‘We learn math and science in school so I would love to see a course on self-esteem and self-worth. Learning to love ourselves just makes for a kinder world.’

Babylon

“I thought perhaps my story could help someone out there who’s grieving. I lost my brother to suicide 10 years ago. One of my brother’s legacies is definitely his uniqueness. He was so fun and just an amazing person.

“The reason I wrote my memoir, “Worthy,” is that during my grieving process, I realized that my brother and I weren’t all that different. I had my own struggles around worthiness. I want people to know that they matter, and if I could somehow heal myself, which I have, and live my best life, that would be the best way to honor my brother.

“It took me many years to get to this point — 10 years to finish the book – and I have done a lot of the work that other people are doing right now. We are all worthy of an extraordinary life. When everything falls apart, we have the opportunity to redefine ourselves if we choose. Our mindset is such a powerful tool, and we can live from the perspective that life happens for us and not to us.

We need to be able to talk about the difficult things and be able to say when we’re not okay.

“When bad things happen, what are you going to do with it and how are you going to make the world better? I think it’s really important in this day and age to have these types of conversations. We need to be able to talk about the difficult things and be able to say when we’re not okay.

“This World Suicide Prevention Day and National Suicide Prevention Month are so timely and important this year because people are suffering. People have lost jobs; people have lost people and people are uncertain.

“Giving more education in schools around worthiness and value and inclusivity is something that we need. We learn math and science in school so I would love to see a course on self-esteem and self-worth. Learning to love ourselves just makes for a kinder world.”

‘Branches of Long Island saved my life. It has fueled a fire in my soul that I never knew I needed.’

Coram

“I grew up with an abusive alcoholic father. I always felt like I didn’t belong in my family. I hit my teenage years without having a real father figure and that got me involved with a lot of wrong people. I had awful relationships; there was sexual assault and abuse.

“After I got married and was pregnant with my first son, I found out that my father wasn’t my biological father. I found out my biological father had passed when I was young, and his family wanted nothing to do with me. I had finally found a piece that was missing, but my heart broke all over again. I do suffer from PTSD, dealing with everything from my childhood.

“I started Branches Long Island in fall 2019. I was a part of community groups and mom groups and tried to help whoever I could, whenever I could, I collected on Facebook. And I said, ‘I want to start a nonprofit.’ My husband looked at me like I was crazy. We have four kids; we were both working. I put it out to my network, and within a few days, we had a name, and a few hundred people joining us.

I’m super excited about focusing on getting people help. My history fuels my passion, especially for these kids.

“We’re very grassroots. I was collecting items in my house and we eventually moved into my shed. Within six months, we opened our first outreach center in Middle Island, where we’re helping hundreds of families; we’re open seven days a week and we hired a staff.

“There are so many giving people and they just don’t know how to do it — this gives them an avenue. We’re opening a community center close to our current place and we’re hoping to focus on programs, education and the advocacy part of our group; for kids that don’t have anywhere to go after school, moms who need help budgeting, or nutrition, or applying for services. We help women flee domestic violence situations; we make sure the kids are set for back to school.

“I’m super excited about focusing on getting people help. My history fuels my passion, especially for these kids. A lot of them are in a cycle in the system, generation to generation. It just keeps getting passed down. I call them my twigs – I will take care of them because even if their parents are having a hard time, I want it to stop somewhere.

“Branches saved my life. It has fueled a fire in my soul that I never knew I needed.”

‘I was crazy. I ran 90 miles across Long Island over three days and we raised $38,000 for the Long Island Alzheimer’s and Dementia Center.’

Plainview

“My grandmother, Ann Asparro, was living with Alzheimer’s for about four years. She was at Parker Jewish Nursing home and, every Sunday, I would go and have breakfast with her. Alzheimer’s is an awful disease. A majority of the time, I would say something and then she would just repeat herself over and over. I could tell she had no clue who I was. I felt uncomfortable, so I would stay for 10 minutes, and I would leave.

“Then I said, ‘you know what, if I was in this situation, she would be with me every day, all day.’ So, I went back the next day, and each time I would stay a little longer. I said, ‘I got to do something different. I got to do something more.’ This disease is awful. I’m going to honor her and the person she was and really try to create a platform to talk all about Alzheimer’s. In 2016, I decided to do these extreme runs to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s and honor my grandmother. It was crazy to run across Long Island.

