“People are isolated, sleeping in their own feces and urine, and dying,” said Melania Brown, 33 of Brooklyn. Her sister, Layleen Polanco, died in solitary confinement at Rikers in 2019. 

Ten people have died on Rikers Island in solitary confinement this year. Protesters held up a banner with the names of those who died, five were labeled as suicide. The most recent death was Esias Johnson, who died the day before his court date on September 7. His cause of death is listed as unknown. 

Melania Brown, 33 of Brooklyn, sister of the late Layleen Polanco who died in solitary confinement on Rikers Island, speaks to fellow protesters on why solitary confinement should end. September 15, 2021. Photo by Nathan Morris

When an inmate is placed in solitary confinement, they are left alone in a cell. There is only limited contact with a guard who brings them food and water. There are no phone calls, visits, or anything to read. Most of the inmates at Rikers have not been convicted of a crime and about 40 percent have been diagnosed with a mental illness. In 2020, about 13 percent of the 7,200 people held at Rikers were placed in solitary confinement and inmates are typically placed there because of disciplinary issues.

Brown has been advocating for her sister who died on Rikers Island on June 7, 2019 from an epileptic seizure while in solitary confinement. She said her sister was not consistently given medication for her seizures. Her family was awarded a $5.9 million settlement from a wrongful death lawsuit.

“In the security footage outside of her cell, they watched her die and did nothing during that time,” Brown said. “Instead of calling for help immediately, they stood at her door, watched, and one of the guard’s even laughed.”  

Seventeen officers were disciplined in her death.

After her death, de Blasio promised to end solitary confinement. The name was changed  to Risk Management Accountability System and offers a more “humane alternative” to solitary for the safety of both inmates and staff.  The change  is scheduled to begin in fall 2021. But meanwhile staff shortages has led to Rikers becoming more violent and suicides drastically increasing. Lawmakers are calling current conditions at the jail a “humanitarian crisis.”

But  as Rikers falls into further disarray, protesters want to make sure inmates are not subjected to the even more harsh conditions of solitary confinement.

“People are still dying within the walls of Rikers Island,” Brown said.

Peggy Herrera, 51 of Queens, shares her story as a mother of a son who suffers from mental health and was in solitary confinement. September 15, 2021. Photo by Nathan Morris

Peggy Herrera, 51 of Queens spoke on behalf of her 23 year old son at the rally, who spent time in solitary confinement at Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center, also known as The Boat, which took in numerous inmates from Rikers Island because of capacity issues. 

“My son was on The Boat for three nights,” she said. “Not only was he alone in a dirty cell, he was given no food or even a bed to sleep on. He was left to sleep on the floor and had roaches climbing on him.”

He also has a history of suffering from mental health.

“Jails are not mental health centers. If you want to help them, you get them treatment, jobs, and education,” Herrera said.

Jerome Wright, 61 of Buffalo, N.Y., speaks to protesters about his experience as a survivor of solitary confinement and his fight to end it. September 15, 2021. Photo by Nathan Morris

Jerome Wright, 61 of Buffalo, N.Y., spent a year and a half on Rikers Island and 29 years in upstate prison. Of that time, seven years were in solitary confinement. That’s  2,555 days of sitting in inhumane and trauma-inducing conditions.

“We are taking people and throwing them away while knowing that they have to come back to society,” Wright said. “We never blame the system that put them there. Education, therapy, or any type of real human contact do not exist for these people and they should.”

Following the rally, Brown said she was heading home to give her testimony in the virtual city council hearing on the conditions at Rikers Island.

“There is human suffering there. The people inside don’t have a voice. We need to be their voice,” Brown said.

The post Protesters rally against Rikers solitary confinement as conditions in the jail plunge appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

In recognition of National Suicide Prevention Week, physicians clad in white coats held roses and pictures of departed colleagues who battled mental illnesses. They marched silently yesterday, past Mount Sinai West Hospital in Midtown to a spot just blocks away from the hospital where one of their own tragically ended her life.

