John Patrick

John Patrick, also known as JP, knows a thing or two about rocking out. As a drummer for the band Virginia Coalition from high school until he was 30 years old, and now the founder of Rock of Ages Music (ROAM) school, he’s been rocking out his whole life.

After leaving Virginia Coalition and trying on an office job for size, JP realized that he could never escape the music. He began giving private drum lessons, which eventually evolved into opening up ROAM, which now has over 250 private students in the school and about 70 kids making up about 24 bands in the rock school.

Everybody Can Speak Music

Right now, ROAM offers music lessons to those who can afford it. JP wants to expand into introducing less advantaged people to music as well. “I want to branch out more into low-income families,” he says. “There’s plenty of that in any city in the country. The goal would be to get there to start helping to become more a part of the community that actually raised me.” He would like to grow ROAM large enough to use the business as a platform to connect with more people who have not been fortunate enough to get involved with music. “Music is a language, and anybody can speak it,” says JP. “But not everybody has the chance to try.”

It’s About the Community

ROAM is located right in the middle of a very cool and unique neighborhood. “This is a great neighborhood that loves the arts,” JP says. Kids can walk there from home or school, and the community encourages the arts. “This is a very unique community that really helps itself,” he says. “All the people are so helpful, so kind [and] giving.”

You can’t have a community without communication, so it’s lucky that communication is JP’s superpower. “I’m very comfortable talking to anybody,” he says. “I think that’s important, especially when operating a business like this. You have to be a people person.” He likes engaging with people and learning from people. Rock and roll is a human experience.

Let the Students Choose

Some parents are so eager for their children to learn the language of music that they bring them to ROAM before they know if the child is even interested in music, or before the child is old enough to know for themselves if they are interested. However, that interest must start at home. “I’d be happy to take your money and experiment with your child to see what kind of instrument they want to hook onto while you’re paying me,” says JP. “But that’s not honest.”

Instead, he advises observing the child at home. If they don’t gravitate towards music, that’s fine. If they are constantly singing, air-drumming, or air-guitaring, bring them in. “It’s all about where their mind is,” he says. “And if it’s there, we can work with that.”

Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution…

You have to hear music to learn it and teach it. “There’s a lot of things going on right now with online Skype lessons, which is great,” says JP. But there’s no substitute for human-to-human interaction. “I think the future is not getting that human interaction lost in the digital age we’re entering, figuring out how to keep it human.”

Learning music is a human process. Some parents bring a child in who has been learning online for a few months, and those students do some stuff, but “it’s the one-on-one interaction that actually shows you the proper technique,” he says. When you watch a video, the instructor of that video isn’t watching you back. “You’re not getting that nuance, and that’s where the human interaction comes in and you can show the nuance and hear the nuance, and that’s the big difference.”

Except When It Is

On the horizon for ROAM, JP is looking to eventually move the rock school from the private lesson school. They’d still be affiliated, just not in the same building. “There’s definitely a lot of toes getting stepped on here right now,” JP says. “And a lot of ears.”

Get Rocking

If your child wants to learn the language of music, get them involved in ROAM by visiting the website.

Christian Myers

How did you learn to ride a bike? Chances are, an adult put you on a bike and pushed, and eventually let go, and you made the choice to either stay upright or fall. How did you learn to fix a bike? Chances are … you didn’t. VeloCity Bicycle Co-op is here to help.

Christian Myers is the co-founder of VeloCity, whose mission is to grow and empower an inclusive biking community through education and affordability. “You can come here with no knowledge and leave feeling that you’ve learned something,” Christian says. “You’re not going to be looked down on because you don’t know how to put air in your tires. No one is going to judge you.”

VeloCity Bicycle Co-op

A lot of people have different definitions of what makes a co-op. For VeloCity, the co-op refers to the volunteers. If you volunteer with them, you recieve benefits such as discounts on parts through their distributors, use of the stands, and the ability to learn and hone your skills.

“For everyone else, it’s a place you can come in where you can get assistance,” says Christian. “We ask for a $15 donation an hour. Throw your bike on the stand and we’ll help you fix it.”

You can have someone work on your bike for you, you can work on your bike yourself, you can buy a refurbished donated bike, or you can buy a frame and parts and build your own bike.

Working with Kids

Christian had gotten into some trouble as a kid, back in the days when children ran amuck outside after school until dinnertime. Perhaps if there had been a VeloCity in his town growing up, he would still have been naughty, but it may have helped. “It would definitely have been a really cool place to be,” he says. “There was nothing at all like this when I was a kid.”

He wanted to create a space where kids could better spend their time, hang out, and feel safe. “What better way to get in touch with a child than bicycles? Bicycles were freedom for me,” he says.

