Hello and welcome to living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

On this episode, we are focusing on the guys.

It's Men's Health Month and we are taking you to the golf course for some physical therapy, keeping local patients exercised and injury free.

Plus, swim season is here and the students from Bethlehem Area School District are lifeguards, certified and ready to keep everyone safe at the pool.

They are here today to talk about that program.

Then an incredible story of a second chance at life.

A local man went from getting short of breath in his own home to traveling without a care.

Find out how he is getting to live life to the fullest.

Now to our first story.

We are hitting the links in honor of June being Men's Health Month.

A Lehigh Valley program uses golf techniques to help patients with their mobility and range of motion.

Here's the story of a local man taking a swing at better health.

In 2021.

Bruce Smith traded a long career with Mack Trucks for more leisure time on the links.

I've been a golfer.

I didn't golf so much during my work career because I let work consume my life and my yard work, but now that I'm retired for five years, I'm golfing as often as I can.

But an injury stopped Smith from taking that swing.

I had a very angry nerve in my lower back.

Two years ago.

I could not even walk a quarter mile without being in severe pain and discomfort.

The bath resident knew he had to find a way to get back to the game following an MRI, an epidural and physical therapy.

The 71 year old was mentally ready to return to the golf course, but physically he wasn't fully prepared.

I was finally pain free, but I was really out of shape because of months of inactivity.

That's when he found the golf performance exercise program.

The class is wonderful.

It focuses on leg strength, core flexibility, and range of motion exercises.

It's all for through Lehigh Valley Health Network, part of Jefferson Health, at their Orthopedic Institute on Highland Avenue in Bethlehem Township.

The people that come into the program are anywhere from.

I have some high school students that come in.

I have a collegiate golfer who comes in.

He was in the championship for the Patriot League, and then we have the middle age to the older adult who's coming in.

Like I said, just they're trying to improve their game, get rid of those aches and pains.

Frank Lupine oversees the class, but more so he's the passion behind the project.

Golf kind of became my passion to help golfers improve their game.

They hit the ball better, enjoy the game and that they're back.

Their knees.

Their shoulders don't hurt after around or in season whenever.

All right.

We're going to go high knees here from their ankle to their knee to their hip to their shoulder from a turning standpoint mobility standpoint.

And then we just look at coordination.

How does the how does that body move.

Because the golf swing is pretty.

It's a complex move.

And we just want to make sure that all the joints are working functionally so that they can swing better and then not re-injured themselves or injure themselves.

The workouts are always a group environment, so everyone is supportive of each other and we kind of in a non strict way.

We compete against each other just to get the exercises done and encourage each other, so it's a really nice environment.

Two years after Smith's injury, he says his back is feeling normal again.

This class has given me confidence, strength, endurance, flexibility and I couldn't thank LVN enough for the physicality that I have today.

Attending the golf performance fitness class at least twice a week has become a routine for Smith as a way to stay active as he ages.

We move on through life.

We want to keep our independence, and if someone takes our blanket away and if our blanket is golf, that's frustrating.

And I can't do the things that I used to do.

So as we age, we want to stay healthy and independent.

So the exercise for men, just as well as women, is just as important.

Every class is different, and that's what is so impressive about it.

And the next day you feel soreness in different areas.

And it's just just a great feeling that, you know, without it, I I'd be lost.

What a cool program.

And this season, participants are especially inspired as they plan to cheer on the pros in the first ever Jefferson Lehigh Valley Classic, which will bring the PGA Tour Champions to the area and spotlight the growing golf community at the end of September.

We are continuing to celebrate Men's Health Month here in the living in the Lehigh Valley kitchen.

I have giant dietician Shayna Schultz here to show us a couple ingredients that are going to make our guys a little bit healthier, just a few simple ways to incorporate more healthy ingredients.

It's great to have you, Shayna.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

So we have a delicious recipe already cooking.

What are we making today?

So we are making a tortellini dish with chicken sausage and spinach.

So it's going to be a great weeknight meal a meal prep meal however you want to do it.

But in this dish already, we already have some chicken sausage going, as well as some white onion in there too to give it flavor.

Wonderful.

And we're putting these both in at the same time.

Correct.

