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 of Free Falling.

Physician is in the office at a local health network.

We show you how his skydiving hobby is breaking records and making him a better doctor in the process.

Plus, a unique prenatal care model is improving health outcomes among Lehigh Valley women and inspiring new friendships.

Find out where.

Then we are sharing a delicious, nutritious recipe that is perfect for lunch on the go or dinner at home.

Get the easy steps to making the perfect Mediterranean grain bowl.

Now to our first story that is all about taking a leap of faith.

A local doctor who keeps his cool in the office says he learned to do so while falling from thousands of feet in the air.

He's one of more than 100 people who recently set a world record.

While skydiving, and he had a pretty neat companion in the process.

Advising people to stay safe and healthy.

As part of doctor Frank Maron's job.

But his hobby takes a leap in the opposite direction.

Once you leave the airplane, you're as good as dead until you do something about it.

In his spare time, the Allentown family physician jumps from thousands of feet up.

But we do something about it right away.

We open our parachute.

But then we try to kill each other by putting them together.

So today, he has around 5800 jumps under his belt.

Or should I say parachute?

It's often, you know, hours of sheer boredom, separated by moments of sheer terror.

Decades ago, Metron got the itch as a teen.

I started skydiving when I was 17.

I remember playing youth football and watching the skydivers come down at the airport in Hazleton, where I'm from.

Years later, not only does he jump, he adds to the level of danger linking with other thrill seekers in a sport called canopy formation skydiving.

We practice control collisions with our canopies and getting together and making formations.

It's a different aspect of the sport.

Most skydivers, once their parachute is open, they want to get away from the other skydivers.

They don't.

They don't really want to be near anybody else that's considered dangerous or silly.

We purposely put our canopies together, to build formations.

The peak of his skydiving adventures came this past fall, when the doctor took part in an effort to set a world record for the largest global canopy formation skydiving.

The first official record I was on was 46, and that was 1994.

And that was considered huge at the time.

You know, the thrill of getting to 100 was unheard of.

But through the years after 94, we built a I think my next one was a 70 way.

And then 85, 100 and now 104.

Right around Thanksgiving, almost 18 years to the day from the last record in Lake Wales, Florida, people came from across the globe to try for a new record.

We launch eight airplanes.

We generally try to use the clean air in the morning, the the Columbia.

So we'll take off as early as possible for this of all those people.

Metronome says the most important person present for that formation was his son, Dominic.

I don't know if it's a coincidence or if they planned it that way, but he was right next to me.

So I, I was in what they called row eight in the diamond, and he was in row nine.

Finally, after a dozen attempts with his son, literally as his right hand man, the doctor and a crew of 104 divers set the record.

It was truly a world record.

We had, people from Canada, South America, the United States, obviously, specifically in South America.

I know Argentina and Brazil was represented.

It's a record years in the making and something that Tyrone says will take years to break.

In the meantime, the Allentown doctor says he has plans to take less of a leap and spend some quality time with family this year.

I plan to spend more time skydiving with my wife.

She does more free fall.

She's not into canopy.

Relative work as much.

When asked how practicing medicine has made him a better skydiver, McCrone says it's quite the opposite.

My experience in skydiving has helped me in in medicine.

Because I, I think I'm more relaxed when stuff hits the fan, so to speak.

Finding calm in an adrenaline spike, McCrone hopes to continue the downward spiral for years to come.

So I'll probably stick around with my health water.

And yeah, just keep having fun.

Fun fact my son Dominic was just nine years old the last time his dad set the record for the formation skydiving in 2007.

This time around, in his late 20s, as you just saw, he had the chance to join his dad.

Pretty cool.

Now on to another more serious topic family homelessness.

It's on the rise in the Lehigh Valley, and pregnant women and mothers of infants are among the most vulnerable.

That's why the Kay Galligan Life House offers housing and support services for mothers and babies experiencing homelessness and housing instability.

Here now is executive director Paula Albania.

Paula, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

So, Paula, homelessness across the country is on the rise.

It's up 51% just around there.

Even more so in the Lehigh Valley.

Yeah I just read a statistic the other day that is at 91% here in the Lehigh Valley.

Staggering, staggering.

That's a staggering statistic.

And, you know, I think because it's not right in the forefront, it's it's kind of hidden behind closed doors or down different streets that we don't see it and it's not in our faces, but it is there 91%.