Freedom

In the Land of the Free, people are sometimes bound by transportation restrictions. Christian knew one girl who walked for miles to get to work every day, even with changing bus stops. Although now people can just call a car to come pick them up, their freedom is still hampered by lack of transportation, and simple solutions like bikes are sometimes overlooked.

One community near to VeloCity is mostly Spanish-speaking, and the community members have two or three jobs to scrape by and transport themselves by riding their bikes. When the bikes break down, they bring them to Christian. “They come and see me because a lot of the bigger shops seem not to have as much time for them,” he says. VeloCity will never look down on a lack of knowledge or broken English. “We break barriers through this shop, which is awesome,” says Christian. “We’re going to work with you. No one’s going to judge you.”

Community Programs

VeloCity runs several programs through the city of Alexandria and the police department to help the community. Through Teams Work, four or five kids come and work with Christian for six weeks in the summer, six hours per day, Monday through Thursday. “We do everything from learn how to scrub the floor to actually working on bikes and interacting with the public,” Christian says.

The Earn-a-Bike program lets children come to the shop, choose a bike to work on, and learn how to properly care for it and repair it. By the end, hopefully each child will have earned their bike. Allowing them to work for it and earn it themselves instead of just giving them the bike instills a pride of ownership.

During the holidays, however, they do give bikes away. They save up the childrens’ bikes that they receive, fix them up with new tires and refurbishments, and give them to children. “Their faces and how they light up, hands-down, that’s what it’s all about,” says Christian.

They also work with a transition shelter to help people get back into the workforce, and with juvenile probations kids.

VeloCity will put you on a bike and push. Now, will you choose to stay upright, or will you fall?

Learn More

Learn more about VeloCity and how they help the community at the website.

Paige Crouch was a Sunday school teacher in 1987, but one rainy Sunday, her car hydroplaned. “I tried steering into it, pumping the brakes, nothing was working,” Paige says. “So I raised my arms and gave it to God, and ended up hitting three small trees that were growing together.” She survived the crash and became a quadriplegic.

It was the start of a new journey. “Everything in your life changes,” she says. “You feel infantile. I’m dependent for everything.” The recovery process was grueling, but she learned how to manage her life and body. “It’s still a journey.”

Near Death-by-Pencil

After learning about an artist who did paintings with his mouth, Paige decided to give it a try. “I had my brother make a stand-up easel out of plywood, and put a pencil in my mouth, and literally almost stabbed myself in the back of the throat,” Paige says. “I gave up on it.”

The idea wouldn’t leave, though, so years later she tried again using a hand splint to make strokes that resembled impressionism. “I was happy with that, but one day I had my assistant put the brush in my mouth,” she says. She wanted to try again. “And I did it and voila. I was able to do it more purposefully, and it just turned out so good that I wanted to continue with it.”

Foot and Mouth Painting Artists

Paige learned about Foot and Mouth Painting Artists through her physical therapist. The organization is a world-wide company with around 800 artists, about 70 of whom are based in the United States. She applied by sending in six of her original paintings. “They were like my babies at the time, but I let them go,” she says. “About nine months later I was interviewed by their manager in the Atlanta office, and they accepted me.” She’s been under contract with them for about twelve years.

Being accepted opened up a whole new world. Her scholarship through the organization gives her incentive to keep going. She sends a painting to them every four to six weeks, and they pick the ones they like and send her a bonus for them, which is extra incentive. “It encourages you to keep going,” she says. “You never know what is going to make a hit.”

Practice May Not Make Perfect, But It Helps

The more you do something, the better you get at it. Although Paige didn’t start painting until she was 42 years old, she does it a lot. In fact, she spends over 60 hours a month painting, but that doesn’t mean everything’s perfect. “It’s hit or miss, and I still make what I call happy mistakes,” she says. “I paint with the brush about twelve inches away from the canvas, and I need to back away every once in awhile to see what I’ve done in another perspective.” The journey is ongoing.

Each painting takes about 50 hours to complete. “Because I have a neck injury, I can only paint for two or three hours at a time, and then I take a break,” she says.

Demo Days

Paige demonstrates her painting at churches, schools, and rehab centers. “They can see me paint and know what I’m doing. It’s better to have a visual sometimes,” she says. Then there’s a Q&A session, and she’s always getting new and different questions from her audience.

Her favorite demo so far was at Falls Church High School. “I met a boy with cerebral palsy that spoke through a computer, and he asked me if I’d ever heard of Action Wheelchair Art,” she says. She had not heard of them before then, but she’s glad she has now, thanks to him.

The students all also wanted to get their picture taken with her. “I felt like a celebrity,” she says. “It was wonderful.” It was a far cry from when she felt like a label upon first learning that she was quadriplegic.