Same time as well as a little bit of olive oil.

It's in there too.

Wonderful.

So as we're stirring that up, tell us a little bit about the Giant dietitian program.

Yeah.

So the giant dietitians we are here is your resource to help with healthy cooking as well as information about diabetes, heart health, how to use that information in the stores to make them better choices while you're shopping to.

And we have some online classes that you can check out on our website.

Very cool.

Okay, so we have this recipe started, but there are five different ingredients that we are going to be using today to get some key nutrients into this dish.

What are we talking about to make the guys a little bit more healthy.

Yes.

So we're going to start off with something really trendy right now which is protein okay.

The chicken sausage that we have in this dish right now is our protein.

Both animal and plant based sources of protein.

So different options for everyone.

But why it's so important is because of two different reasons.

One for our muscles.

So if you're working out a lot, we want to make sure that we are repairing those muscles that you just use and building them stronger.

And then also in the way of weight management.

So whenever we begin to lose weight, we want to make sure that we're losing fat and not muscle.

All right.

So we need to have enough protein to do that.

And then also protein is what helps to fill us up.

So if you leave a meal and you're still feeling hungry, my question always is.

Did you have enough protein okay, okay I'm going to stir this.

You tell us about what you've brought for us.

Okay.

So in here we have our raw chicken sausage that we're cooking up.

But if you're looking for an easy, convenient option, we also have our precooked chicken sausage.

This can be great for meal prep meals as well.

Also another animal based source of protein cottage cheese.

Super popular right now.

This can be a great ingredient just to eat as is or something to incorporate into a recipe.

Okay, I think that's what we forget about cottage cheese that you don't.

If you don't like it, you don't have to necessarily just eat it straight.

You can put it into these recipes and you don't even realize it's in there.

Exactly.

Some good ones for that would be like pancake mixes, waffle mixes, even scrambled eggs in the morning to make them creamier.

A little bit more protein in there.

Yeah.

Be mindful though, if you have high blood pressure, cottage cheese can be high in salt.

So we do have no salt added varieties of that.

And then of course your plant based options things like beans, nuts, seeds can also be beneficial for protein.

Great.

So we talked about protein.

What's the next one.

Next one I'll switch here with you.

I'll do this if you want to check out what one have here with vitamin D okay okay.

Vitamin D very important because it's going to help those muscles that we just talked about.

And then also our immune system okay.

Very helpful to defend against germs and all of that stuff we want to stay away from.

Not a lot of foods naturally contain vitamin D right.

We actually get vitamin D mainly from the sun okay.

So but some that do would be like eggs or salmon.

Don't be afraid of pan salmon.

Great.

Okay.

Do you like canned salmon?

I haven't really tried it, but it's almost like a tuna.

Exactly right.

Exactly.

You said the same way as you would canned tuna.

Great.

Okay, okay.

Also, fortified foods like milk and plant based milks.

I brought oat milk today because I think that that can be a great coffee alternative.

So if you're using a lot of cream in your coffee.

This is a good one that's going to give you that creamy texture and that vitamin D at the same time, right?

And you're still getting that nutrients even though it's not cow milk.

Right.

Exactly.

You get it from the Suenos Almond milk.

All of those still have the vitamin D as well.

Great, I love that.

So you're getting a little bit of milk in there.

We're getting some eggs.

Then we're moving on to our packaged items over here.

Yeah.

So our third nutrient that we're highlighting today is fiber okay.

Usually we think about fiber in the way of our digestive health.

But it's also very important for our heart health okay.

So if you go to the doctor they say hey your cholesterol is getting high.

One way we can help lower those cholesterol numbers would be eating more fiber.

Okay.

So fruits and veggies, but also things like beans, whole grains.

So like whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, but also brown rice, quinoa those all count to towards our fiber.

Great.

And we brought them here today.

And these are easy things to buy and just store in the pantry because yes, you know, opposed to like the fresh ingredients that we have on the other side.

These are easily stored and used throughout the week and for a couple of weeks.

I love pantry staples.

And those are convenience items to the quinoa is in a microwavable bag boil in a bag rice so everything to help you out to eat healthier and make it easy to think that's the key here.

All right.

