individuals in the D.C. area to life-saving care and increase their opportunity to attain full recovery.”
Founded in 1996, Monte Nido & Affiliates now operates over 50 programs that provide treatment for people experiencing eating disorders. In addition to the new Tysons program, the company’s local centers include Clementine Fairfax in Fairfax Station and Clementine Twin Lakes in Clifton, which both offer residential services.
Monte Nido’s day program in Tysons is designed to help clients transition from more intensive, 24/7 care to outpatient therapy, according to the press release. Its approach to treatment for eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder, includes individual and group therapy, nutritional education and cognitive processing therapy to address trauma.
“Our program offers personalized treatment approaches tailored to meet the distinct needs of each individual,” Monte Nido & Affiliates Chief Clinical Officer Melissa Spann said. “We believe that equipped with the appropriate tools and support, recovery is achievable at any stage of an individual’s journey with their eating disorder.”
An estimated 28.8 million Americans, or 9% of the population, develop an eating disorder at some point in their lives, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD), a nonprofit that operates free peer support services and a helpline at 888-375-7767.
Calls to national hotlines and hospitalizations related to eating disorders reportedly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, fueled by the additional stress and uncertainty. According to ANAD, over 70% of people with eating disorders have other conditions, particularly anxiety and mood disorders.
National Eating Disorders Awareness Week will be recognized this year from Feb. 26 to March 3. The annual campaign aims to educate the community about eating disorders and encourage those affected to seek help.
An expanding chain of sauna studios is targeting West Falls Church for its introduction to Virginia.
Local entrepreneurs Michael Sobhi and Michael Baffa will open three Perspire Sauna Studio franchises in Fairfax County under a recently signed agreement with the California-based company, which offers infrared sauna and red-light therapy services.
The first location will be in West Falls Church, though a specific site is still being identified, according to a public relations representative for Perspire. The locations for the other two studios are also being determined.
Sobhi and Baffa, who have a combined 20 years of experience in the real estate and construction industries, hope to eventually expand the company’s presence in the area to 10 spas.
“We’ve always been health-conscious and familiar with the benefits of saunas, though our experiences have been limited to gyms and public facilities, where truly enjoying the experience can be challenging,” Sobhi said in a press release announcing the franchising deal. “The concept of Perspire, with its private and personalized approach to wellness, immediately resonated with us. We saw it as something we would personally use and benefit from if it were available in our area.”
Started by CEO Lee Braun in Costa Mesa, California, in 2010, Perspire Sauna Studio says it utilizes “age-old” sauna heat therapy practices that can help cleanse the body, ease joint and muscle pain, encourage relaxation and assist with weight loss.
The cedar-paneled saunas generate heat with colored lights that warm up the body, rather than the air, according to the company’s website. Available services include red light therapy, which is used in treatments for skin conditions, hair loss and other health needs, and chromotherapy, which can supposedly be used to treat diseases.
Perspire currently has 49 studios, with another 20 in development and 170 signed franchise agreements. Sobhi and Baffa’s franchises will be Perspire’s first locations in Virginia.
“At the crux of our brand is the intent to ignite a passion in our members and our communities for a more relaxing, health-conscious lifestyle,” Braun said in a statement. “That passion starts by introducing the science-backed approach of infrared and red light therapy to new people and new places; something both Michaels are now playing a pivotal role in seeing through.”
Another intravenous hydration clinic has opened its doors in Reston.
The Dripbar opened earlier this month on Jan. 10 at 11790 Baron Cameron Ave in Unit D.
The business offers IV vitamin and hydration therapy. Another business with a similar concept is slated to open next month on Reston Station Blvd.
“Through our IV Hydration services, we aim to offer a convenient and effective way for community members to replenish essential nutrients, rehydrate, and revitalize their overall well-being,” Louise Smith, co-owner of the Reston location, said. “Whether it’s recovering from a strenuous workout, combating dehydration, or seeking a wellness boost, our IV’s are designed to cater to diverse needs.”
The Dripbar says its IV drip therapy services provide health benefits, from nutrient boosts to support during cancer treatments. It has 99 locations across the U.S., but the Reston franchise is its first one in Northern Virginia.
The business is closed on Mondays but operates from 10-7 p.m. on other weekdays. It’s also open on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 pm and on Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.
Reston will soon welcome a wellness company that uses IV treatments for hydration.
Prime IV Hydration & Wellness is slated to open at 11209 Reston Station Blvd near the Faraday Park apartments, according to county permits.
The company says it offers intravenous treatments for feeling, looking and performing better. Offerings target muscle pain, exhaustion, injury recovery, wrinkles, premature aging and seasonal allergies. Prime IV also offers general packages that offer pure hydration, fighting fatigue, and athletic performance.
It’s unclear exactly when the business is expected to open. Prime IV’s website says only that the location is coming soon. The company did not return several requests for comment from FFXnow.
Amy Neary started the company in Colorado Springs in 2008 in order to provide lab testing for all.
“We’re able to help people who otherwise might forego getting a diagnosis and treatment from their physician, simply because they can’t afford their lab tests,” Neary states on the company’s website.
There are multiple locations across the U.S., including others that are coming soon in Merrifeld, McLean and Gaithersburg.
Image via Google Maps
Inova Health Systems continued an expansion of its urgent care network this week with the reopening of a facility in McLean.
Inova-GoHealth Urgent Care McLean opened to patients at 1340 Old Chain Bridge Road, Suite 101, this past Monday (Jan. 22) after closing last year for renovations. Formerly known as McLean Immediate Care Urgent Care, the center is the 16th one that Inova has added in Northern Virginia since it partnered with the on-demand health care company GoHealth in 2022.
“Inova-GoHealth’s rapid growth is a sign of our commitment to expanding access to affordable, on-demand care for people throughout Northern Virginia,” Inova-GoHealth regional president Harold Brown said. “Having convenient access to connected healthcare is vital for improving the quality of life for everyone in our community.”
Like other locations, the 2,600-square-foot urgent care center in McLean provides medical services to treat “common health concerns for adults and children six months and older, including COVID-19, flu, fever, asthma, allergies, minor cuts, burns, pink eye, urinary tract infections, fractures, sprains, strains and more,” according to a press release.
It’s open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Inova and GoHealth, which operates the facilities, are also preparing to launch a new urgent care center in the Herndon area. The 2,909-square-foot facility is on track to open in late February next to Taco Bamba in the Village Center at Dulles (2415 Centreville Road, Suite B6).
That will bring the two providers up to 17 urgent care centers in Northern Virginia. Seven of the centers were recently relaunched under the new branding, but there are also entirely new locations, including ones that opened in Fairfax City and Lorton last fall.
“With Inova-GoHealth centers across Fairfax County, patients can access convenient, high-quality care closer to where they live, work and play,” Inova-GoHealth Urgent Care Medical Director Dr. Meredith Porter said. “We are excited to expand access to on-demand healthcare for the community and seamlessly connect patients to Inova’s robust network.”
