September 6, 2018 by Angela

Schurig Center Gets a Face-lift

Thanks to you, a “home away from home” will be standing strong to welcome the community for years to come.

Supporter Dennis Gilardi and founder Karen Schurig celebrate as Schurig Center ‘lands’ in its permanent location in 2005

For the people who come through our doors, Schurig Center is a safe, welcoming, and supportive place where they can be themselves and explore new areas of growth and possibility while being with others who understand.

After more than a decade of normal wear and tear and rainy seasons, our building needed some T.L.C. This spring, thanks to you, the center received dry rot repair and a fresh coat of paint to help prolong its life for years to come. In the last year, an interior wall was also added to create an extra room for individual Occupational and Speech Therapy sessions.

Big thanks to… Cahill Contractors, The Bothin Foundation, Valdez Painting and the many people who donated to the building repair project.

We hope you’ll stop by soon for a visit!

Photo of Schurig Center for Brain Injury Recovery

Schurig Center today.

August 23, 2018 by Angela

Schurig Center Welcomes New Board Member Mari Avedano

Schurig Center for Brain Injury Recovery is pleased to announce that survivor advocate and community volunteer Mari Avedano has joined its Board of Directors.

Download this press release here

Ms. Avedano is a dedicated, experienced community volunteer who actively volunteers her time with several Marin non-profits, including North Marin Community Services, Gilead House, Novato Museums Association, and Novato Senior Citizens Club. She is currently on the Board of Soroptimist International of Novato and also recently completed the Novato Leadership Program. Ms. Avedano also brings with her professional experience in administration, human resources, and information technology with companies such as Fair Isaac, Technology Partners, and Maier, Siebel Baber.

As a traumatic brain injury survivor, Ms. Avedano brings personal knowledge of the unique challenges that survivors and their families face as they rebuild their lives after a brain injury or stroke. She first became involved with Schurig Center in 2015 as a client during her recovery. Later, as her recovery progressed, she transitioned to volunteering as an assistant in the center’s cognitive computer therapy class to help others on their journey to recovery.

Ms. Avedano is excited to apply her talents as an ambassador for Schurig Center to support the organization’s fundraising and community outreach efforts as well as acting as an advocate for survivors and their families. “We are pleased to welcome Ms. Avedano. Her experience and skills will help Schurig Center with outreach to donors and to those whose lives have been impacted by brain injury,” shared Schurig Center’s Board of Directors Chair Kimberly Strub.

July 30, 2018 by Angela

Like a Sunflower

Conceived and collaboratively written by Therapeutic Program participants in honor of their amazing family members and caregivers. To download and print a copy of the poem with original sunflower artwork created by Schurig Center artists, click here.

Before I was thrown off the path of my life,
I was me and you were you.
Whether you joined this journey before or after,
Thank you dearly for all you do.

You take me out to see
The sea
The Bay
The world
Because of you my isolation has uncurled.

Like a sunflower, you help me expand
my horizons, petal by petal, moment by small moment.

Your allowing me to be steeped in this world is everything.
Everything!

I pet an animal, give it food.
I feel the sandy beach improve my mood.

Like a sunflower
you are biggest when you are slow with me.
Strong in your attention to my pace;
Matching me there you show your grace.

Loving me may sometimes be hard,
yet overall your care for me remains unmarred.
You’ve stood with me after head injury,
even when it’s hard to love myself and not get testy.

Your patience and belief in me are enduring gifts.
Your encouragement fills me even when your presence drifts.
At life’s darkest you wove my past into hopeful future possibility.

>Even in the hospital you made the case.
You said I’m brave, smart, athletic, powerful.

Still you whisper, or shout:
Go for it!
You can do it!

You tell me, told me.
Believe in yourself!
You are a fighter, a competitor!

And oh yeah, you said:
You are darn funny, too.
Silly, special you.

At Schurig we learned a quote
that Simone Weil wrote:
“Attention is the rarest form of generosity,”
she said, not knowing she spoke of your luminosity.

Today I celebrate your care and your heart
Trying to capture them with my art.

Grasping at words like a wishing star,
humbly honoring the Sunflower you are.