There are days when I don’t want to get out of bed and run. Those days I just think about the caregivers. I got to do it for them.

“Everyone called me crazy. I was crazy. But I trained hard and at the end of that year, I ran 90 miles across Long Island over three days and we raised $38,000 for the Long Island Alzheimer’s and Dementia Center. I started this ultra-distance run because I wanted to heal my own family. But soon other families would come up to me and say, ‘I’m going through this. Thank you so much for what you’re doing,’ and I understood this was so much bigger than my own family.

“The next year, I ran 75 miles in two days honoring what would have been my grandparents’ 75th wedding anniversary. In 2018, I decided to do an Ironman, which involves a 2.4-swim, a 112-mile bike, and a marathon all in one day. About 1 percent of the population completes one a year. I didn’t know how to swim. I figured caregivers don’t necessarily know how to be a caregiver, but they show up every day. So, I said, ‘Let me take this challenge on. I’ll teach myself how to swim,’ and I did.

“I showed up to the Iron Man and there were 2,000 other people getting in the water at the same time as me. I trained for seven months, and my race was over within 45 minutes. Someone’s elbow hit me in the back of the head as I was taking a breath, so I ingested all this lake water and I started vomiting. I was embarrassed and uncomfortable and I didn’t know what to do. I just thought about the caregivers. I bet the caregivers feel embarrassed. They set out to do so many things within their day and it just gets ruined because they need to take care of someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia.

“Instead of thinking internally about how bad my day was, I thought about the caregivers of people, so I grabbed my running shoes and ran a marathon on my own that day. I don’t need to be in the race. I’m not going to stop. I’m going to keep training and I’m going to show the caregivers that I understand your life gets flipped upside down. My race got flipped upside down. This is a reflection of what you do.

“I went back six weeks later, I got in that water, and nobody hit me or kicked me, and I did a half Iron Man. I thought I was done running and then my grandmother passed away in April 2019. We got so close to raising $100,000 in donations that I said I would run 100 miles on a track to try and get to that mark. It took me 29 hours to complete, and I didn’t sleep.

“There are days when I don’t want to get out of bed and run. Those days I just think about the caregivers. I got to do it for them. It’s the days when it’s the most difficult and your body hurts when the progress happens. It gets daunting. I have a full-time job. I have an 8-year-old and a 5-year-old. I coach their soccer teams and people help me a lot but it’s hard to get involved. I’m constantly thinking about training every single day.

“Mentally wise, I’ve been preparing for this since January. But I am 42 years old now, so my body’s getting a little worn down. I am going to run 100 miles from the Montauk Lighthouse to the Long Island Alzheimer’s and Dementia Center in Westbury on Oct. 2 and 3. As of right now, we have raised close to $27,000.”

Interviewed by Melanie Gulbas

‘When people look at a drawing or painting and they’re overwhelmed, you think: How can art be so powerful?’

Smithtown

“I’ve been an artist for over 20 years. My first influence was my kindergarten teacher. She was so enthused about art. It’s a shame because sometimes all the art and music programs are off to the wayside; those are the programs that are cut. My art teacher in high school taught us how to draw upside down. Upside down drawing is drawing from the right side of your brain to make your brain slow down.

“When people give me a reference photo of their face, I have it next to me and I put it upside down and draw the preliminary lines from the right side of my brain. When I’m almost done with it, I bring it right side up and I look at the shapes and the shadings, but the bulk of the time it’s upside down. The past few years, I draw faces merged together, like a person from 50 years ago and now. I merge the two faces and see how they changed: it’s the same eye, it’s the same nose, but it’s 50 years difference. I drew my grandmother’s cousin, Sister Teresa; I decided to show her journey from her college days to when she became a nun. She is now up for sainthood.

My favorite thing to draw is the most difficult thing: faces.

“I also drew one of Billy Joel’s band members who lives on Long Island, Mike DelGuidice. I drew his face merged with Billy Joel’s face and Mike loved it. My mom is elderly with a fake hip and I’m doing more for her these days. So now I do my drawing at night. I lock my door for a few hours. I don’t have a formal studio; people always ask me and I’m like, ‘No, it’s on the floor in my room!’ During the day when I’m running around, I have something to look forward to. I’m thinking, ‘How am I going to get through this?’ But then when I focus on the picture, I completely forget what happened during the day.

