Faces of Long Island celebrates the uniqueness of everyday Long Islanders. In their own words, they tell us about their life experiences, challenges and triumphs. Newsday launched this social media journey into the human experience to shine a light on the diverse people of this wonderful place we call home.

‘Melanoma can happen to anyone: any age, gender, or ethnicity.’

Garden City

Mollie, our daughter, was 20 years old and a sophomore in college when she discovered a mole high on her thigh. She called us from school because she was alarmed. It was bleeding through her pants and, not having a background in melanoma, I just said to come home, and we’ll go to the dermatologist and get it taken care of. The biopsy revealed she had a late-stage melanoma. It was something that we were totally unprepared for. She had a college physical in September, and this was in February, so it was missed, and unfortunately because of the location of it on the back of her thigh, I don’t think she noticed it until it started to be bothersome.

“Now we tell people that if you see a change in a mole to try to take a picture of it, go to your doctor, have it analyzed, biopsied, and that could save a life. She went to Memorial Sloan Kettering and had very intense chemotherapy. This was in 2000. Unfortunately, she passed six months later. It was just devastating. We never saw it coming. She was athletic; when she was in high school, she was captain of her tennis team and played other varsity sports.

Mollie never appeared sick. However, she definitely fit a profile: she was blonde, fair-skinned, freckly, very light blue eyes, but she never went to a tanning bed, and she wasn’t a tan fanatic. I won’t say that she didn’t have sunburns from childhood; she did. We went to the beach. We definitely used sunscreen and an umbrella. But we’ve learned so much since. As a result of her passing, our family – Mollie’s the third of four children – established a foundation in her memory with the hope that we could help others who are battling the disease and foremost prevent it, because we know now that skin cancer and melanoma are largely caused by UV rays and are preventable and melanoma, if caught early, is curable.

“We don’t designate any of our funding for research. We thought we could make a bigger impact with prevention and education. Luckily, since she was diagnosed, research has improved therapies and drugs for people with advanced disease. These advances certainly give a lot of hope to current day melanoma patients, which we didn’t have when she was diagnosed. We’ve been very involved in education and prevention. We developed a film for middle school students to explain the importance of sun protection and mole identification.

One person out of five will be diagnosed with skin cancer. And one person every 55 minutes dies of melanoma. The skin is our largest organ, and we have to protect it.

“What we wanted to do was to change behaviors for young preteens and teenagers and warn them against tanning beds because they are worse than the sun in terms of UV damage to the skin. We gave out thousands and thousands of copies. After that, we focused a lot on public service announcements and social media campaigns. One of them was ‘Free Killer Tan,’ which really was targeted for high school girls.

“When I think about all of the girls we met when we would do school presentations who acknowledged that they went to tanning beds before prom, we thought this was a wonderful audience for us to bring that message to through YouTube and social media. Recently, we did a campaign on ‘solar distancing,’ capitalizing on the social distancing theme because of COVID. The PSA graphically shows sun damage from 95 million miles away in a very attention-getting ‘Star Wars’-like segment. Basically, what we’re trying to do is to reinforce the importance of sunscreen, sunglasses, protective clothing, seeking shade, some basic things that may seem routine to a lot of people, but it doesn’t always pan out that way. We donate gallon-dispenser jugs of sunscreen to different communities. We also did a blitz social media campaign for ‘Skinny on Skin,’ an online program for hairdressers.

“We know that women will see their hairdressers on the average of every six weeks, more frequently than they’d ever go and see their dermatologists. Now everyone in that salon community after taking this short online course has an opportunity to be a skin cancer prevention advocate, suggesting to their clients if they see a lesion or something suspicious that they need to see a medical professional.

“One person out of five will be diagnosed with skin cancer. And one person every 55 minutes dies of melanoma. Melanoma can happen to anyone: any age, gender, or ethnicity. The skin is our largest organ, and we have to protect it. Hopefully, through continued and ongoing efforts, we will change behaviors and reduce these statistics.”