How's our recipe coming along?

So this is looking great.

The chicken sausage is brown.

The onions are starting to caramelize.

So I'm going to hand this back to you and we'll start adding some other ingredients here I have some low sodium chicken broth okay.

Once again thinking about our blood pressure.

Go with the low sodium variety.

We have a little bit of half and a half to make this into a creamy sauce.

All right.

Great.

And it's not even enough to make it really calories.

Exactly.

Calorie flavor and texture.

Right?

Really.

Some garlic just went in there.

Minced garlic.

All right.

So you're going to start smelling that hopefully love that.

And then we are going to add some canned tomatoes here.

Great.

So can tomatoes are a really great item because they're going to give us our fourth nutrient which is lycopene.

Lycopene okay.

What is lycopene.

So lycopene is what is going to give red fruits and vegetables their color.

All right.

So a great nutrient to help with our heart health like we've been talking about.

But for men in particular are also very beneficial to prostate health okay okay great.

And is it just tomatoes or is there other fruits and vegetables that you can use and products you can use to get this in there.

So any type of red fruit or vegetable, including watermelon this time of year, that's going to be a quick and easy side if you're grilling those types of things.

But really, the canned tomatoes products are going to be the highest whenever these items are cooked a bit and then canned, the concentration of lycopene goes up.

Now don't be worried that it's canned because of the sodium.

We do have.

Once again, the no salt added products that can really help in the way of that.

Wonderful, wonderful.

All right.

Our recipe is coming together here.

Yeah.

All right.

So now we're going to add some tortellini to the dish.

Right.

This is precooked tortellini.

So you can buy fresh or frozen I'll help you out here.

Thank you.

Get everybody in there.

You just boil it and then we're going to add it to the recipe.

My hands are washing.

Run away.

Tortellini.

That's right.

So that's going to get incorporated in.

And then our last addition to the recipe is going to be a bit of magnesium through spinach okay.

So once again I'm just going to add to this here.

Throw that in there I'm going to see if we can turn this up a little bit higher okay.

As we're cooking.

Wonderful.

All right.

And now what's the what's the trick to I always stray away from spinach and cooking with spinach because I'm like is it going to.

Is it going to all melt down.

Am I going to do it wrong?

Am I going to you know, how do we do this.

So in this type of recipe we do want it to wilt down.

Okay.

So as this continues to heat up that heat is going to help to wilt that spinach.

You mixing it in there.

Mixing it in.

Yep.

Is going to break it down to no lid.

No.

All right okay a very easy one pot meal kind of going on here.

Listen as the resident dishwasher in my house.

Right?

I love a one pot meal.

Yeah.

So we'll keep adding the spinach here.

And as I mentioned, that's going to give us a bit of magnesium.

Magnesium I really like to chat about with Men's Health because it can be helpful once again to those muscles like we kept chatting about.

But also it can be very helpful for both sleep and stress management.

Magnesium is responsible for over 300 biochemical reactions in the body, so the fact that all of those can help with our sleep and our stress, I think is really important.

Down here, we have some other options in the way of magnesium.

So things like nuts and seeds, especially pumpkin seeds, which you'll find in a lot of different fun trail mixes.

Bananas.

So like a really easy addition to a breakfast or a snack.

Always to get in a little bit more magnesium.

Great.

So we are looking at protein.

We're looking at fiber.

We want to add in some vitamin D in there.

Lycopene which is the new one I just learned.

And then the magnesium.

And this is all going to really support men's health.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Our recipe is looking great here.

Our spinach is starting to wilt down and it will just continue to cook.

But really at this stage it's ready to eat.

So you can have it just how it is in this casserole dish.

You know, put it out on the table.

You could plate this into a bowls for a meal prep meal for out the whole week.

Or we can put it in this dish here.

Great.

If you like.

Okay, okay.

Do you want me to hold and you pour in or overall, you know what?

How about I hold you?

Pour in?

Yeah, I think that's really better.

Okay.

And that's going to help with our spinach.

Just cooking a bit more on the bottom okay.

But see how bright and lovely the colors are here.

Wonderful.

Shayna Schultz from giant.

One more time.

If folks want to get more information about the dietitian program, how do they do so?

