‘I always found nursing an amazing thing, working with the body and really seeing how it works.’

Lisa Muchnik, Commack

“I am a mom of two young kids. My daughter is 7 and my son is 4. I work part time as a nurse anesthetist three days a week, and right now I’m teaching aerial yoga consistently one day a week, but I also, you know, sub and do workshops, too. All those things came together when I released a children’s book about yoga.

“My original degree was a bachelor’s degree in dietetics. I’ve always had a really intense love for nutrition and fitness, but as a career, once I got into it, I felt like it wasn’t what I wanted. Career wise, it just wasn’t fulfilling, so I decided to go back to school to become a nurse.

“While working as dietitian, I got my associate’s degree in nursing, becoming a registered nurse. I liked that job but wanted more hands-on care with patients. When I was in nursing school, I had learned about nurse anesthetists, who administer anesthesia for surgery or in other medical settings. At the time, barely no one in the medical field knew about it, and it just sounded so interesting to me — to be able to do anesthesia as a nurse. So I got a job working in the ICU and applied to nurse anesthesia school. I had to finish my nursing bachelor’s degree, work in the ICU, and get my master’s to become a nurse anesthetist, which I did in 2011.

“I always found nursing an amazing thing, working with the body and really seeing how it works. The idea of being able to be part of fixing someone’s body was also fascinating to me. Also from the nursing perspective, I loved the autonomy of it. Just really being able to take care of your patient, being in control of what you’re doing and also the one-on-one of anesthesia. When you’re in the operating room, you’re taking care of one patient. All of your energy is focused on healing this one person.

“Around that same time, I started working as a yoga teacher. I have always been very into yoga, practicing yoga for many years. My husband and I actually went together to California and got our yoga certifications and started teaching yoga. After I’d been doing it for a couple of years, I became very interested in aerial yoga and then went for a bunch of certifications for that. And so now that’s the main yoga that I teach today, I teach at Sound Body & Mind in Huntington.”

My book is a story of little panda who goes to his yoga class one day, and he comes home really sad.

“My book, ‘Rainbow Panda,’ came out of my love of yoga and taking care of the body. In yoga, one of the things I always especially loved were the chakras, which are the main energy points in your body. [There are seven of them, and they each correspond to a color and part of the body from the crown of the head to your pelvic floor.] They had a special place in my heart. I just love the idea of the colors and the different energy and how those different energies could have healing properties. It kind of just all came to me to write the book because my kids always were so interested in the chakras. I would tell them little things about them and they loved it.

“My book is a story of little panda who goes to his yoga class one day, and he comes home really sad. His mom asks him why, and he says it’s because he notices that he’s just black and white, and all his friends — a flamingo and an iguana and a giraffe — they’re all brightly colored, and he’s not. So his mother teaches him about his inner rainbow and all the colors he has inside. The book goes through each color and is accompanied by an illustration that reflects what that chakra is about. By the end of the book, when he sees himself in the mirror, his reflection in the mirror has all the chakras.

“Once the idea came to my head, it all just flowed. I would wake up at night and I would have an idea for one of them and I would write it down. And once I had it on the paper, it all came together. I started talking to people to find out how to get a book published — I had no idea! I learned about self-publishing, hybrid publishing and regular publishing. I took a chance, and I submitted my book to a bunch of traditional publishers. Most of them don’t write back. I got one or two that were specific rejections. But lo and behold, one relatively quickly wrote back and said, ‘We’re interested in this.’ They wanted to publish it, and it came out this spring.”

‘We were very poor. My mother was on food stamps, and there just wasn’t much money, but did the best they could.’

Oceanside

“My parents were very charitable people. My mother came from Poland when she was young; my father fled the Nazis from Austria. They were separated, but although I lived with my mother, my father was very present in my life.

“We were very poor. My mother was on food stamps, and there just wasn’t much money, but did the best they could. Yet my mother kept something called a tzedakah box, which are basically little metal boxes that you put coins into, to save for a charitable cause. My mother kept about 4 to 5 of these in the top drawer of our kitchen. I still have one of hers that I keep to remind me.

“There were these little yeshivas, little schools, and rabbis would come to the house every month or so and take the pennies that were in the boxes. We had so little, but my mother always put something in these boxes for them. It was so important to her. It always struck me that no matter how little we had, it showed me there were people who needed even more than we did. The way I am just comes from that.