But the Kay Galligan Lifehouse helps these folks who are experiencing this.

What does that organization do?

So we are a maternity home and we actually have two programs.

Our residential program is a seven bedroom facility that houses, pregnant women and mothers with newborns.

And we have a community outreach program that serves last year, over 548 families in the Lehigh Valley.

So who are these women that are coming in and asking for help?

Local women who are just struggling, whether most of them have, they just need supplies, resources, help navigating through the system, just whether it's benefits, whether it's applications, whether it's education.

And that's what my staff does.

They work with them one on one and everybody's journeys different.

Sure.

What does that look like for the average woman who's coming in through the doors?

Are they staying for a couple hours, a couple days, a couple months?

So the residential program is actually up to the baby's second birthday.

So from pregnancy through the baby's second birthday, it's partially based on whatever the mother's goals are, right?

So some might just want to be working or some going to school.

It really depends on what their their goals are.

The community outreach sees them from pregnancy up to the baby's first birthday.

Because there's so many people that were serving, it's hard to go to that second year.

We don't have the space for it, honestly.

So they will they'll receive the other appointments.

They'll receive diapers, wipes, food if they need it.

Hygiene, hygiene supplies, things like that.

Sure.

And why is this group of people, you know, women who have small children, who or who are expecting?

Why are they so vulnerable at that time and why?

Why help this group?

I think there's a special place in everybody's heart when you see children, right?

Nobody.

Nobody wants to see a child suffer.

And there's just not enough resources out there to help these young women get through this very difficult time in their lives, whether it's medical concerns, whether it's just putting a roof and food on the on the table for their families, and they're coming from situations where there's abuse, there's, there's fear, there's, low self-worth.

Sure, sure.

And I know that you said to me before we did this interview that some of these women that you meet are living in their cars.

Yes.

The, the it's staggering the amount of women that have come in daily, that are living in cars or couch surfing and just going from friend's house to friend's house.

Not only are they pregnant, some of them have other children that they're doing this with.

And that's that's what's really painstaking every day to have to really, you know, help them and try to find stable housing.

The housing market is ridiculous.

Now, there's no affordable housing anymore, and you can't find a place for any of them to to live where they can support themselves on even, you know, minimum wage jobs anymore.

The rates and the availability, just the the inventory of housing isn't there anymore.

Sure, none of this would be possible without funding.

During the month of March, the Kay Life Lifehouse holds their annual gala.

So it's in March.

Yes, it's always the first Saturday of March, and we're excited.

This is our 14th annual gala, and it's a great way to celebrate the previous year of what we've set up because of what we achieved as an organization, all of our successes with our moms.

And it's a great way for our donors who support us to interact with our moms and families and really experience the work that we do, and hear some really inspiring stories.

It's one of your biggest fundraiser.

Where do those funds go to once they're raised?

What do they do specifically?

Specifically?

Really just to support the programs?

And, really it covers all of the expenses.

That's our our we're free.

Our services are free.

So without that support, we can't provide the level of, services that people require.

Paula, if folks want to get more information about the Kay Galligan Lifehouse, how can they do so?

Whether they want to be supporters of this organization or if maybe they need some of the services, how can they find that information?

The best thing to do is to go to our website.

Kay Galligan lighthouse.org.

You'll find a place for services.

There's a place for if you want to financially support us as well as volunteering, which, you know, our volunteers are the backbone of our organization.

We couldn't do it without the dedication of our community.

Wonderful.

Well, Paula Albanys, thank you so much for joining us and for this wonderful information.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

Having a baby is life changing.

So imagine if, while receiving your typical care, you made lifelong friends along the way.

That's a reality for parents involved in a program at Lehigh Valley Health Network, part of Jefferson Health.

It's called centering pregnancy.

Here to tell us more is PBS 30 Nine's Meg Frank, who had the chance to attend one of the meetings and see the program in action.

Meg, I'm excited to hear more about this.

It sounds like something that would be helpful to a lot of parents.

Hybrid.

It definitely is.

You know, we're both moms, and I can tell you this program is really special because of how educational it is for parents.

It also empowers moms to have a strong voice in the delivery room, something that all moms deserve.

I had a chance to meet some of the parents, as well as the midwife running the program, and saw firsthand how the program breaks down some of the complexities of childbirth to better prepare parents for the big day.

High blood pressure.

Okay, cheating.

