Friends in Deed

Marianna Zonenberg ('95) and Caroline Petree ('95) are still friends from their days as students at the Swedish Institute. Nearly ten years after their graduation from the Massage Therapy Program, they still tease each other about who did homework and who didn't, and remember Liz Jacobs' anatomy class with a mixture of awe and excitement. They share more than memories. Both work together on a regular basis.

Marianna Zonenberg and Caroline Petree
at the NYC Marathon in 2004

Both Zonenberg and Petree work as licensed massage therapists at Cabrini Medical Center's Stuyvesant-Poly Clinic. They are part of an integrated care clinic, funded by a Ryan White grant, that provides complementary health care, including massage therapy, acupuncture, herbs and nutritional counseling for people with chronic illness.

Petree considers her four days-a-week schedule a full-time position. She works with people who have AIDS or who are HIV positive, offering them massage, Reiki and aromatherapy treatments. Zonenberg works part-time, offering massage therapy two days a week. "I began at Cabrini as a volunteer," Petree said. "Jeffrey Yuen had announced in his Tui Na class that Cabrini was looking for volunteers and I was very interested, having been inspired by the hospice work of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. I worked at Cabrini as a volunteer for two years before I was offered the full-time position I now have."

To those who want to enter the field of complementary care, Petree feels a pioneering spirit is still required. "Take a course in writing grant proposals," she advises, "and be on the look out for opportunities to volunteer in an area you feel passionate about."

Off-site Clinic for the NYC Marathon

In addition to their on-going work at Cabrini, Marianna Zonenberg takes the lead every year in organizing an Off-Site Clinic for NYC marathon runners who are part of Fred's Team. Named in honor of Fred Lebow, the founder of the New York City Marathon who died of cancer in 1994, Fred's Team raises over a million dollars for Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Zonenberg initiated the contact with Fred's Team about eight years ago, when she volunteered to provide post-event sports massage for runners. Petree has been there through the years, assisting her friend. When the popularity of the massage therapy resulted in growing demand, Marianna called the Swedish Institute's Director of Offsite Internships, to see if the school would be willing to send a large group of students to meet the needs of the team. Swedish Institute students have been accompanying Zonenberg and Petree ever since. 

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