“We are here to honor our brothers and sisters that felt like they had no choice, but to take their lives,” said Dr. Lisa Goldman, of Tucson, Arizona. “We want to just let them know we still think about them and miss them.”

Lisa Goldman, M.D., holds up a picture of her friend Nehal Shah, M.D., who tragically took her life on the day the two were suppose to go to Guatemala for a graduation celebration. Photo by Levar Alonzo

Members of the group who came from across the country also held signs that read “Do No Harm to Patients, Do No Harm to Doctors.” “Do no harm” is significant to a doctor, as it is part of the Hippocratic oath to protect those they serve. These doctors said they want the same pledge to be extended to them.   

The high rates of doctor suicide they believe are increasing because hospital systems severely overwork their physicians, which lead to medical errors, and there is no outlet to release stress. Doctors are fearful to go to their bosses with their issues because it makes them look unfit to perform.

According to Dr. Deepika Tanwar of the Harlem Hospital Center who has studied physician suicides over the past 10 years, 300 to 400 doctors a year take their lives, which is higher than the suicide rate of the general population.  

Dr. John Danyi of Virginia attempted suicide over a year ago. He said that he had no way or time to get his frustrations out.

“This is not an issue that is confined to physicians alone, but it’s worst in us because there are more stresses and fewer outlets for those stresses,” he said. “The most common way to deal with the stresses and despair you see is to just soldier on. That’s what we are taught.”

Danyi added that since his attempt to take his life he has not been able to return to practicing medicine.

“It’s like I’m blackballed,” he said. “The Physicians Monitoring Program won’t let me start practicing again. You’re punished more if you try to harm yourself than if you try to harm a patient.”

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, factors that drive doctors to suicide are workload, work inefficiency, lack of autonomy and meaning in work, and work-home conflict.

Doctors silently march towards Mount Sinai West Hospital in midtown holding hands roses and pictures of their friends  who committed suicide. The doctors want to bring awareness of the increasing number of doctor suicides. Photo by Levar Alonso

Dr. Pamela Wible of Eugene, Oregon, who organized the event, said she has been speaking with her peers about their issues for six years. She set up an anonymous hotline and has collected 1,000 accounts of doctor suicides.

“We are not protected by labor laws or confidentiality laws,” she said. “If you go to a doctor they can look up your file and judge your ability to work on what troubles you. The post-traumatic stress disorder that these doctors deal with daily, from having to see your patients died or tell a family they lost a loved one takes a toll on one’s psyche.”

The problems faced by these doctors start at times when they are in medical school.

Danny Lee, 27, a medical student at Virginia Commonwealth University, said that a recent survey in his class of 200 revealed about 10 percent were suicidal.

“It’s the whole culture of medicine that has to change as much as they give us counseling and social activities,” he said. “The culture of medicine is toxic, it really has to change from a systemwide level and just how it’s taught.”

Wible wants patients to also try to understand that as much as society views doctors as superhumans, they are simply humans underneath.  

“Be nice to your doctors,” she said. “They are humans. They might be dealing with a traumatic situation, just in the room before they come to see you and smile with you,” she said. “Nothing hurts to just have a conversation with your doctor.”

The post Doctors remember physicians who took their own lives appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

On the morning of February 5th, on the steps of City Hall, a black car driver named Douglas Schifter killed himself with a shotgun. Schifter wanted his death to be as public as possible to expose the hardships he faced as a driver.

“I am not a slave and I refuse to be one,” the 61-year-old wrote earlier that morning in his Facebook suicide note. “I hope with the public sacrifice I make now that some attention [be given] to the plight of the drivers.”

Schifter, like many New York City cab drivers, worked himself to the bone. He drove an average of 120 hours a week, but this still was not enough still not enough to survive.

Since 2014, Schifter had written for Black Car News about the deteriorating quality of life that drivers faced. He wrote about the ways to alleviate the sharp decline in wages, the longer hours, and the rapid devaluation of taxi medallions. These were the permits necessary to pick up passengers – once valued at $1.3 million, now only worth a fraction of that figure.