It's conversations like this that are helping these parents feel more prepared for labor delivery and the postpartum period.

You get your one on one time with the provider.

So myself or one of the other midwives, you have that time alone where if you don't want to necessarily talk about something that's a little bit more personal, you still are able to kind of chat with us.

We measure your belly's, we listen to baby's heartbeat, all that fun stuff, and then we come together as a group kind of talk about, different things that might be bothering you during pregnancy.

You know, go through different activities as well.

We also have guest speakers that come in.

So lactation consultants.

The Centering Pregnancy program follows a unique and nationally recognized prenatal care model.

Parents are divided into groups that match their baby's gestational age and meet in a small group setting outside the typical exam room.

It's offered by Lehigh Valley Health Network, part of Jefferson Health, and is the only program of its kind in the region.

It's led by midwives.

I knew that I wanted to go more than midwifery route with my pregnancy.

As long as I remains low risk and being a first time parent, I figured having all the mom friends I could get would not hurt.

Participant Jacqueline Jarrett is a nurse who works at LV Topper Cancer Institute.

She says the group has spent a lot of time talking about what interventions they would or would not consent to during labor.

For instance, forceps.

Like nobody wants to have a forceps delivery.

But like this is why I would use it.

It would be really, really rare.

Let's talk about the pros, cons, risks, benefits.

And then in the moment, whenever that time comes, if it comes like you know what to expect and you know, like hey, please don't do that or like okay, I see why it's necessary here.

Kind of certified nurse midwife and expecting mom herself.

Riley Kan runs the group.

Women are like some of the strongest people ever, going through birth and, like, postpartum as well as, like, super tough.

But having, like, a strong support, connection is super important.

Khan says she wants participants to be empowered to ask questions during delivery, and know the pros and cons and risks and benefits of any labor intervention.

Just making sure that you're advocating for yourself.

If you're uncomfortable with something, uncomfortable with any like situation that's going on throughout the labor process, you are in charge.

And you can always say like, stop, I have questions, at any point.

So just talking to every patient about that and reminding them that they are in charge of this.

Anna Costello is one of the participants.

She's expecting her second child, a boy, in April.

Costello says after coming home from the hospital with her first child, she had to go back to be treated for postpartum preeclampsia, a serious condition marked by high blood pressure.

So I actually ended up, coming home from the hospital for about 12 hours and then going back into the hospital with preeclampsia.

So I kind of shared my experience with that, like, you know, don't want to scare anybody, about that kind of thing, but also want people to be informed on, like, what to look for.

Costello says one of the most valuable conversations the group has had focused on maternal mental health.

We just talked about different things to look for.

Kind of the difference between, just like the baby blues kind of things that you that are normal to be feeling, in the short term after giving birth.

But if those things progress for a longer period of time, or are like, more severe than it's something to talk to somebody about.

And like that, there's no shame around it.

The centering pregnancy friendships don't end after childbirth.

Many parents keep in touch and everyone gets invited to a class reunion.

I can't wait to see everybody's baby and just catch up postpartum.

Some of us have been going out to dinner afterwards, which is fun.

So I'm hoping to be able to continue friendships beyond this class.

What a really cool program.

And it seems like a lot more people are using a midwife instead of an ob gyn.

And so what's kind of the thought process about that?

Did you talk to these ladies about that?

Yeah.

So a lot of the women in the program are using a midwife for their delivery, and they told me that they looked at the data.

And data shows that when there is a midwife involved and delivery of a baby, there's typically less interventions, which many moms prefer.

They feel like they're more heard, and there's some new data emerging that shows that having a midwife led birth and also a doula at your birth can actually improve maternal health outcomes and infant outcomes, and even reduce racial disparities.

We definitely need that here, especially in this country.

Absolutely.

More support for our women who are childbearing and parents who are bringing new lives into this world.

Yeah, I love this program, Brittany.

I wish every mom had access to it.

We've got to get more more moms empowered to birth more of a community, I love that.

Meg, thank you so much for sharing this story.

Glad to do it.

Great one.

Now it's time to break out the whisks and spatulas and head into the kitchen.

There are two organizations in the Lehigh Valley that are coming together to help people who live here live a longer life and a healthier life at that.

Joining us now is Amanda, Peter Bono from the Kellyn Foundation, as well as Brooke Griffiths from the Blue Zone initiative happening in Allentown right now.

Ladies, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you.