Interviewed by Betsy Abraham

‘I feel like a lot of teens think they can’t be entrepreneurs because they have a lot of other things going on. But there is room for everybody.’

South Setauket

“Like every other teenager, I was on my phone a lot during quarantine and my mom threatened to throw it out the window if I didn’t get off of it. I was on the social media site TikTok and I scrolled to the next video and I saw somebody baking pretty vanilla cupcakes. And I thought, I’m going to bake! My mom told me that there was a box of Betty Crocker cake mix and a tub of Pillsbury frosting in the pantry. I didn’t originally tell her what I was going to do; I just went downstairs and went on Pinterest and I started baking. Then my mom started sharing my baking on social media and it just kind of blew up. I had never really baked like this before; I’m self-taught. I have now had two pop-up shops at Walt Whitman Shops.

“I’ve gotten to bake for many different graduation parties and birthday parties, and I just started doing events with little kids, where they can decorate their own cupcakes. During the school year, I have cheer practice six days a week, for two to three hours at a time. I am a part of my school’s Community Connections Club, where we bake food and make dog treats to give back to the homeless. I bake after school, in between cheer and school, and late at night. A typical week for me is 25 to 30 dozen orders. The profits are going toward a future car and college.

In December, I did a hat and coat drive; anyone who was picking up their orders could donate. I love helping my community. And now, I’m hardly ever on my phone.

“Originally, I was sending cupcakes to my dad, who is an FDNY firefighter, to support the firehouse during COVID because they were working long hours. Now, I do what I call First Responder Fridays, which is normally the first Friday of every month, people can nominate their favorite first responders and I’ll pick a couple of winners to get a dozen free cupcakes. The FDNY, EMTs, and the Selden police chief were able to get my cupcakes so far.

“In December, I did a hat and coat drive; anyone who was picking up their orders could donate. I collected over a thousand hats, coats, and mittens and I donated it to my local church, which gave back to people in need. I love helping my community. I feel like a lot of teens think they can’t be entrepreneurs because they have a lot of other things going on. But there is room for everybody. And now, I’m hardly ever on my phone.”

‘My long-term goals are to continue to make a difference in the lives of Long Island students.’

Northport

As a science teacher and research scientist in Brentwood Union Free School District, I’ve dedicated 20 years of my career to getting more people of color involved in the sciences, to be the voice of change and the ones moving the legislation at the state level and that people are listening to. I have a state-of-the-art research lab at the high school. They come in as 10th-graders who have never picked up any equipment and by their senior year, they’re out conducting real-world investigations.

“Since 2018, my students have been working with New York State Parks and Save the Sound to replant and restore the salt marsh in Sunken Meadow State Park. They’ve planted over 2,000 plants. This came about because while getting my masters at Stony Brook University, I worked in Madagascar for six months. It was the beginning of the rest of my life because there I saw an imminent need to help those who didn’t have the resources that we had in the U.S., both for teaching and the environment. I worked with kids in Madagascar to replant and reforest the rainforest. And 20 years later, I’m planting Spartina in a salt marsh on Long Island.

“One would say my life hasn’t changed much, but when I came back from that trip, I realized that it’s not just Madagascar that needs help. It’s right here in our own backyard. I did my student teaching in Brentwood and fell in love with the population; 57 different cultural nations represented in the student body. I took a job in Brentwood and started a research program as an afterschool initiative. That became a class and my life mission.

Here I am jumping into my research to get me out of a bad situation in my life, and that’s kind of how I see research for our students in Brentwood.

“In 2004, I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 27. What helped get me through that darkness was the science and getting my kids to answer and ask questions. From 2004 to 2006, we started pushing forward with the research program. We were always the “Bad News Bears” at the science competitions. We’d go to country clubs and compete against Roslyn, Syosset and Jericho. I was going to the Salvation Army to buy jackets for my kids so they looked like the rest. I called it the ‘Science Unfair’ because my students didn’t have the same skillset and background as everybody else.

