OCTOBER 28 • 2021 | 27

Details
This year’s Trade Secrets
event will be in hybrid form,
emceed by Fox 2’s Amy
Lange, and offering options
of a limited in-person evening
dinner Nov. 11 at Detroit
Marriott Troy starting at 6.30
p.m. with only six people per
table, or an online streamed
version of the event, starting
at 7.30 p.m.
Online attendees will
receive a personalized box
of snacks plus a small bot-
tle of champagne and party
favors. For those attending in
person, there will be a sticker
system in place so individ-
uals who want to maintain
a social distance will feel at
ease.
Whether in-person or
attending virtually, the event
offers the opportunity to pur-
chase raffle tickets with out-
standing prizes including a
$2,500 Somerset Collection
gift certificate, $1,500-worth
of skinnytees apparel and an
$800-value phone consulta-
tion with acclaimed spiritual
medium Rebecca Rosen,
along with a signed copy of
her book.
To date, the 2021 Trade
Secrets has raised more than
$232,000 through sponsor-
ship and ticket sales.
Presenting sponsors are
Connie Holzer from Tom
Holzer Ford, and Shari and
Stanley Finsilver; Platinum
Sponsors are Artichoke
Garlic Foundation and DeRoy
Testamentary Foundation;
Diamond Sponsors are
Moscow Family Fund and
skinnytees; and the Emerald
Sponsor is Huntington Bank.
For information on spon-
sorship opportunities and
tickets, which start at $150
per person, email Reisa
Shanaman at rshanaman@
jvshumanservices.org or call
(248) 233-4213.

feeding them with a spoon was difficult.
As the children got older there were
other challenges. “My daughter was a
dancer and if she was in a dance recital
I could never do her make up,” explains
Finsilver, a member of Temple Israel.
As her life progressed so, unfortu-
nately, did Finsilver’s tremors. While ET
was originally confined to her arms and
hands, by her 40s, essential tremor was
now affecting her head and voice.
In 1996, a TV program about Deep
Brain Stimulation (DBS) being offered
to patients at University of Kansas
Medical Center aired, and the surgery
offered Finsilver hope. She didn’t hes-
itate. Then 46, she got on a plane to
visit the surgeon in Kansas City, who
informed her that help was actually clos-
er to home. Dr. Peter LeWitt, a neurol-
ogist in Michigan, was working with a
neurosurgeon recruited to start a similar
DBS program at Henry Ford Hospital in
Detroit.
In 1999, Finsilver faced the daunting
prospect of having the surgery per-
formed while she was awake, so that the
surgeon knew where to place the elec-
trodes for the stimulator. Amazingly, she
remained calm, choosing to look at the
procedure as if she was taking part in a

science experiment, which in some ways
she was, as during surgery she was asked
to follow commands like bring a cup
back and forth to her lips to see if the
surgeons were in the right part of the
thalamus. For her family and friends, it
was a different story. “They were all bas-
ket cases,” she admits.
Finsilver credits a book called Prepare
for Surgery, Heal Faster: A Guide for Mind-
Body Techniques by Peggy Huddleston,
for helping her both prepare and recover
from DBS. “It was a relaxation visualiza-
tion method, and I practiced it for two
and a half months, twice a day,” Shari
said. The premise is that if your stress
levels are decreased there are better sur-
gical outcomes,” she explains. On occa-
sion, she even called the author directly
for advice.
In addition, prior to her surgery,
the International Essential Tremor
Foundation (IETF) put her in touch
with a 29-year-old farmer in Iowa who
had undergone the surgery and who
answered her questions. The surgery
was successful, with Finsilver seeing
noticeable improvement in her symp-
toms. She was able to resume many
more activities, even taking up ballroom
dancing and becoming so skilled that

Shari Finsilver recovering
after surgery with friend
Linda Schmier, son Brett
Finsilver and daughter Amy
Ben-Ezra

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