Free Massages from Caring Hands

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Danielle Conde
  • 6th Air Mobility Wing public affairs
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Free massages were given at the 2nd annual "Caring Hands Support Our Troops" event on  Oct. 21, 2014, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., in the Short Fitness & Sports Center at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida.

"Our practitioners treated everything from low back pain and running injury pain to lack of range of motion in joints," said Jane Kordish, community relations chair of Tampa Bay Chapter of the Florida State Massage Therapy Association.

MacDill's Health Promotion Services center partnered up with the FSMTA to provide sports and chair massages, and live demonstrations of different massage therapy styles in promotion of National Massage Therapy Awareness Week.

"Our goal was to increase and promote public awareness of the benefits of massage therapy as part of a healthy and active lifestyle," said Kordish. "The Health Promotion Services center provides great programs and outstanding services, and we are proud to partner with them to care for our military community."

The partnership began with an idea from Kordish, who also happens to be an Army veteran, and is the spouse of an active duty Army officer stationed here.

"This is my community," she said. "While volunteering at the Health Promotion Service center each week doing complimentary chair massages, I realized a bigger effort would reach more people."

This year, 30 licensed massage therapists from the Tampa Bay Chapter, Sarasota and Manatee Chapter, and the Central Florida Chapter of the FSMTA offered their caring hands to support the event.

Compared to last year, the massage therapists said this year's event allowed them to focus more on each person they worked with, and they were able to do longer demonstrations of their specific style.

Nearly 150 individual hands-on treatments were given, and a couple hundred people were able to be educated about the different massage therapy styles, in just a few hours.

"The feedback we received from attendees was across the board positive," said Kordish. "If you attended please spread the word, and bring your friends, families, and colleagues next time!"