“When smart drivers are united, and they share the wealth, nobody can beat them,” Schifter said in his last column.

He believed  a union would be able to grant protections to drivers and fix the growing problems but also believed corrupt New York politicians would stand in the way.

“Let’s face it, for someone to commit suicide there’s an underlying mental health challenge,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in response to the suicide. De Blasio, alongside former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Andrew Cuomo were frequent targets of Schifter.

After his death, Mohammed Gangat, a worker’s rights lawyer, became focused on creating a network of drivers within New York City. He formed, StopforChange, which is focused on organizing drivers, discussing the issues they face, and eventually building collective bargaining power within the industry.

New StopforChange member Daniel Montes (L) working with founder Mohammed Gangat to join the group’s social media network. Photo by Justin M. Ratchford

“Every single group out there that is doing something now is obviously not doing enough,” Gangat said. “For me, I think we need a revision of what an organizational effort looks like.”

StopforChange utilizes social media to reach out to drivers and other established groups.

StopforChange member Anthony Ainsworth on the group’s Facebook page.
Photo by Justin M. Ratchford

“We’re now seeing the effects of not giving people what they need, tragedy,” Gangat said.

But Schifter was not the first  taxi driver tragedy in New York City.

On December 20^th, Danilo Corporan Castillo, a 57-year-old cab driver, leapt from his Manhattan apartment. This was in response to a dispute he was in with the Taxi & Limousine Commission. Castillo, a livery driver was accused of picking up an illegal street hail. He faced the loss of his professional license. This, combined with mounting fines, lead the husband and father of two to commit suicide. Days later, a letter would come to his home clearing him of all charges. Under a union, Castillo would’ve been afforded more protection in his legal case.

“They’re so scared of unions,” Jason Bitton, a driver and StopforChange member said of industry leaders. “They’re trying their hardest to push each driver down, keeping our rates low, so that we’re so exhausted that we can’t form a union.”

Bitton, 29, is member and the son of an Israeli immigrant who came to New York City in 1987 and worked as a driver. Back then, Bitton said his father made between $300 and $400 per day, driving for eight hours, not adjusted for inflation.

“When I told my father what I was making,” Bitton said, “He couldn’t believe what I was saying.”

Driving today, Bitton makes between $1,000 and $1,100 per week, working roughly 50 hours. The drastic decline in wages the father and son face is similar to the decrease in wages that Schifter faced over the 37 years he drove.

The landscape of driving in the city has changed drastically in the last 30 years. Most notably through the introduction of rideshare apps like Uber there are more for hire cars than ever before. As of 2017, Uber outnumbered yellow cabs 4 to 1 in New York City.

The oversaturation of drivers is what caused drivers like Schifter to lose wages over the years. Despite reports of the overcrowding in the city, politicians have not responded.

“Right now Uber is paying off your politicians,” Gangat said. “You don’t think judges are rubbing shoulders with politicians?”

The post Long hours, little pay for city’s taxi drivers appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

As pedestrians and cyclists traverse the roughly one-mile long pathway of the George Washington Bridge, they look over the breathtaking view of high-rise buildings on either side and the Hudson River down below. But at various points along the guardrail, blue signs with bold white lettering for suicide hotlines draw attention to a disturbing part of the bridge’s recent history: the roughly 100 people who have jumped to their deaths during the past seven years.

Suicides have been a fixture at the George Washington Bridge since the high-profile death of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi in 2010. After 2011, when three people died, the loss of life along the pathway spiked dramatically.

Last year, 12 people jumped to their deaths from the bridge, along with 70 people who were stopped in the middle of an attempted jump. There were 18 people who died at the bridge each year in 2014 and 2015.

The bridge, which connects Washington Heights, Manhattan on one side and Fort Lee, New Jersey on the other, sees a suicide attempt on average every three to four days. The bridge is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

For years, researchers have argued in favor of installing barriers or other obstructions at high-profile sites. After almost a decade of consideration, construction began this month on a suicide prevention net at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, which has had more than 1,500 deaths since it was built around 80 years ago.