So definitely head to our website.

You can check out all of our free online classes that you earn choice points for, as well as some recipe inspiration.

They're wonderful.

Shayna Schultz, Giant Dietitian thanks for keeping us and our guys in our lives healthy.

Thank you.

Well, summer is upon us and a local school district is preparing students for summer pool jobs.

Bethlehem Area School District's lifeguard program trains their teens so area pools can recruit them to keep everyone safe around the water.

Joining us now, our students Sequoyah Surface and Hannah Broadhead, along with their instructors Mike Claffey and Joe Stellata.

Thank you all so much for joining us.

Thanks for having us.

All right, Joe, we're going to start with you.

Tell us all about this wonderful program.

So we started this lifeguard program through the Recreation City of Bethlehem Recreation Department, having a great relationship with the Bethel School District.

And they were down lifeguards.

This was maybe eight years ago.

They were down lifeguards.

So they came to the school asking if we can get them some lifeguards.

And then through that relationship, through that communication, we somebody came up with the idea to start a lifeguarding course at the high school.

So then these kids can then go right into getting a job.

Wonderful.

Fortunately enough for them, I am one of the supervisors at the pool and been working for the city for 35 years.

So?

So I instruct them and then I can also help them get a job.

You can facilitate that relationship.

Wonderful, Mike.

The training, that's kind of where you come in.

What does the actual program entail for these kids at the school?

Right.

So it's a nine course.

It's elected the kids sign up for.

They get credit for it as well.

We build them up as far as our cardiovascular skills go.

With their 350 yard swim that they do, they don't have to retrieve a brick from the bottom of the pool.

That's all part of the American Red cross certification process.

So we're building on those skills every day.

We're in the classroom teaching stuff, then we're in the pool.

So we kind of back and forth for those nine weeks.

And when they're walking away from this program, what certifications do they have?

They have a lifeguard certification.

And then they also have training with teaching swim lessons, which I know is going to talk about that, what she like to do with her career.

So wonderful.

And, Hannah, I know that you went through the program and as your instructor just mentioned, you are interested in the education side, not just lifeguarding at a pool, correct?

Yes.

I love like being in the water.

And I really thought this idea was really cool.

For lifeguarding class, part of the lifeguarding class was learning how to teach swim lessons and facilitate swim lessons.

So I'm really interested in special education.

So I'm hoping this summer to help teach swim lessons and hopefully to people with special needs.

What a wonderful, wonderful goal to have.

That's a wonderful thing.

And I know that parents out here could definitely use that.

And Sequoia, you actually have this job that you're practicing this training currently now.

So where are you working?

I'm going to be working at the Stark Pool for the Bethlehem City, and I'll be lifeguarding there.

Great.

What did you love most about this program when you were doing the training and what interested you to want to participate?

I really liked, like meeting new people there and finding new experiences and learning new stuff.

Wonderful.

Best of luck to you at your new job and I hope you have the best of luck.

Teaching the students how to swim.

That's a wonderful aspect of it as well.

Joe, I know that the summer is in full swing.

A lot of these students are already placed, but if folks are interested in these types of programs that kind of partner the school and recreation, or if they're interested in getting involved with the safety and of the recreation, how can they get that information?

If you're a student at Liberty or Freedom, you can obviously take the course, which we are offering every year.

And then if you are just a student somewhere else and another school district, you could certainly call the City of Bethlehem Recreation Department.

Jodie Evans can certainly give you more information on that.

You know, unfortunately, this year we are absolutely loaded with lifeguards.

That's a good thing.

Yeah, that is a good thing.

The training is working wonderful.

So they can reach out to the city of Bethlehem.

Joe, Sequoyah, Hannah and Mike, thank you all so much for joining us and telling us about this fabulous program.

Thank you for having you.

Yes.

Now we continue our focus on men's health on this episode of living in the Lehigh Valley.

Turning our attention to the importance of becoming an organ donor, a retired Lehigh University economics professor, lung disease quietly narrowed his world over nearly five years as everyday activities left him breathless.

This is his success story in the world of organ transplants.

This is a picture of Anna when she was in London.

Traveling to see his children brings joy to Tom.

Hi, Clark.