“My background was in day camps. I started working in day camps at 19, just looking for a purpose in life back then while in college. That’s when I realized I had an ability to work with children, and I fell in love with doing that, and just kept doing this work.

“I attended a concert in 2005, and it also turned out the event benefitted a sleepaway camp that focuses on children with various degrees of life-impacting illness, including cancer. At the time, I was the CEO of the Friedberg Jewish Community Center in Oceanside, which I had been doing for 20 years. I also have a master’s [degree] in social work. I began wondering about what day camps existed for kids with cancer, and I found there was really nothing aside from a couple of small weeklong programs, nothing summerlong.

“The subject really got on my mind. I learned that the lack of such camps for children was due to the fact that immunocompromised kids can’t be in a regular camp setting, and many parents can’t afford to send a child to camp due to the cost of cancer treatment. These kids were basically stuck sitting at home. I thought, I wonder if there was something we could do about that?”

Sunrise was so compelling. I figured, if I were going to do one final job before retiring, this was it.

“We already had a property in Wheatley Heights that had room for a medical camp, so we explored the idea, talking to local hospitals. And by the summer of 2006, we had raised about $750K toward the construction of the camp.

“We then rebuilt the property to suit the necessary medical needs. And with the help of local officials and hospitals critical to securing what else we needed, by 2006 we opened what would be the first camp for children with cancer, and we also included their siblings.

“One of the things we learned was how affected kids were by their siblings being sick, including not being able to do anything that might introduce germs into their homes, how much attention they received, the emotions they felt because of this, or how a family’s economy was impacted by the costs of experimental treatments. We felt we should not only include siblings, but make it their camp as well.

“The camps are called the Sunrise Day Camps Association. We were once part of the JCC, but in 2014 we split off as we wanted to expand, so we became a separate nonprofit. We’re still part of the JCC movement and affiliated with JCC in Oceanside, but we’re an independent organization as of that year. That was the point when we really started to grow.

“For me, the decision was an easy one: After nearly 30 years as a JCC director, Sunrise was so compelling. I figured if I were going to do one final job before retiring, this was it.

“After our first camp on Long Island, we opened our second one in Israel. One of the things we insisted when we opened the camp in Israel was that all children would be welcome. Whether they were Muslim, Jewish, Arab, Christian, Palestinian, it didn’t matter — the cancer was the key issue. It showed us that when you have a shared problem, a shared goal, you put your differences aside. With the camp we’re opening in Chicago this year, that’ll be eight camps in the U.S., with the original still going in Wheatley Heights.”

There’s a world full of issues, and some just don’t get addressed. If there’s an opportunity to help, to be a part of something like this, you just take it. You just do it.

“The camps are free for the children; everything is free. We have a lot of one-on-one counselors, so that there’s more attention that can be paid to the kids. Some children require a one-to-one counselor who’s assigned to them, perhaps due to a cancer that limits their mobility, or they have brain cancer, bone cancer or perhaps they just haven’t socialized with children and are inexperienced with others and need to be guided through their first experiences with other children.

“We didn’t just want to build a day camp for children with cancer. We wanted to build the best camp we could build, to give these kids the greatest summer ever and as normal a summer as possible with as many smiles as we can fit into the day.

“I didn’t grow up knowing any children with cancer. I never met a child with cancer until I started work on the camp. It wasn’t about that. I really feel that people can’t just contribute to those issues that affect us personally.

“There’s a world full of issues, and some just don’t get addressed. If there’s an opportunity to help, to be a part of something like this, you just take it. You just do it. This was something that came to my attention. Then it became something I brought to other people’s attention, looking at the landscape and seeing we had an opportunity to do something, to make some kids’ lives better, so why not just do it? It’s the subtle things in life that inspire you more than the things that people throw at you and tell you that you have to do.

“I first learned by watching my mom — and she was always a huge influence for me — what she did for others. It’s clearly something that stays with me, as when our grandchildren were born. I gave each a tzedakah box. My wife and I also give a great deal to charity; it’s what we do. In the end, the choices that I made were influenced by understanding what was most important, and I believe that the best way to inspire people is to just go about your life and do it right. They’ll see. You don’t have to push it on them. What they should think and what they should do, they’ll see. That’s what I saw with my mom.”

‘I was a shy kid. I didn’t have a stellar self-esteem or body image, but when I was on stage dancing, I felt strong and confident.’