“In 2007, I had a recurrence, and a bilateral mastectomy. I decided to finish my Ph.D. I was going through chemotherapy and in graduate school full-time and working full-time. I was having a hard time, so I just sunk myself into research. The experience was one of the most arduous of my life and the most life-changing for both me and the Brentwood program.

“In 2010, we started to win competitions. We had a recognition from the Siemens Competition, a first ever for Brentwood. In 2011, my student Samantha Garvey was doing research in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook. She was going to drop out because her parents were evicted. We raised money so she could stay with the program and in 2012, she was recognized as an Intel Semifinalist. She was invited to the White House and President Obama’s State of the Union Address. We were on “The Ellen Show” and “The Today Show.” It was all about how through science you can get out of a bad situation.

My true purpose is that regardless of zip code kids have the resources to do and go where they need to go. If that means trying to hold your ground and saying, ‘things need to change,’ then you need to be the voice of change.

“Here I am jumping into my research to get me out of a bad situation in my life, and that’s kind of how I see research for our students in Brentwood. For me it was a long, uphill battle. I get hit with cancer and wind up continuing to persevere. Things started to fall into place when the students were getting the recognition they deserved. Since 2010, we’ve had over 20 national winners and we’ve brought in over $20 million in college scholarships. The lab is the little gem of the district. We have kids from this program who have gone to Yale, Harvard and MIT.

“In a community like Brentwood, one of the hardest hit by COVID, you need to believe in science. Without science, I wouldn’t be standing here right now. My long-term goals are to continue to make a difference in the lives of students and focus specifically on the underrepresented community of Brentwood to showcase that with the right skills and the right people in place, we can make a difference in the lives of our youth. My true purpose is that regardless of zip code kids have the resources to do and go where they need to go. If that means trying to hold your ground and saying, ‘things need to change,’ then you need to be the voice of change.”

Interviewed by Liza Burby

‘I’ve learned that art is a way to transform an experience or feeling so that I can see it in a truer way.’

New Hyde Park

“I’m an Armenian American, and a lot of my work in the arts has been connected to the Armenian genocide and recognition of it in the U.S. My grandfather was a child survivor and became a famous cubist impressionist painter in Cairo, Egypt, where a lot of the diaspora Armenians went.

“When my family moved to Queens and subsequently to Melville, my grandfather was with us the whole time. I was really close to him and I would watch him paint and create this meaningful life that was almost taken away from him. I realized that art was a way to make meaning of our own lives. That led me to an immersion in the arts, and now I’m a poet, essayist, musician and teacher.

“Armenians are tethered to a rich, cultural past with beautiful artistry. We’re slightly romantic, but we’re also resilient and tough. My grandfather’s craft helped me realize I couldn’t be anything else except an educator. I saw how important it is for us to have voice and tackle issues through writing and art. There’s this idea of teaching and helping people create change for themselves, but being an English teacher helped me explore the questions I had for myself as an artist. What better way to learn about poetry than to teach poetry?

We’re attracted to a beautiful painting or a great film because it transports us into a truer place. I explored my identity and my students’ lives through poetry.

“Teaching is a student-centered art. I run a songwriting club, and it’s a way for me to understand what makes people feel alive when they’re listening to music. When I was a kid, I’d play guitar and sing alternative rock on Long Island and in New York. I would cover songs that inspired people to embrace life. I made dozens of albums and performed more than 1,100 times across America. A commitment to art, whether it be through the process of making it or having it around in our lives, is a commitment to making meaning of our lives.

“I’ve learned that art is a way to transform an experience or feeling so that I can see it in a truer way. We’re attracted to a beautiful painting or a great film because it transports us into a truer place. I explored my identity and my students’ lives through poetry. In my music, I’ve explored the extent to which sound can lift us and bring us to these rooms which we don’t visit often and should visit more. In the classroom it all comes together.”

‘I still have rough days, but the difference is that now I don’t let anxiety control my life.’