And this is all of us have been in LA wedding out in California.

But over the past few years, traveling became difficult for the father of two.

More than five years ago, he started to develop symptoms he thought were related to Covid, but it was fatigue, muscle pain, joint pain, severe coughing at times, fevers and stuff like that.

However, it turned out to be something more severe.

I was diagnosed with the form of vasculitis, which is an autoimmune system disorder, and it caused inflammation in small blood vessels and damaged my kidneys and my lungs.

Doctors were able to treat the symptoms with medication and they went away.

But high Clark was left with scarring on his lungs.

That made him chronically short of breath.

I got up from the couch and walked to the bathroom, or walked to the kitchen and came back.

I would be breathing heavily.

Not that it would stop me from doing things.

I wouldn't say, oh, I can't do it.

But things like taking a shower were like, I would take a shower and get out of the shower and I'd have to rest before getting dressed because I was out of breath.

Even just with a few steps, he was out of breath and that became just very difficult to to really do anything.

It really affected the quality of my life.

And I think Jean noticed that much more than maybe even I did in terms of she often mentioned the fact that my world was shrinking in terms of the things I could do.

He and his wife, Jean, decided it was time to seek a long term solution.

Last January, I asked my pulmonologist if I could be a candidate for a lung transplant.

He referred me to temple, to the Temple Lung Center, and after an initial consultation, they recommended going through this pretty rigorous testing procedure.

And I did that, and they highly recommended they recommended that I get a lung transplant.

Patients who qualify for a lung transplant are those who have end stage chronic progressive disease.

So whatever lung disease they have, they've tried medicines, they're on oxygen, they have a procedure if they're a candidate for procedures.

And despite that, they're still having progression of disease.

I was referred to Doctor Rachel Criner, a pulmonologist for Temple Health.

And despite his age, he was added to the transplant list.

Tom is a really good example of how temple does things differently.

So he is now 79.

He had a lung transplant last year.

He was 78.

Most transplant centers just hearing his age would say no, not even evaluate him for lung transplant.

But at temple, age for us is just the number.

You can have bad lung disease, but otherwise be healthy.

And that was the case of Tom.

With the help of Gift of Life and Organ procurement program that serves eastern Pennsylvania, part of new Jersey, and all of Delaware High.

Clark got the call.

And I remember on Tuesday night coming to dinner and saying to Jean boy, I can't wait until temple gives me a call.

And lo and behold, 1:00 in the morning.

That night I got the call to go.

It was then at 330 in the morning and started the whole process of going through the surgeries.

On August 20th, 2025, the Bethlehem Township man received a lung transplant.

I thought of it as a positive, like, here's a chance, at least a possibility that you would have a more normal life after the transplant.

It's quite clear that having the transplant was the best decision that Jean and I reached.

We know that it starts with the kindness of a stranger and their families saying yes to donation.

Hi.

Clark was one of the many patients in the tri state area.

That Gift of Life was able to assist in getting a life saving organ.

In fact, recently released data shows that Gift of Life coordinated the most organs in 2025 than any other procurement organization in U.S.

history.

We had the most number of organ donors in the 52 year history of our program, and it resulted then, in almost 2000, organ life saving organ transplants.

And it's really a spectacular achievement that meant so much to so many people, not only to the donors who were able to create that legacy, but for all of those recipients who now can be off of dialysis or not tethered to oxygen and have a really normal life, I would urge people to be willing to to be a donor.

I think of the donor and the family.

And the family agreed to give me this life, this long as a tremendous gift.

And.

It's a legacy that really is important.

Not only has the procedure added years to high Clark's life, it's added miles to his travel log.

It's been a game changer for our family and that we can travel to see our kids.

We can do things with them, do things that we couldn't had put off for about five years.

However many life years I have left, they will be much better quality life years because of having the transplant.

The average survival rate for a lung transplant is about six years, but Doctor Criner says they have patients who live well beyond that living ten, 15, even 20 years after a transplant.

Those interested in becoming an organ donor can do so by registering at the DMV or going to donors one and clicking register.

That will do it for this episode of living in the Lehigh Valley for PBS 39.

I'm Brittany Sweeney hoping you stay happy and healthy.