Since many suicides are the result of a temporary period of disordered thinking, restricting access to a means of suicide often results in less loss of life, said suicide prevention expert Lisa Firestone.

“It’s a universal population-based public health approach,” Firestone said. “For instance, when they want to reduce violence one of the things they do is in areas where there’s a lot of violence, they put in speed bumps so people can’t get away quickly. Now, it doesn’t reduce people’s violence potential at all but it does stop the problem.”

Bridge barriers serve a similar function for reducing suicide, Firestone said.

“They don’t make people less suicidal but they do make it so that, in that impulsive moment when someone is thinking of taking their life, it’s not easily accessible,” she said.

Peer-reviewed studies appear to support the efficacy of bridge barriers. According to a 2007 study in The British Journal of Psychology, the installation of barriers at the Clifton suspension bridge did not result in additional suicides at other nearby bridges.

Most suicidal states are temporary and treatable and around 90 percent of people who attempt suicide will go on without any further attempts, Firestone said. Decreasing access to firearms and setting daily purchase limits on the amounts of certain over-the-counter drugs has also been linked to a decrease in suicides.

While Port Authority officials have taken some measures that suicide researchers have urged – like posting signs urging suicidal people to call a crisis hotline and placing phones along the pathway – Firestone insists those actions aren’t enough.

The George Washington Bridge, which connects Washington Heights, Manhattan with Fort Lee, New Jersey has been the site of scores of suicides in recent years. Photo by Razi Syed.

Over the past five months, two claims have been filed against the Port Authority which decry the lack of barriers at the George Washington Bridge.

One claim was filed on Dec. 16 by the Vera Lomtevas, whose 17-year-old son, Daniel, jumped off the George Washington early morning on Oct. 5, 2016.

According to court records, Lomtevas slipped out of his Dyker Heights home around 4 a.m. Minutes later, he hailed an Uber to take him 2111 86th St., Brooklyn and boarded the D train towards Manhattan.

At 7:16 a.m., according to photo metadata, Lomtevas took a picture looking over the Hudson around the start of the southern bridge pathway. By 7:38 a.m. his unconscious body was brought to New York-Presbyterian hospital. He was pronounced dead 57 minutes after his arrival at the hospital.

According to Peter Lomtevas, he was told a Port Authority officer had grabbed a hold of Lomtevas as he attempted to jump and that Lomtevas wriggled himself free and went over the railing. He claims the Port Authority hasn’t made the officer available to speak with him in the six months since his son’s death.

Port Authority spokesman Scott Ladd declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

In her complaint, Vera Lomtevas said that the New York Police Department had been called to the family home and arrived around 6 a.m., more than an hour before Lomtevas jumped. Vera Lomtevas said that using the “Find My iPhone” app, the family was able to trace her son’s movements as he made his way to the George Washington Bridge, and that family members repeatedly urged police to stop Lomtevas. They were allegedly told by officers not to worry and that Lomtevas would be stopped. Despite those assurances, NYPD and the Port Authority allowed Lomtevas to walk on the ascending walkway and halfway across the span of the southern pedestrian pathway without being challenged in any way, the complaint contends.

NYPD failed to respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

According to a copy of his autopsy report, Lomtevas died of blunt force trauma to his torso, head and neck. The lungs were reportedly normal, without much water inside them, suggesting he died on impact before his reflex to inhale kicked in.

Lomtevas had always been a happy, easy-going and charming young man, according to his family. But the summer before his first year of college his demeanor began to change – which they only noticed looking in retrospect. During that summer, Lomtevas attempted suicide once in August, roughly six weeks prior to his death on Oct. 5 at the George Washington Bridge.

Lomtevas grew up in Ozone Park, Queens and Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. He attended Fort Hamilton High School, where he was in the honor society, and had just started his first semester at Brooklyn College at the time of his death.