Massapequa

“I’ve always loved to perform. I’ve played piano, sung, acted and danced. I’m not sure why it started, but in the ninth-grade I started having bad anxiety attacks. I didn’t know that’s what they were at first. I thought I was going crazy.

“The first time I remember it happening, I had a solo at a concert and I thought, ‘I’m going to throw up and pass out at the same time.’ The next day I didn’t go to school because I thought I was sick. I started avoiding going to chorus class because I still associated singing with being nauseous. That expanded to not wanting to go to school, to eventually not leaving my house for days at a time. I couldn’t even have people over.

“When I was a kid, I’d look forward to going to school. Now, I switched to home-schooling. I heard rumors that I was dead or that I had gone to a mental hospital. I had completely stopped singing and couldn’t even do it in my own home. I was in therapy, but the anxiety was relentless.

This summer I will be starting school at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy. People with anxiety should know that life does get better.

“Eventually, I switched to a private school for kids like me. It gave me a sense of normalcy. In 11th-grade, I was still having anxiety attacks, but they were easier to push through because I knew what they were. I nervously went to a gathering with old friends where I realized that instead of disliking me, people missed me. That was a huge switch for me. I decided to go back to my high school because I was ready to face my fears. I realized how much I’d lost.

“My first time performing again was my audition for Long Island High School for the Arts. It felt great to get back to singing. It was so ironic that as soon as I was able to go to school, it was March 2020, and I couldn’t go because of COVID! I dedicated myself to my art.

“In 12th-grade, I heard they were doing ‘Little Shop of Horrors,’ but I hadn’t performed in a play since eighth-grade. I got the role of Audrey. It was a big challenge for me to get comfortable singing in front of people, especially ‘Suddenly Seymour,’ because it has so much emotional significance for me. I still have rough days, but the difference is now I don’t let anxiety control my life. This summer I will be starting school at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy. People with anxiety should know that life does get better.”

Interviewed by Iris Wiener

‘To create something from nothing is a gift, and why not utilize it to show the world?’

Huntington

“Since I was a little kid, I loved coloring books and drawing superheroes. I didn’t take art classes until I was at Walt Whitman High School. I would get into a lot of fights because I moved to Huntington from Queens at 10, and the places were so different; I was all about graffiti, street art and hip-hop. I always felt like an outcast, but I let that be my drive. In high school I went to Six Flags and some guy was airbrushing t-shirts. It intrigued me because it looked like a pen, but there were no paint strokes and he could blend colors.

“I saved up to get myself an airbrush and air compressor, so in my senior year I started airbrushing t-shirts. I also wanted to be a rapper, but my skill was in creating paintings. Later I went to F.I.T., I found the G-Unit offices, and I started doing custom airbrush shirts for 50 Cent and all of the rappers.

Everyone tells you art doesn’t make money. When I relied on my own thoughts and my faith in God, I realized that I can do whatever I want to get done.

“In 2010, I opened my own store in Huntington. At first it was a clothing brand, Andaluz Designs, and then it became a branding and marketing store. I was doing custom sneakers and canvasses, but I really wanted to be a street artist and do music. The first mural I did was Robin Williams at Painted Pieces. When Pokemon GO came out I saw it as an opportunity to do something huge. I painted 151 Pokemon on the side of my office building because you have to go large or go home. It went super viral. The next wall to go viral was a Kobe Bryant mural in front of Barclays Center. I just did it out of love.

“During quarantine, I created live art auctions where DJ Scram plays music and I will paint somebody in one hour. On the anniversary of Kobe’s death, I painted Shaquille O’Neal. Out of nowhere, Shaq popped up in my Instagram Live. I was buggin’ out. He ended up purchasing my painting! I just shot a music video from the album I dropped in March, “Welcome to the Quarantine.” It’s uplifting, Christian hip-hop. I’ve learned that it’s hard to be an artist. Everyone tells you art doesn’t make money. When I relied on my own thoughts and my faith in God, I realized that I can do whatever I want to get done. It’s just a matter of working hard. To create something from nothing is a gift and why not utilize it to show the world?”

