Elizabeth Seickel shares a moment with AANMA president Nancy Sander before the awards dinner.

Although she and her husband both have asthma, Elizabeth Seickel says it's parenting two children with ashma that changed her professional life - and led to a program that could change the lives of families nationwide.

Elizabeth was trained as a critical care nurse. Even so, when her daughter was diagnosed with asthma, she worried about how to deal with it on a daily basis. "When my daughter was 6, I almost lost her because of my fear of putting her on oral steroids. Her asthma symptoms got so bad that she couldn't exhale. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she almost passed out. That moment changed my life forever," Elizabeth says. She took the exam to become a Certified Asthma Educator.

Elizabeth had also been a Girl Scout leader for 10 years. When her daughter was in first grade, Elizabeth talked to the troop leaders about her daughter's medical needs. She didn't feel comfortable with their "Oh yeah, we know about asthma" response, so she stayed for every meeting that year to be sure her daughter was safe. Then she decided to become a troop leader herself.

These two worlds converged when Elizabeth had the idea for a Girl Scouts Asthma Awareness Patch Program. She called the national headquarters to ask how she should proceed to make a valuable program for Girl Scouts. They told her to develop and pilot test the program in her local council, pilot test it again in a neighboring council, and then come back and show them how it worked. This might sound like an insurmountable series of tasks, but not for a determined mother and asthma educator!

A grant from the New York State Department of Health helped her get started. Less than 4 years later, Elizabeth is working on a national program to be launched at the Girl Scouts' National Latina Conference in July 2005. Resources include a bilingual parent handout with general information on asthma and a description of what the girls worked on for the asthma patch. "If you just teach the kids or just the parents, you won't be successful. You need to get families to talk, be aware and ask questions."

Elizabeth worked with a steering committee from the Asthma Coalition of Long Island, including medical professionals, to develop content for the program. But program materials are deliberately nonmedical to avoid intimidating leaders who didn't have medical backgrounds. The "Healthy Lungs" direction of the program also includes girls who don't have asthma. "It's about making healthy choices - eating well, having a healthy lifestyle, and not smoking," says Elizabeth. "Having healthy lungs applies to everybody."

"I've seen kids die from asthma. That's unacceptable. I don't want that to be my kid. I don't want that to be anyone's kid." What started out as one mother's idea will help families across the country stay healthy and start talking about asthma.

For information on how your troop can earn the Asthma Awareness Patch, visit Girl Scout Central.