Brooke.

Why is it so important for the Blue Zone Initiative to partner with organizations like the Kellyn Foundation for folks to live a healthier life?

Sure.

So, we're able to do a lot more work when we collaborate, collaborate with other organizations.

Kellyn has been doing really amazing work across the Lehigh Valley in the food system space, particularly when it comes to our schools.

And that's an area where we're looking to help improve well-being and make some changes.

So being able this past summer, our team got a chance to partner with them to help take care of some of the gardens in the summer.

When their the kids weren't in school and they needed some extra TLC.

So we're hoping to expand initiatives like that to make it easier for people to access food, and then help them learn how to make it so that it tastes really good and you want to keep eating it.

Great.

And that's where what we're going to do here today.

Amanda, you brought this delicious recipe that already smells good.

What are we making?

Yeah.

So today we are doing a mediterranean grain bowl as well as an easy to whip up Greek dressing.

These are great to keep in your fridge and add on to, we have base ingredients here, but you can really add towards your preference or really what you have in your drawers.

So it's something that you can make at the end of the week.

It will be delicious all week long.

And it's, something that the whole family will enjoy.

Wonderful.

All right.

How do we get this started?

So we're going to start with the dressing.

I like to use a blender, to just whip it up really quickly.

So we're going to add we have some red wine vinegar.

We have kalamata olives.

You can use any type of olive here but I prefer the kalamata variety.

Just make sure they're pitted.

Right.

Okay.

Right into the dressing.

Right into the dressing.

We also have lemon juice.

We have garlic.

We have some Dijon mustard.

You can use regular mustard if you so choose.

This helps as a binder but also to just add a little bit more of a kick flavor.

I promise it doesn't taste like mustard, but it does help all of the flavors come together.

I have my spices here, so I have some oregano.

Agave sweetener.

Something you might not think in a dressing just to balance out those really savory flavors of the olives.

You can use maple sirup.

You can use honey.

You can use any other type of sweetener.

If you are using a sugar, I would just put it by about half and taste it to see if it's okay.

And then I have some vegetable stock.

You can use water.

That's totally fine.

And the trick to vinaigrette is I'm actually going to blend this and slowly stream the olive oil in.

If you blended it all at once, it would just become a frothy mess and it would separate.

Oh okay.

So that's the trick there.

So we'll check blending that.

Tell us a little bit more about the Blues initiative and what's happening in Allentown.

We've heard about it for a couple of years, but it's actually in place and happening right now.

It is.

So we, take a life radius approach.

So we want to help shape systems and environments around people where they live, work and play.

So if you think about it, you spend about 95% of your time within a 20 mile radius of your home.

So we are partnering with, community organizations, work sites, schools, restaurants, grocery stores, faith based institutions to help, manufacture, if you will, opportunities for people to make healthy choices, by having it be easy to do great, great.

And the Kellyn Foundation, what are some of the programs you have in place right now?

Yeah, so we have four main initiatives.

We have Kellen Lifestyle Medicine, Kellen Kitchens, Kellen school programs that Brooke was talking about as well as our Kellen Mobile market.

So all of these are brought together with our healthy neighborhood immersion strategy and the thought processes.

If we're able to go into schools and teach the next generation about healthy tips and tricks and how to really build their toolkit on how to make healthy choices themselves, if we're able to bring food into the neighborhoods, so that they have access to this nutrient dense food, teach people how to cook, make food like this available, as well as really just give that education piece that Brooke was talking about.

That full circle can really help us make these changes.

I love it.

You're not just telling them, you're teaching them, okay, so what's our next steps in our recipe?

I will just finish blending this up okay.

While you're doing that, how do we get the bowl ready frame so you can start adding that in there.

So as I'm adding in the last bit of this olive oil, what we're putting in this bowl is Farrow quinoa and some Q QS.

So we're having a mixture of a bunch of different textures as well as nutrients here.

All right.

We're doing all three together.

Yeah yeah love that.

And you said this is a dish that is great for lunches because the longer it sits the the better it gets right.

Yes.

So this actually marinates right.

So you can choose to keep the dressing on the side.

You are totally good.

Add that on.

And we got, some kale, some red onions and sun dried tomatoes going into this base.

And what's great about this is so we're having, like I said, a bunch of different textures.

We have quinoa, Farrow, couscous, all different sizes.

Then we have the bite of red onions.

We have the green of the kale.

