ARTcetera meets CYBERcetera: A Historical Look Back
Pat Burns remembers the nervous excitement of launching ARTcetera with her team at the Miller-Dwan Foundation. It was 1999 and the Foundation, with its history of high impact medical philanthropy, needed a boost for its efforts to support life-saving treatments and therapies in the region. “What if no one comes?” says Pat, who served as president of the Foundation from
Stepping up to construct hope for the region’s health
Solvay Hospice House has a special place in the heart of Shane Johnson. His company, Johnson Wilson Constructors, constructed the Duluth healthcare facility in 2007 following a Miller-Dwan Foundation campaign to create the region’s first residential hospice house. That’s when the Foundation, which owns and maintains Solvay, got on Shane’s radar as a charity worth paying closer attention to. “Working
Giving Intensive Support for Intense Mental Health Needs
When it comes to helping people deal with a life-threatening mental health crisis, there’s one place in northern Minnesota that treats more patients, more intensively, than anywhere else. The 38-bed Adult Behavioral Health Unit in Essentia Health’s Miller-Dwan Building sees patients diagnosed with mental illness from throughout Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The unit is always
Remembering Mary M. Dwan
Author Francis H. Cook, in his book The Jewel Net of Indra, describes a vast net that reaches infinitely in all directions. In that net are an infinite number of glittering jewels. Each individual jewel reflects all of the other jewels, and the reflected jewels also reflect all of the other jewels. As a reflection of generosity and serenity passed
Virtual Physical Therapy: Meet Zeek.
Zeek is a six-year-old with endless energy and a smile that makes the world better. He has Cerebral Palsy and has been a patient at Polinsky Medical Rehabilitation Center since before he was one-year-old. He is motivated and when he says “Yes, I can do this,”, and “I want to do this,” he makes it happen. Due to the COVID-19
Meet Uncle John.
We recently received the following letter and wanted to share it with you. I think it’s an inspiration and a testament to the kind of care we have right here in our own backyards. “On Christmas Eve, while vacationing in Lutsen for the holidays, our Uncle John suffered a massive stroke, rendering him unable to speak or clearly understand verbal
Don’t Make Me Go to Rehab
Just down the hall from us, here in the Miller-Dwan Building, some of our region’s most acutely ill patients are recovering. They’re re-learning daily living or speech skills after a stroke, they’re regaining physical strength after a car accident or accident at work, and they’re learning new ways of moving or performing tasks. They may have lost a limb, lost
National Doctors’ Day
Today is Doctors’ Day. A day to celebrate everything our doctors do for us, our community and our region. Now more than ever, we appreciate their time, their flexibility and their sacrifice. No matter the circumstance, they are our front line people. The people we count on. The people we believe in and the people we trust. They see things
National Love Your Pet Day
Today is National Love Your Pet Day, which we celebrate every day here at the Miller-Dwan Foundation. Animals play a huge role in our daily lives both in the office and at home, and we love to show off our pets whenever we can. So, we thought we’d take this time to introduce you to our cuddly pals. Valentino, Zelda
A Middle Schooler Talks DBT
DBT, or Dialectical Behavior Therapy, is a fancy name for the high-test mental health therapy provided to students who attend the Miller-Dwan Foundation’s Amberwing – Center for Youth & Family Well-Being. A critical component of DBT is the skills associated with this mode of therapy. I recently spoke with a 13-year-old whose school has benefited from learning these skills. I’ll