‘I push myself to take on so many projects because I know I can do it and want to do it. I only have one life to live so I might as well do it!’

Massapequa

“As a kid, one of my favorite movies was “Pirates of the Caribbean.” I knew every line, I would dress up as the characters, and I’d act out the movie. However, it was in dance class that my family realized I was born to be on stage. Over the years, I have taken a ton of classes in acting, dance, singing, trumpet, piano and guitar.

“After a short time with piano and voice, I learned that I have the gift of perfect pitch. If someone drops a needle on the ground, I can tell the pitch at which it was dropped. For 10 years, I have taken piano lessons from Carolyn Miller, a country singer from Massapequa. I have also done many local plays, which led to acting in student films, music videos and television.

“My biggest milestone so far is a co-star role in an episode of the HBO Max reboot of “Gossip Girl.” I have been on sets before, but I never had a speaking part. I had my own trailer and everything! I love acting because you can be someone that isn’t yourself. It allows me to express how I feel, and it has also helped socially. I made sure to take every advantage I could during lockdown, like classes with the New York Film Academy.

Normally, when people think of night school, they think of people who failed. People go into it for other reasons though.

“I decided to graduate one year early from high school in part because of my acting career. Being finished allows me to have more time to work through my goals and focus on my craft. Normally, when people think of night school, they think of people who failed. People go into it for other reasons though.

“The Nassau BOCES Twilight Alternative High School Program allowed me to take 11th- and 12th-grade classes at the same time, and I’m so grateful for that. The classes were laid back and supportive. I was surprised to be chosen for the George Farber Outstanding Student Award through that program.

“My gap year before college will help me build my résumé as I pursue film editing. I’m excited to create and edit short films, write scripts, cast actors and find locations. I push myself to take on so many projects because I know I can do it and want to do it. I only have one life to live so I might as well do it! Through trying so much, I’ve realized that I’m capable of achieving what I want to do, and I know that anything’s possible if I believe in myself.”

‘We had collected 30,000 books from all over Long Island, so many that we were able to give books out to other libraries in the county.’

Huntington Station

“In 1967, I applied to the Peace Corps and was assigned to teach English in Ethiopia. I didn’t go, but I sometimes wondered what I missed out on. When I retired in 2003 at 57 as an elementary school principal, I was accepted to a program called Teachers for Africa through a Nongovernmental Organization. They invited me to teach in Ethiopia, so I decided I was meant to go. I worked on a new program to train college teachers in Hosana, a rural town.

“As I learned about the culture, the school system and met villagers, children, and teachers, I saw a great need, but also great potential. I committed to working with educators to improve the quality of education. I visited schools where there were 100 kids to a classroom and the teacher only had chalk and a chalkboard. There weren’t any books or materials. Before I left in 2004, I asked the largest school what I could do for them. They said, “Build a library.” Their “library” for 4,000 kids was 20 ripped, old books in a closet.

I learned that if you’re going to make really lasting change, you have to be in it for the long haul.

“I started fundraising and in 2006 founded a nonprofit, h2 Empower. I wanted to build something that would be for the whole community. We had a school committee in Hosana and the parents, town and county chipped in. We got a $10,000 grant from the U.S. Embassy. We opened the first library in Hosana in 2010. We had collected 30,000 books from all over Long Island, so many that we were able to give books out to other libraries in the county. I’ve been back every year since then, except for 2020, and I’ve overseen getting water into 5 schools, training librarians, building 15 classrooms in 6 different schools and I’ve even extended my work to Burundi.

“What motivated me from that first trip through today is the students there all know that education is a way to a better life for themselves and their families. I know my purpose is to be a bridge, to bring people together in Hosanna and in the US. When they saw the impact the library made in their community, it made them realize they could do a lot more. I learned that if you’re going to make really lasting change, you have to be in it for the long haul. In the end, I feel like I’ve been so blessed by this. I’ve had opportunities that most people wouldn’t have.”

