I love seeing chiropractors go big. I am so proud of the D.C.s who volunteered at World Trade Center Ground Zero, adjusting and caring for fire fighters and other recovery team members. Love and thanks to you all.

In the spirit of going big by serving big, this month I'm going to focus on a New York chiropractor with a big heart, Dr. Anita Morgenstern, who founded a group called "Chiropractic for Humanity" to provide chiropractic care to the homeless and needy at the St. Francis Xavier Church soup kitchen.

Last month marked four years of Sunday afternoons that up to 200 men, women and children at this church soup kitchen have been adjusted and experienced the power and humanity offered by a chiropractic team (chiropractors, C.A.s, friends, children).

The program started because of Dr. Morgenstern's position that every human being on the planet needs and deserves a nervous system free from subluxation, and her feeling that she wanted to give chiropractic to the world. Several years ago, Innate sent John Gallagher, the soup kitchen's longtime lay director, to her for care and Dr. Morgenstern felt a light bulb go on. She saw clearly that her chance to serve in a bigger way had been laid out for her.

The church runs one of the largest soup kitchens in New York City, feeding between 750 and 900 each Sunday, and has offered the program for 20 years. The staff and volunteers are happy to have chiropractors there. Many get adjusted and learn about chiropractic as well.

The mission serves mostly individuals -- people alone in the world -- some couples, fewer families. Too many people in our communities are suffering, with physical problems, substance abuse, mental disorders, homelessness and living subluxated lives and need so desperately what chiropractic has to offer them.

With Dr. Morgenstern's help, those who come to the mission benefit from more than a safe place and food to fill their stomachs.

Many times while palpating a person's neck, she's felt the sadness in them, the trauma, physical violence, emotional stress that they must have endured. Often after the adjustment, people have started weeping, laughing, giving huge smiles like the weight of the world was just lifted from their shoulders.

People walk better, think and speak more clearly, and many have told the chiropractors they are staying straighter with regard to drugs and alcohol. Many have gone from being dirty and "out of it," to cleaned up, clear-eyed, and with a job yet, they still come to the mission for their adjustments. Many look at the D.C.s like no one ever gave them anything so great in their entire lives.

In broken English, one man described how he feels the blood getting to his brain better, and the adjustment touched something with his imagination. He said in order to improve the world and make it what God wants for us, we need to be able to imagine the world the way we would like it first, and then we can manifest it into being. Clearly, the impact of chiropractic on these people's lives is profound.

One has to wonder how Dr. Morgenstern does everything. She's a wife and mom to two beautiful girls, she runs a lifetime family practice, heads the Chiropractic for Humanity program, and nurtures herself so she can give to others. Simply put, Dr. Morgenstern is a shinning example of a person with the demands of an ordinary life making an extraordinary impact. How lucky for all those who's lives she touches.

Growing up as the daughter of a chiropractor (Dr. Wilbert Levine), she was encouraged towards chiropractic by her family, yet Dr. Morgenstern's path to chiropractic as her own profession was not direct. She explored a variety of careers, but none fulfilled her. Meanwhile, a friend of hers was curious about chiropractic, so her parents suggested that they attend a Garden State philosophy night (featuring Reggie Gold, Joe Strauss, Joe Donofrio and others). That was it -- she was a chiropractor!

Graduating in 1982, she has been in private practice in a variety of New York locations, the last six years in Hastings-on-Hudson.

From a Saturday night philosophy talk to now standing in one of the largest missions in New York City under a banner that reads "Chiropractic for Humanity -- Releasing the Healing Power within every Man, Woman, Child", and freeing hundreds in an afternoon from subluxations, Dr. Anita Morgenstern has been on a powerful journey, and the WCA congratulates her!

Many other chiropractors are currently including service as part of their practice. You can, too. Dr. Morgenstern has a vision that these chiropractic missions can be set up all over, with D.C.s serving locally and offers these guidelines:

1. Find out where people go to eat at a church or community center.

2. Approach the person in charge, and explain that you want to help these people improve their life expression, their health, mental states, emotional well-being, etc.

3. Assure them that each doctor is covered by his or her malpractice insurance.

4. Call everyone you know to ask them if they would like to volunteer to adjust (not to manipulate, treat, diagnose, talk nutrition, massage), to change lives.

5. Contact a chiropractic supply company to donate an old adjusting table.

6. Grab headrest paper, sign in sheets, create a sign/banner/poster to hang, and flyers.

7. Give a brief (two-minute) talk about chiropractic and why everyone needs it.

I'm so glad to have been able to share Dr. Morgenstern's story. For more information, she can be reached by calling 914/478.0371 or by e-mail at chiromom13@aol.com, and, always you are welcome to contact me (mbdcawe@aol.com) or Veronica Gutierrez, D.C. (veronicapgdc@aol.com).

(Madeline Behrendt, D.C., vice-chair of the World Chiropractic Alliance Council on Women's Health, is author of "A Woman's Experience/A.W.E.," a practice manual offering a subluxation-based perspective on diverse aspects of women's health. Dr. Behrendt's articles have appeared in numerous print and electronic publications, and she has completed a research paper for the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research.)