Great River

“I was a shy kid. I didn’t have a stellar self-esteem or body image, but when I was onstage dancing, I felt strong and confident. I was raised in Salt Lake City, where my parents put me in dance school at 6. When my buddy was starting gymnastics, I told my parents I wanted to start gymnastics, too. They couldn’t afford both, so I chose gymnastics. I came back to dance in high school and loved it. My dance teacher taught us many genres and brought in guest artists, exposing us to greatness. She told me I should audition for a University of Utah scholarship, so I chose my own music and choreographed and prepared my own solo. Going through that audition made me realize, ‘This is what I’m going to do.’ I got my BFA in modern dance. When I graduated, I visited my aunt in Alaska. I showed up at the Alaska Dance Theatre one day, and they asked me to audition for the company and teach for a semester. I ended up living there for five years.

My experiences have taught me to be more confident in myself. I’ve grown professionally and developed a skill set I never imagined.

“Being a big fish in a little pond gave me confidence for when I was ready to move to Manhattan. I came to New York with a map and guidebook to go to studios and classes. I eventually got teaching gigs. My goal was to become part of a modern dance company. I had an epiphany: In all of this there is a place where I fit. I met Amanda Selwyn when she was looking for a choreographer’s collective; later, we became a nonprofit company. Now it’s the Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre! It’s an exciting achievement to be a founding member of a dance company. I was teaching as a visiting artist all over, so I went back to school to get my MA in phys ed and my teacher certification.

“I taught on Coney Island for 10 years before getting a call from Long Island High School for the Arts, where I now teach dance and phys ed classes. Arts education is so important because as artists we train, and we have a vocabulary and history. The arts teach life skills, creativity, collaboration, problem-solving, overcoming failure, strategizing, grit and work ethic. I love the pride and glow you see in students when they are dancing. My experiences have taught me to be more confident in myself. I’ve grown professionally and developed a skill set I never imagined.”

‘Every time the body of a firefighter or police officer was located everyone stopped, stood up and saluted while the body was escorted to the morgue. I think it made me want to help others even more so.’

Sayville

“I was 16 when we suddenly had to call 911 for my mother. She had been ill for a while, but one day in our Sayville home, she just passed out on the floor. There was blood everywhere. I had never called 911 before. I didn’t know what to expect, but suddenly people started pulling up in their cars and ran in to help, then the ambulance came a short time after. I realized at that moment that the people who responded were just regular people who came running in to help a stranger that they have no connection to. It made me want to learn emergency medicine and help others like those who came when my family needed it.

“I went down to the local ambulance company and joined the youth squad. When I was a senior in high school, I went Saturdays for seven months to Bay Shore to take the New York State EMT class and got certified. I carried a beeper that would ring like crazy whenever something was happening! A funny story: The woman whose job it was to monitor the halls and make sure kids didn’t leave the building used to keep an eye on me—well the next year after I graduated, I responded to a 911 call about someone in pain and it was her! She sees me walk in and laughed, saying, ‘Oh my God, I should have known you were going to show up.’

“When 9/11 happened, I was 17. Someone said a plane hit the World Trade Center, and then another plane hit, and that our company might get the call. I didn’t believe that. We had responded to Nassau County a couple of times, but not to the city, that just didn’t happen. It was when a neighbor responding to Ground Zero asked to borrow my blue emergency car light so he could get into the city, did I realize that I needed to go.

“I walked up to the pile, just looked around and could not believe what I was seeing. So much destruction, so many first responders and the smell of burnt flesh in the air. It was nauseating. Every time the body of a firefighter or police officer was located, everyone stopped, stood up and saluted while the body was escorted to the morgue. I think it made me want to help others even more so. All these heroes who passed by me had given their lives to help complete strangers, that definitely was life-impacting.

At one point early in COVID, it was put out NOT to do CPR, and when that came up during a meeting I was like ‘This is insane! How do you not do CPR on someone who calls 911?

“My parents were police officers, and I always wanted to be a cop like them. I got hired after 9/11 as a civilian with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department. I was going to school during the day and working at night in the MTA dispatch room. After being hired as an MTA cop, I was promoted to detective. My medical background informed how I treated everyone, even those I arrested. I investigated more people hit by trains then I can count. Every victim who passed away, I treated them, their family and friends with empathy, compassion and respect—always making sure they knew that I would investigate the death no matter where it led me and would present all the facts to give the family closure. To this day on the anniversaries of some victims’ deaths, I get text messages from their families thanking me. I’ve learned a lot about people and life from this.