And then we also have sun dried tomatoes.

It already looks so, so beautiful.

It really is huge right?

You're excited to eat it.

And it's it's giving you like a whole pack of 200 different nutrients, fiber to keep you fueled.

If you need a gluten free option, you can take the couscous out.

You can take the Pharaoh out and substitute it with either all quinoa, brown rice or something like that.

So like I said, you can tailor this to what you're one.

Love that.

So what do we do next?

So our dressing is all made now this is one.

If you were meal prepping this for yourself, you could take a cup of the mixture and then put it in different packages and then top with, the veggies.

Since we have the three of us, we'll get to enjoy this together.

We can just add it on top so we have our beans.

I have roasted chickpeas that chickpeas just have a little bit of garlic, onion and paprika on it.

And then we baked them at like 375.

So they're more of a crunch.

Great.

Then we have more kalamata olives.

If you're not a big olive fan, you can leave these out and just have the dressing as that.

But I, I'm all game for olives and those healthy fats.

And then we have tomatoes, some assorted bell peppers and cucumbers.

So this is at the point that these are all of these things taste really well together.

And if you don't have a certain component, you can add in something else that you have in your fridge.

You can add in different protein sources.

I just really like to add beans because if you're really looking for your best bang for your buck, nutrition wise, protein pack wise beans are a great way to add that, and I feel like I'm at home on the cleanup crew over here.

I. All right, so one of the main staples in the original blues out.

Oh love our.

Okay.

All right.

So we're mixing that all up.

And then so you would mix that up if you're if you're packing this ahead of the week are you putting the dressing on.

Yeah.

So if for me I like to add the dressing on and then it really marinates like we were saying throughout the week, you can keep it on the side if you prefer.

But it really soaks into those grains, the pasta salad, it's better guys.

And the fun thing is like if you wanted to add some cheese, some really like awesome feta cheese would be great in this.

Yeah, add some extra flavor.

I can also see like maybe an avocado in it for sure, right?

Yeah, avocado would be fantastic.

When I'm doing this, I add it for my household.

We add a root gala into this and kind of make it more of a salad.

Parallel to the here is that.

Yes.

And greens are some of the most nutrient packed, ingredients you can add.

Right.

And they also add a lot of volume without, adding a lot of caloric density, which is nice if you're trying to add more.

Fine.

This looks absolutely delicious.

If we can grab a bowl over there to to plate it up.

In the meantime, Brooke, if folks want more information about the Blue Zone initiative, it's not just cooking.

It's kind of living well, all lives a well-rounded life.

People can get in and all different facets.

So how do they do that?

They can.

So our website or our social media channels are the best way to find out more.

So visiting BCP Lehigh valley.com.

You can sign up for our monthly newsletter.

You can learn more about our events.

We have recipes on there.

That's the best place to get a lot of information.

Wonderful.

And if folks want to learn about those different initiatives through Kellen, how can they get that information?

Yeah.

So our website is a really good place to kind of know about Kellen as a whole.

So Kellen, Kellen Borg, Brooke, like, she was mentioning our school gardens.

We love to get people involved if they're willing to volunteer or come harvest from them or hang out on the mobile market.

And if you're looking for food staples like this, obviously we just taught you how to make this.

I want people to make it at home, but if they need a little bit of a boost or a little help during the week, Kellen Kitchens does make food like this for grab and go that you can kind of add to your rotation.

Great.

I order that almost every week.

I pick it up on my drive home.

It's affordable, it tastes great, and it's an easy way to get, some extra vegetables and healthy food into my diet.

And my husband and I think we all agree that it's so much better when someone else makes it.

Yeah.

And what are those locations?

Yeah.

So we have pickup locations throughout the Lehigh Valley.

The easiest way is to go on to our online ordering website and that's healthy food.

Dot kellen.org.

And that's going to be the place where you see our numerous locations and our menu that's updated every Thursday.

All right ladies, without further ado.

This smells delicious.

Let's give it a try.

Everybody's got a spoon right.

Oh my goodness.

Wow.

This is amazing.

It's so fresh.

So many different flavors I love it Amanda and Brooke, thank you so much for sharing this information and helping the Lehigh Valley eat a little bit healthier and live longer.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thanks for joining us, ladies.

All right.

Let's finish our our meal.

That Mediterranean grain bowl was absolutely delicious.

You have to try it at home.

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.