New Program Brings Health, 'Life' To Hospitals

Joe Loglisci, president of Diamond Edge Performance Training on Production Drive, began changing All Star Batting into more than just an indoor batting cage a few years ago, adding technical performance training for young athletes looking to perfect their game. Now, with the recent addition of Director of Accounts Melissa Newsome, the faculty is becoming much more, branching out into areas such as private school gym class programs and corporate bootcamps.

But Newsome also brings some of her personal story to her new position.

After over a year and a half fighting a cancerous tumor, Newsome’s 4-year-old daughter Mackenzie succumbed to her illness in early March of this year. During the difficult battle, Newsome said she and her husband found themselves living every free moment at the hospital with their daughter.

“We spent her fourth birthday at the hospital, we spent Easter there, Fourth of July, Christmas,” Newsome said Wednesday. “They had services there in the hospital for me — a place to read a book or get coffee — but what helped me through everything was exercise.”

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Read more about Mackenzie’s battle with cancer here and here.
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Newsome said that release of endorphins from exercise relaxed her and gave her strength, but she found she had little time to go to the gym or do much of anything other than remain at her daughter’s bedside.

In that vein, one of the first new programs Newsome began working on at Diamond Edge brings fitness and wellness to the hospital, directly to the unit so caregivers don’t have to be far from their loved ones.

Newsome and Loglisci are piloting the program at Yale New Haven Hospital, where Mackenzie was treated, and are waiting to hear about possible grant funding to broaden its scope. Caregivers can request a range of health services, including basic fitness, Zumba, massage and physical training.

“The major focus is on mental productivity,” Newsome said. "We never call ourselves a gym — we’re a feel good facility."

Newsome stressed the need for family members and caregivers to find ways to decompress and maintain some attachment to their lives or risk it being swallowed up.

“It’s important for caregivers to remember — you need that time,” she said. “Because the fight does end.”