“When COVID started, I was asked to join an Emergency Management Think Tank for Suffolk County, where would discuss scenarios and how to handle all kinds of issues, from how to operate emergency services to how mass burials would be handled and what kind of PPE should be worn, we came up with all of that. I wanted to lend my experience to the people of Suffolk and ended up realizing 9/11 prepared me somewhat to deal with the pandemic. I always think of emergency management as “lessons learned.” You learn lessons from the last thing and try to apply them to the next one.

“At one point early in COVID, it was put out NOT to do CPR, and when that came up during a meeting I was like ‘This is insane! How do you not do CPR on someone who calls 911? EMS comes in wearing full protective gear, how do you tell them they can’t save someone’s life? We’re here to save lives, that’s what we do. We don’t let people die in their homes.’ After that, the idea was scrapped.

“I can say these kinds of things because I don’t have a stake in the game, they don’t pay me, they don’t pay my bills. They know my heart’s in the right place, and I say these things so I can lay my head down at night. This is why they use me, because they know I’m going to give an honest response. All I care about are the people of Suffolk County.

“I have cancer. It’s a rare type, only affecting around one in 1.5 million people. I go for blood transfusions a lot; I think I’m on number 30. They removed any organs I didn’t need to get rid of as much of the cancer as they could see, then poured hot chemo into my stomach. It’s called HIPEC. It sits in your body for like an hour, then they suck it out, reconstruct your stomach and seal you up.

“My health has slowed me down. I can’t work—I share my knowledge, but I can’t be the guy who carries someone down the stairs anymore. I had to retire at 38, not by choice. They call me a Deputy Fire Coordinator, but I don’t get paid. It really started with the pandemic, they appointed me right when COVID hit. I don’t get paid, just give my advice. I get paged for major emergencies and try to help however I can.

“If I could go back in time, I would do it all again. Is it hard on my wife? Absolutely. We are trying to have children and it’s difficult. At 37 years old, I get a rare life-altering cancer. Being told I most likely would die, going through one of the worst surgeries a human can go through, chemo, over 30 blood transfusions, it sucks, life is not so easy for me, but not every life goes as planned and is perfect. Sometimes you’re the bat and sometimes the ball. I stay positive, and always have a smile on my face because of the support of my wife, family and friends. Of course, I have bad days, but I always look out for people out there a lot worse off than me—then I try to find them and help if I can. I am very blessed and grateful for the life I have and everyone who supports me and my wife. Every day when I wake up in the morning, I ask myself how I can pay it forward.

“By the way, this is not just my story. There’s a lot of people like me, who responded to 9/11 and lot of them are going through difficult stuff: PTSD, medical problems, and there’s a lot of people way worse off than me. Do I have it bad? Yeah. But everyone has adversity in their lives we have to get through. There are a million other people going through things because of 9/11, 20 years later. I’m just one of them. But do I believe one person can make a difference in the world? Absolutely.”

‘I believe people with Down syndrome can do anything—really, really anything!’

Lake Grove

“I saw a video in 2014 about people helping to welcome babies with Down syndrome. I was shocked. The video says, ‘Welcome to the family. Welcome to the world.’ That’s when I realized that most parents of newborns with Down syndrome only hear, ‘I’m sorry.’ Sometimes they’re told, ‘Don’t take the baby home.’

“I told my parents my heart wanted to help so badly to tell parents it’s going to be okay, to celebrate this baby because it’s a baby. I wanted to make baskets to welcome them. We made Brittany’s Baskets of Hope with a website and social media. We hooked up with Down syndrome associations on their list of resources.

“In 2016, I delivered my first basket. Parents of little boys and girls with Down syndrome get a basket with sunglasses, bottles, pacifiers, toys, books, a Down Right Perfect onesie and resources. Some people donate knitted booties, hats and crocheted blankets. We’ve sent out 1,415 baskets. The entire world gets the baskets from us.

I’m a role model so that they know that life is going to be okay and their baby’s going to live a great life.

“When we have a local baby, we ask if we could deliver it in person and that’s the best part. I say, ‘Welcome to the family. Welcome to the world.’ I know the moms are worried about whether their babies are going to be healthy, if they’re going to be accepted and if people are going to make fun of them. I tell them, ‘You can do whatever you want.’ I’m a role model so that they know that life is going to be okay and their baby’s going to live a great life. I always say I believe people with Down syndrome can do anything — really, really anything! I’m 32. I live my life the way I want. I have a good life. I love to sing and dance. I do carpool karaoke with my staff through an adult program called Self Direction who help me. I go to beaches, movies, out to dinner and vineyards. I work at Party City.

