Cheering on one leader, while remembering another

Park Nicollet CEO David Abelson is taking management-by-walking-around up a notch. Or gear. He'll spend three days, starting Tuesday, biking more than 200 miles to visit all 22 Park Nicollet clinics. His mission is to raise awareness of, and donations for, the Park Nicollet Foundation, whose $3 million in grants in 2010 supported more than 100 community-based programs.

Abelson, 60, has been biking for 25 years, the first 15 of them in woods and mountains before taking to the roads. Two hundred miles on city streets? "Easy," he said. "I just have to be attentive in traffic. It's going to be a great time."

Abelson is a University of Minnesota-trained internist and co-author of two books, "Take Charge of Your Health" and "Managed Care and the Treatment of Chronic Illness." Their titles carry deeper meaning now to Abelson, whose most illuminating education has been on the receiving end of medical care.

Ten years ago, while riding a stationary bicycle at a health club, Abelson froze as "a dense black lattice" covered the vision of his left eye. A battery of tests revealed central retinal vein thrombosis associated with acute angle-closure glaucoma: Kirby Puckett syndrome.

Suddenly, all the pain and nausea of previous weeks made sense. Abelson, the father of five children, was distraught. "I had blown off warning symptoms that could have prevented the blindness," the doctor wrote in a reflective 2008 blog post. "Over time, I would need to forgive myself."

Functionally blind in his left eye, he'd also have to think differently about the miracles of medicine. Sometimes, there just aren't any.

"I knew that the evidence showed that nothing worked to improve [my] prognosis," Abelson wrote. "Suddenly, I did not care about evidence. I wanted to be rescued. My grief washed over me in waves, ranging from rage to sadness to self pity."

The three-day "Tour de Clinic," beginning in Plymouth, will be an opportunity for Abelson to thank hundreds of health care providers and community workers, whose foundation-supported work provides services that include free community clinics, children's enrichment programs, Parkinson's support groups and the St. Louis Park Emergency Program, which offers assistance and food to a growing number of families in need.

"I understand from my loss that, the more health care changes, the more certain things must remain the same," Abelson said. "When I felt scared and vulnerable, I needed relationships with compassionate physicians."

Remembering Peter Benson

It's fitting that a key to Park Nicollet Foundation's outreach is building upon special "assets" that help children thrive.

Those assets, such as parental support at school, other adult role models, neighborhood connections and community service, have been shown to help kids grow into competent, confident and caring adults.

Benson died Oct. 2 of cancer at age 65. His life was celebrated Monday and included the reading of a moving e-mail from a teacher in Ghana who uses the assets with great success.

In my years of covering children's and family issues, I turned countless times to the Search Institute and to Benson, whose gentle, well-researched and supremely optimistic approach celebrated the best in all of our children.

His contributions will long be celebrated, his loss will long be felt.