“My favorite thing to draw is the most difficult thing: faces. It’s not like you’re doing a landscape and a tree is out of place; so what? A face has to be accurate. It’s funny when people tell me, ‘Oh, that’s not me,’ and I’m like, ‘Yes, it is!’ When people look at a drawing or painting and they’re overwhelmed, you think: How can art be so powerful? It’s only lines. It’s only shapes. But it’s what people see. It’s what speaks to them.”

‘I was motivated to live differently, and I began experiencing many different joys that I had never felt before.’

Patchogue

“I came to the U.S. in the early 2000s because in Ecuador there was an economic collapse, and the country declared a state of crisis. There was no money circulating and no opportunity to get ahead. I worked in any job I could get, like a dishwasher, a delivery guy for Domino’s and a furniture mover. I was a tractor trailer driver for many years and would drive all over the country. I was considered an essential worker during the pandemic.

“On May 27, my truck flipped over on the highway while I was carrying a trailer. Luckily, people helped me get out of the truck. Different vertebrae in my back were fractured, and I also fractured my sternum, collar and ribs. After that, it was very difficult for me to walk or have any basic movement.

“During that time, I would think about my life. In Ecuador I owned a restaurant and always loved to cook. I’m 51, and I decided that this was my second chance at life; this time I was going to go for it and do it differently because life is so short. I decided to open Swan Latin Cuisine, a deli in Patchogue. We make Ecuadorian and Latin food.

I learned that you are able to start over and pursue goals at any age.

“There are so many little things that go into being a business owner that I never knew, so that was a big challenge. Swan Lake Park is nearby, and most of the businesses in the area start with the name Swan, so I decided to introduce the Latin cuisine into something that already exists to bridge everything. I also really like swans and wanted to keep the name in town!

“People from all different ethnicities have been coming together at my restaurant and I get to share my cooking with them. I’m really interested in people enjoying my food, especially my favorite thing to make, a soup called encebollado de pescado—a fish and onion soup-which is a very popular Ecuadorian dish. Before the accident, I did what needed to be done to pay the bills, but I wasn’t necessarily happy.

“Afterwards, I was motivated to live differently, and I began experiencing many different joys that I had never felt before. I learned that you are able to start over and pursue goals at any age. I hope that other people will pursue something that also makes them happy so they can experience those little joys in life too.”

‘I think no matter what you go through in this life, no matter what cards you’re dealt, you have to go through it with grace.’

Stony Brook

“I had a kidney biopsy in January 2012, and they said at some point I would need a kidney transplant or dialysis. I was 39. In 2015, I was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia. I was shocked, but my doctor said I’d be fine; I’d just have to take a pill for the rest of my life.

“A month later, I had only 10 percent kidney function in both of my kidneys and I needed immediate dialysis. I was 40 years old and in a dialysis chair and that was my life for almost three years. I felt like a machine, and I just thought, ‘I have to be here for my two kids. I can’t die.’ On January 6, 2015, I met my kidney donor and had a replacement. She’s a very important person to me and we’ve stayed connected. I became a type 1 diabetic after my transplant. Then two years ago, I got diagnosed with breast cancer on a routine mammogram. I thought it was the end of the world. I knew what I was facing with my kidney problems, but breast cancer, that was something else altogether.

Our health is the only thing we have, and we have to treat it with kid gloves because it could be gone and things happen so quickly.

“In June 2019, I had my double mastectomy and in February 2020, I had reconstruction surgery and recovered during quarantine. The hardest part was recognizing that my health was just always going to be hanging in the balance; I was always going to have to fight for something. Then my kidney donor told me she had colon cancer and that was what made me decide I had to make a change for my health. I was given the gift of being in remission from leukemia, getting a second chance with a kidney, being cancer-free from breast cancer. It won’t always be perfect. I face every day and the challenges that it brings with positivity.

“I joined a weight-loss group online a year ago. I lost 40 pounds and now I’m coaching other people to do the same thing. A year later, my labs are good, and my donor is well. I’ve had to deal with so much and manage so many things that aren’t normal to most people. So, whatever gets thrown at me, I bat it back.