“We want moms of new babies to know that it’s going to be okay. I was the L’Oréal Paris 2019 Women of Worth national honoree. I walked the red carpet and met celebrities. I was invited to LA to do a video and ads for their 2020 campaign. My favorite part of doing this work is when I get to hold the babies. Down syndrome is not the only part of me. I want the message not to be ‘I’m sorry,’ but ‘Congratulations. We so welcome this baby.’”

‘I remember watching Tessa battle cancer while smiling and making the best of every situation. She wanted to make every moment count. That’s how I try to live my life.’

Melville

“My mom had two young kids when she was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, which is typically found in children. Because of this, she was treated on the pediatric floor at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; her roommates and everyone on the floor were kids. My dad was surrounded by everyone’s parents even though he was there for his wife. Her situation was very rare.

“When she was better, we would help kids with cancer by attending fundraisers and events. I’m 22, and I’m lucky enough that she got to see me graduate from college, something she was told she would never get to see. It shows that research and awareness matters.

“This led me to beginning my foundation, Whip Pediatric Cancer. In 2015, I started an internet challenge with a popular dance at the time, “The Whip and Nae Nae.” I posted a video of myself doing it and I challenged my friends and family to do the same. It exploded on Facebook with more than 10,000 videos submitted using #WhipPediatricCancer.

I have visited more than 150 kids and we’ve become like family.

“We wanted to do more, so we started the Heart of Gold program which teaches kids that you are never too young to make a difference. You visit the Website and request as many hearts as you need for your school or class, and then kids will decorate them. They bring back a suggested donation of $2. We do it every September for Pediatric Cancer Awareness month. Gold is the color for childhood cancer.

“My favorite part of my non-profit is when I get to visit with the kids. I have visited more than 150 kids and we’ve become like family. It’s eye-opening to see what they go through, how resilient they are and how much they appreciate the visits.

“We also visit with the siblings because it’s hard for them too-the family relationships’ focus is usually on the sick kids. We’ve raised more than $750,000 for research and helping families who are struggling because they lost their jobs during COVID.

“Through the kids, I have learned to live in the moment. I have lost 30 kids that I was very close to, but I always remember watching Tessa battle cancer while smiling and making the best of every situation. Even at the end of her life we were baking brownies. She wanted to make every moment count. That’s how I try to live my life.”

‘We try to keep a positive attitude about things even in the darkest times.’

Long Island

“My daughter Cadence is 15 and suffers from a rare condition, FoxG1 syndrome, a neurological disorder that makes her non-verbal and non-ambulatory, we do all the lifting, all the transferring. Cadence is one of 900 in the world to have FoxG1, she’s a rare gem. It’s amazing how much the gene controls everything in your body. It’s a doorway to so many other genetic disorders. How you retain things, how your body moves, how you eat, how you communicate. Not being able to say I’m in pain, I have a stomachache, it’s a huge issue. She has three types of seizures that are controlled with medication, she has 15 specialists. My house is full of equipment and we learn to work around it and be grateful that we have it.

Cadence is my whole world and I’m very involved in the special needs community, helping new parents entering this new scary world.

“Now that she’s a teenager, we’re dealing with that whole other issue of changing into an adult. I volunteer at Good Samaritan Hospital talking about feeding tubes, letting parents know that it’s not a bad thing, it’s actually a good thing and it can save your child’s life. It took my husband and I three years to come to the conclusion that Cadence needs a feeding tube. Cadence is my whole world and I’m very involved in the special needs community, helping new parents entering this new scary world.

“I’m a volunteer parent advocate in our school district, letting parents know what your child is entitled to with an IEP. That label entitles your child to getting more services. I’m involved in Angela’s House, which gives support to families with medically frail children. At age 3, Cadence joined, they were a huge shoulder to lean on. They helped us get a fully handicap accessible bathroom, we have a lift in front of our house. They found a family who was donating a huge conversion van and they donated that to us. We’re now involved with Breakthrough Intensive Physical Therapy in Islandia, using bungie cords so these children can weight bare.

“Cadence is taking independent steps, she is weight baring, shifting her weight. We still live our lives, we go swimming, we go to the beach. We try to keep a positive attitude about things even in the darkest times. It’s ok to feel alone, these feelings are normal and it’s ok to reach out and get that support.”