Meet Zandrina Riley.
Zandrina, known to many as Drina, was born in Boston but has lived in the Low Country for over thirty years. She has three lovely children and is blessed with three beautiful grandchildren.
Like many women, Drina wears many hats. What inspired me to celebrate Drina in this feature is the way she presents herself when wearing each hat. She has a heart to serve and each hat she wears is a servant’s hat. She holds a license in social worker in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and is Board Certified and licensed in massage therapy and bodywork therapy for South Carolina.
She is a firm believer in education and has come full circle regarding her life and education in that she prides herself as a Holistic Health Educator & Speaker sharing with others about Making Healthy Choices.
Drina was not always this way. In fact, as a young girl she was very sick and after several operations decided to take matters in her own hands.
Living in Boston resources were available in classes with Holistic professionals that offered education. Around age twenty-one, Drina explained she was nearly the point where she wanted to die until she found myself in front of a Health Food Store. Her first drink of herbal tea it was unbearable for when she began this journey herbs were not available in in capsules or tablets like they are today. The herbs in her tea were lose and one had to prepare them the best way you knew. Drina was driven to get herself healthy and was always taking a class to learn about making changes and healthy choices in her lifestyle to try and heal herself. Although Drina saw many doctors with little to no results she was never diagnosed with what she is convinced was a junk food addiction.
Learning of a course at the Center for Life Long Learning at Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts on the Alternative Forms of Healing, Drina was able to obtain the resources to attend and in her early twenties was the only female of color of very few females in the class. It was during that course that Drina realized she had to make a change in what she ate and how she took care of herself. To her, it was her wake-up call.
In her mid-sixties, Drina has now been in Holistic Care for over forty years. When her grandchildren are not around she tries to prepare food for a few days, set appointments, offer massages to clients, market herself and her services, return phone calls and more. She is always giving out information regarding wellness, promoting the importance and benefits of massage, preparing for speaking engagements or simply talking about making healthy choices, it’s a lifestyle.
Her goal is Healthy Choices networking. People want to feel better however, it is not easy to make changes in one’s life. Drina is always on line looking for work in her industry but has come accept that her purpose is to share her knowledge and accept that role. Drina finds herself listening to people and everyone needs someone to listen. Drina loves to make people feel better.
Education is very important to Drina. She considers herself a natural teacher. Drina remembers being so sick her family used to help her in the ambulance but today, despite several old injuries is blessed to be healthy and have a healthy family. Drina says, “Massage is a luxury most people cannot afford but programs like ones available through the Senior Center are now implementing some Holistic Ideas. Drina is fortunate to have one of the first Senior Massage Therapy Programs at the Senior Center in Summerville SC. “I want to implement more because it is preventive medicine and we all can use prevention. Holistic means dealing with the whole person and that’s what we must do.” Drina is a member of the American Massage Therapy Association, and recently attended a convention in Washington DC sponsored by the Veteran Administration. Massage has been known to help with addiction and PTSD. Massage has also proven beneficial in children with special needs, like Autism & Hypertension.
Drina has taught massage at the college level and her social work always comes in handy. Most of my students are single parents in need of services. Drina’s compassion for people and strong desire to help makes a situation a lot better. Drina credits her mother saying, she was that way. She always found resources for people.”
Drina loves teaching young children. In fact, her children and the community have been known to put their kitchen table in the yard so they had room for arts & crafts and started up the Low Country Scrapbook Club over the summer this year.
The scrap books are made into beautiful books that house papers with good grades, or anything the kids are proud to display. The scrapbooks allow her to implement Youth Empowerment Workshops, and the students can share and encourage each other, keeping the lines of communication open is very important for our youth. The sense of accomplishment is exciting. Drina also volunteers in several schools doing Work Shops on Bullying.
As you can tell community is very important to Drina as is helping people find services, however, teaching people how to make Healthy Choices is just as important and is her true passion.
Ask Drina her mantra and she will proudly say, “If We Knew Better – Then We Would Do Better.” People are the same, we all want to be treated decently and respected,
Drina shares the belief that human Services should be in every community, that we have the same concerns as all the mayor big cities however, we don’t have the same services. It is her heartfelt goal to implement more resources to organizations like Boys & Girls Club and after school programs all over South Carolina that help the needs of our children. She feels as though a Divided Country is missing so much, our youth of today will be our leaders tomorrow.
As you can see Drina’s hats are many, her talents endless and her goals today and everyday are to teach people how to make Healthy Choices because she knows firsthand that having your Health & Strength is the most important thing in the world.
Drina can be reached at rileyzandrina@yahoo.com