Paige’s hope with the demo days is to inspire others, and not just those with disabilities. “I’m hoping people will be inspired to just keep trying,” she says. “Go forth, try new things, and live life however you have to.” It’s very common for people with injuries such as hers to retreat into a deep, dark hole and never come out. Young men who become paralyzed have an especially high suicide rate. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Advice for the Newly Injured

For those just starting on this journey, Paige advises them to never give up. “Believe in yourself and any higher spirit you may have,” she says. Her deep faith has kept her going. “Don’t give up. It will get better.”

Contact Information

You can find Paige’s paintings on her Facebook page. Nothing is set in stone, but she may also be performing demos at Melwood and Arlington in summer of 2018. Keep your eyes peeled for Paige’s nephew Michael Murphy, who does Michael Murphy Speaks inspirational speeches and who is also training for the 2022 mono-skiing Paralympics.

Dr. Jordan Kocen

Dr. Jordan Kocen always wanted to be a veterinarian. The passion for helping animals exudes from him. “I don’t remember ever wanting to do anything else,” Jordan says. “As I went further in my education, it just felt right.” Veterinarian school wasn’t a means to an end for him, it was part of his journey.

After practicing conventional veterinary medicine for ten years, Jordan began practicing holistic medicine exclusively in 1995. After twenty years of success stories, he opened Veterinary Holistic Center in 2015.

His Services

Jordan has staffed his center with doctors who do physical therapy, massage therapy, and animal chiropractic. He himself does acupuncture, homeopathy, and Chinese herbs. When clients come to see him, he can pair them with the system of medicine that will be the best fit for them.

The success of the treatments mean the success of the center. Pet owners may come in with one dog, and the next time they have a problem, they come to him sooner instead of trying and exhausting conventional veterinary medicine first.

Don’t Believe in It? Good.

There are many misconceptions about holistic medicine. A common one is that it’s a scam. Another is that since conventional medicine is the standard, it should always be tried first. Many clients come in for their first visit with Jordan and have to let him know that they don’t believe in holistic woo-woo witch-doctoring. “Good,” he says. “It’s not a belief system. It’s a physiologic process.” He’s stimulating the nerve endings and spinal cord. He’s getting hormones and chemicals released. He’s revving up the body’s normal physiological processes. “If it’s not real, then you’re going to see it’s not real,” he says.

Other veterinarians were often quietly supportive, until Jordan treated their own pets. Now they’re believers. “It is a science. It’s medicine,” he says. As scientists, once they see that it works, he believes they should be trying to figure out why it works so they can get more efficient with it.

The three things that Jordan’s clients should know are whether or not any given treatment has a reasonable expectation of a positive outcome, what the good and bad about it is, and how long it should take to know whether it’s working or not.

Calm Down, It’s Not a Competition

Veterinary Holistic Center isn’t competing with conventional veterinarian practices. In fact, many conventional practices refer clients to the center, and many conventional practices also have doctors who do holistic therapies. Jordan’s practice, by design, doesn’t offer any conventional medicine, annual exams, diagnostics, surgeries, or boarding. They leave all of that to conventional veterinarian practices. What Jordan does is get the pet well enough to go back to their regular veterinarian for their annual exams. “It’s good for the animals, the owner’s happy, the regular vet’s happy. The goal is to help the animals get better,” says Jordan. “That’s why we became veterinarians in the first place.”

Opening Veterinary Holistic Center

After Jordan began taking a course on acupuncture, he had his first two acupuncture patients — one dog, one cat, both pets of other veterinarians at the general practice where he worked. He was shocked at the success of those first two patients, and so were their owners. Word spread, and his schedule began getting scrunched to where 80-90% of his days were just doing alternative therapies. Other veterinarians at the practice were doing great conventional medicine, so they didn’t need him to do it. Also, there were no other holistic centers in the area.

However, Jordan himself couldn’t do all of the holistic therapies. He was only trained in acupuncture, homeopathy, and Chinese herbal medicine. “I had been referring people to the chiropractors [and] massage therapists, but I didn’t know their schedules,” he says. He didn’t know if they were traveling or when they’d be in their offices. He also felt incompetent trying to scribble down their phone numbers on scraps of paper for clients. “Why couldn’t we be all in one place? I can’t offer those services,” says Jordan. “I can’t learn a whole lot more, and I don’t need to when you have other people who can do that very well.” He began thinking of what would be required and involved to get his own holistic practice off the ground.

He envisioned a place where he could bring other therapies in and veterinarians could collaborate on a lot of therapies to give the client the mix that served them the best. And that’s exactly what Veterinary Holistic Center has accomplished.

Contact Information

You can find Veterinary Holistic Center and more information about the therapies they offer at their website, or find Jordan at local events and occasional seminars. Don’t believe it? You don’t have to. Just come see it, and reserve the right to change your mind.