“Our health is the only thing we have, and we have to treat it with kid gloves because it could be gone and things happen so quickly. I think no matter what you go through in this life, no matter what cards you’re dealt, you have to go through it with grace. Just do everything you can to be healthy because every penny spent on that is one less dollar spent on being unwell.”

‘I’ve learned that I really enjoy the challenge of physical things.’

Valley Stream

“I always enjoyed pushing myself physically. In 1966, there was a transit strike in New York City. I was living in the Bronx. It was a cold winter. I biked from the Bronx down to City College for my master’s degree throughout the entire strike.

“Now I’m a retired educator; my last role was as principal in Levittown in 2002. When I retired, I wanted things to do, so I looked online and found the 50+ Ski Club. I went with a friend to a meeting. It began with a woman giving a health report and discussing which members had undergone surgeries and who was ill.

“After the meeting, my friend said, ‘This isn’t for me, look at what these people have.’ I said, ‘This is for me because these people are older, some are even over 80, yet they’re still active.’ I joined and I loved it. The people are inspiring. There’s one couple in their 90s. We were doing a black diamond, which is the most difficult type of trail, and they went down the mountain beautifully! I found a group within the club that also goes biking.

People who aren’t active risk losing their mental sharpness, as well as their physical abilities.

“Some of us biked the 5 Boro Bike Tour, which is 40+ miles through the streets of New York. I’ve done that for about 25 years and enjoy it. In warm weather, the Bronx River Parkway is closed to traffic for a six-mile stretch. My son and granddaughter rode with me on that for the 12-½ miles round trip. She is 7 now, so for a young child like that it was really special. Her younger brother just learned how to ride, too. Now we get to ride as a family. I’ve also done a tour of the Hamptons for several years, 50 miles twice and 70 miles twice.

“I’m fortunate that, at the ripe old age of 76, I can still do these things. I’m now president of the 50+ Ski Club. On our trip to Winter Park, Colorado, I was 12,000 feet up at the top of a bowl. It was magnificent. I went skiing down the bowl and there were beautiful trails at the other end. When you’re biking and skiing, you’re constantly thinking and your mind has to work quickly to adjust. People who aren’t active risk losing their mental sharpness, as well as their physical abilities. Through these experiences, I’ve learned that I really enjoy the challenge of physical things, and they’re also a hell of a way to spend your day.”

‘I find that kids are more willing to puzzle out the difficult questions than adults seem to be.’

Long Beach

“I’m originally from a tiny town called Quaker Street in upstate New York — it had one stop light, a general store, Quaker meeting house, a tavern and my grandfather’s diner. My parents owned the store in town, and we lived in an apartment over the store. I grew up in this supportive fishbowl where everyone knew you and what you were doing. It was a really nice way to grow up.

“I started teaching at FDR High School in Hyde Park upstate and it was a very difficult contract battle. The superintendent was known for union busting and for a first-year teacher, it was overwhelming. The social studies department chair at Oceanside High School was looking for someone. I didn’t know where Oceanside was and I heard Long Island and I said, ‘I have to get back to you.’

“Since 1997, I have devoted so much of my energy to teaching social studies in Oceanside. I have hobbies, but in terms of the thing that I put my energy into, it’s this job and the kids that I’m with every day that helped me win state teacher of the year in 2021.

We went from being heroes in March 2020 to being the villains trying to indoctrinate people’s kids.

“At Oceanside, they hired great teachers without picking the same kind of teacher – there were conservative teachers, people of color, LGBT, old, young, new teachers, it was really awesome. A great administrator makes you be an effective teacher. Dr. Kevin Sheehan was director of social studies when I started, and he understood that the key was to hire people who were smarter than him and get out of the way and make sure they had the tools they needed. There’s so little of that now.

“We went from being heroes in March 2020 to being the villains trying to indoctrinate people’s kids. I don’t know any teacher who’s trying to indoctrinate anyone. I listen to and entertain all arguments and the students know that I welcome that kind of discourse, so when you watch people fight and not listen to one another, it’s terrible.

“I teach government class, but I also teach AP human geography which is having kids think about why this thing is happening, at this time, with these people, in this place – we look at population, immigration, urban development and we get into a lot of conversations about it. I find that kids are more willing to puzzle out the difficult questions than adults seem to be.”