‘I had a fantastic support system in my family when I came out, but any young gay person will feel othered at some point.’

Hauppauge

“I was a child actor in local theater, and what I loved most about it was being in rooms of like-minded weirdoes who felt like they didn’t fit in. Everyone was able to come together and enjoy telling stories. I certainly felt “othered” as a gay kid on Long Island. I had a fantastic support system in my family when I came out, but any young gay person will feel “othered” at some point.

“I grew up in a Roman Catholic household. I had to recontextualize my relationship with the church because I grew up closeted and afraid of what that might mean for my faith; I’ve come to a place where I have a relationship with my spirituality that I am proud of. My parents are artistic, so they understood that I had a sense of passion and that I always knew what I wanted to do.

“I got the start of my career as a composer, lyricist and playwright with “Balloon Boy the Musical,” for which I wrote the first draft when I was in seventh grade. I would write shows in spiral bound notebooks in math class. The show was loosely based on the 2009 scandal where a Colorado father said his son was stuck in a homemade weather balloon. That show premiered at the NY Musical Theatre Festival when I was in the incredible theater program at Hauppauge High School.

The beauty of theater is that it’s the act of empathy at its core. Those are the type of stories I like to tell.

“I’ve also been lucky enough to write the score for Off-Broadway’s “A Musical About Star Wars.” I recently put out a concept album called “Little Black Book,” which is a rock musical loosely based on the life of the former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss. I’m fascinated with telling stories that three-dimensionalize humans whom the tabloids have two-dimensionalized; I treat them with empathy in a surprising way.

“The beauty of theater is that it’s the act of empathy at its core. Those are the type of stories I like to tell. I grew up watching videos of musical theater writers performing songs at 54 Below, like Pasek and Paul, Joe Iconis, Adam Gwon- people who are my age now, and were premiering weird songs that were unlike anything I’d ever heard on a stage. I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do!’ There’s something really special in that I am playing in the same venues as them. I miss the innate intimacy of theater and can’t wait until I can get back to it.”

Interviewed by Iris Wiener

‘My childhood in Babylon Village was a process of self-discovery, and I didn’t even know what being queer looked like.’

Babylon

“When I was growing up, being open and yourself was not always accepted. My childhood in Babylon Village was a process of self-discovery, and I didn’t even know what being queer looked like. I knew I was different but didn’t understand what that meant. There weren’t many, if any, open LGBTQA+ people here that I could look to when I was a child discovering my sexuality and identity.

“I moved to Southern California around age 13, where I started to semi-understand who I was, but even after many positive experiences as a teen I felt that my growth was done there. I wanted to come back home.

“Things were different in Babylon Village when I returned in my 20s. It was heartwarming to see my hometown evolved into being more open minded and respectful toward local LGBTQA+ people, but even with all this development, I still saw a need for something more in Babylon, for the showing of acceptance, appreciation and acknowledgement of our queer community. There was a need to mark progress and visibility, and that was beginning of what now has become Babylon Pride!

My pride journey is far from over, and I don’t know where the finish line is, but I’m excited to educate and evoke positive change along the way.

“Bob, a Babylon Village resident, and I got together and made it happen for the first time in 2020 during the pandemic. We went to the mayor’s office, and they agreed, saying our village needs a little uplifting, as the world was a heavy place at the time. We reached out to businesses and residents to make it happen, mainly by word of mouth, and pulled it together in seven days.

“I was in the last car to turn the corner onto the 2020 parade route. It was such a feeling of acceptance and love. A whole town coming together to support the LGBTQA+ community, tears came down my face.

“From last year to this year, the parade attendance doubled, which is kind of surreal for me. My pride journey is far from over, and I don’t know where the finish line is, but I’m excited to educate and evoke positive change along the way. We need to create change where we see and most desire it. I wanted to show that Babylon and Long Island can embrace our LGBTQA+ community and let that be known to our queer youth! Having acceptance in our own backyard speaks volumes.”

Interviewed by Ian J. Stark