Interviewed by Rachel O’Brien – Morano

‘I’m trying to break that bubble in the suburbs. Hip-hop culture. Graffiti culture. All that visual language. You don’t have to be afraid of that. That’s not going to make your neighborhood dangerous or anything.’

Baldwin

“I’m a Long Island guy. I don’t claim to be from anywhere else. I graduated from Baldwin and from a kid, ‘Subway Art’ and ‘Aerosol Art’ and all those books, when those came out, I literally just looked at them all day long and studied them.

“I never cut class or anything because I just would sit in class and draw. I didn’t take any notes, but I remembered everything. Even when I paint now, I don’t listen to music. I just put on a podcast, or I run a show over and over because I soak up everything while I’m drawing and painting.

“I went to art school and tried to get jobs after I graduated and just got really deflated. I felt very rejected because I didn’t do the right thing in school as far as the right internships and independent studies. I just did the classes and then I was out running around the city because it was something completely new to me.

“I’m trying to break that bubble in the suburbs. Hip-hop culture. Graffiti culture. All that visual language. You don’t have to be afraid of that. That’s not going to make your neighborhood dangerous or anything. Actually, it makes businesses thrive.

The stigma that comes with ‘graffiti art’ is because they hear the word ‘graffiti’ and don’t hear the word ‘art.’

“That word has a negative connotation because ‘graffiti’ is illegal, right? There are tons of graffiti-style stuff but those are productions. And there are a lot of illegal graffiti artists out there that do that too because they will evolve to that.

“I’m not a saint but I’m not a full-blown vandal. I like the funky or the prettier stuff. But the stigma that comes with ‘graffiti art’ is because they hear the word ‘graffiti’ and don’t hear the word ‘art.’ That’s the struggle to get the older generation to realize that if we introduce this to Long Island, your property value is not going to decline.

“People are commissioning me to paint more of my style and I don’t have to bend so much. I do it because I got to make a living and I love what I do. It’s the only thing I can do. I’m going to be painting for the rest of my life, but the goal is to eventually have full creative control.

“I feel like I’ve been on the cusp for the last couple of years. COVID surely threw a wrench into things. I’ve lost some people relatively close to me. That was difficult to deal with, but we stayed positive.”

‘My goal is to be able to continually give back to nurses because I don’t want people to forget what nurses did.’

Ronkonkoma

“I was an actress for many years before I became a nurse, but I always had this push to go into medicine. I’m Shinnecock, and my great-aunt was a World War II nurse who founded the first aid station on the reservation, so I just felt a connection to that and knew I wanted to do something medical.

“I went to Nassau Community College, became a nurse, and then started my career in a hospital. Most of the groups on Facebook were general nursing across the country—I couldn’t communicate with anybody who was from Long Island. My friend, who is an LPN, and I decided to make this Facebook group: Long Island Nurses. We started at 100 people, then 500, 1000, and it really started to ramp up. I noticed more recruiters were coming in and people started getting jobs, communicating, and I wanted the group to continue and not die out. I started to say, ‘You know what? I have this gift card … I’m going to put it in the group and give it away to someone.’ I love giving away stuff! So, every couple of months I would do a giveaway.

We need people to say, ‘We’re here for you. Here’s a scholarship. Here’s a car for two years. Here’s something to take the burden off you so you don’t have to worry about that one thing.’

“Then, during the pandemic, I had a surgery that didn’t go well and became very ill. I ended up in the hospital and saw the nurses and how hard they were working. Once I started to heal, I went around to different locations, like restaurants, and asked, ‘Would you be willing to donate a gift card to my group?’ And I got all these gift cards. Thousands worth. It was really fun. We raised $500 for a scholarship and the person who got it was going for her bachelor’s. So, then I was like, ‘Why don’t I go nonprofit?’

“I finally got my charity designation, so now my goal is to be able to continually give back to nurses because I don’t want people to forget what nurses did. They’re the ones who are having PTSD, who are crying. We need people to say, ‘We’re here for you. Here’s a scholarship. Here’s a car for two years. Here’s something to take the burden off you so you don’t have to worry about that one thing.’ That’s what I’m trying to do. I would love to see this take on a life of its own. It really makes me excited because I feel like we could grow in the future, get to more nurses, and continue giving to the people who deserve it the most.”

Interviewed by Jay Max