In a photo that ran in press reports of his death, Lomtevas is wearing black-rimmed glasses and a blue graduation gown, draped with a stole bearing the National Honor Society insignia.

“We knew Daniel to be like this all of his life,” Peter Lomtevas said, motioning to a photograph of Lomtevas with a bright smile. “This is a kid who graduated high school with a 90 percent average. Witty, funny and an incredibly talented writer. And literally, overnight, he became stone-faced. Whatever came over him, came over him incredibly swiftly.”

During his first suicide attempt, Lomtevas arrived at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge early morning on Aug. 22 and climbed over the guardrail onto an engineering walkway. Once there, he called 911 pleading for help. After his rescue, Lomtevas admitted to police that he had attempted suicide and that a note would be found at his home.

In his August suicide note, Lomtevas wrote that he had felt suicidal for years and that he didn’t believe mental health could be treated effectively yet.

“We’ll all be forgotten someday and I prefer it sooner than later,” he wrote.

A second claim, which was filed by Bay Ridge resident Eugena Perlov and her daughter Diana, was filed on Jan. 26 and contends that the suicide of their husband and father, Vladimir Perlov, was foreseeable to the Port Authority, given the large number of suicides in recent years, and that the Port Authority has not taken meaningful steps to address the issue.

On the morning of Jan. 28, 2016, according to the complaint, Perlov drove on to the George Washington Bridge and pulled over, got out of his car and jumped from the north walkway. The impact of the fall caused severe damage to his torso and he died of his injuries at New York-Presbyterian/Allen Hospital.

In the years leading up to Perlov’s death, the Port Authority, the complaint states, “knew of the long history of jumping suicides from the walkways of the George Washington Bridge and the palpable danger the bridge presents to vulnerable individuals invited to use the bridge should the defendant fail to take remedial measures, including the implementation of suicide prevention barriers.”

In 2014, as part of a plan to replace the suspension ropes on the bridge, the Port Authority approved up to $47 million to build a barrier along the walkway.

Vera Lomtevas scoffed at the timeline the Port Authority has set for the construction of its barrier, which isn’t set to be completed until 2024.

“How many more people are going to die in that time?” she asked.

Firestone also believes the timeline is too slow.

“If a study came out that said 18 people were going to die on the bridge next year because of a mechanical issue, they’d shut it down and fix it,” Firestone said, quoting a suicide prevention advocate and documentary filmmaker from a New York Times report on the George Washington Bridge.

And while Firestone acknowledges that there are engineering hurdles that can take time to overcome, she questions why there hasn’t been any temporary fencing in the meantime. A chain-link fence had previously been placed on three bridges around Cornell University as a temporary barrier after several student suicides.

With a national suicide rate that has climbed 24 percent from 1999 to 2014, Firestone said the need for suicide barriers has become urgent.

“When you put up barriers, you say to people, ‘Your life matters,’” she said. “That’s important because one of things that happens with suicidal people is they feel they’re a burden, that people don’t care, would be better off without them.”

Six months after their son’s death, Vera and Peter Lomtevas continue to wonder what led their son to feel he had no other choice. Based on medical research, Peter Lomtevas theorizes that a gene, SKA2, which influences how the brain responds to stress, may have contributed. Or, perhaps, that the antidepressant and antianxiety drugs, duloxetine and clonazepam, Lomtevas was prescribed around a week before his death could have driven him over the edge. But there is no definitive answer.

“We still don’t know what it is,” Peter Lomtevas said. “And without that little barrier, a person’s a goner. Without a net, a gate or a fence – that’s it. Finito.”

The post George Washington Bridge haunted by suicides appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Ten American flags waved patriotically as the gusty air blew throughout Central Park on a recent Saturday at about 11 a.m. Roughly 200 veterans and civilians, sporting patriotic colors, “Run As One” red t-shirts and running sneakers, gathered at the Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. They were awaiting a speech by Team Red, White & Blue New York Community Captain Joe Quinn, ahead of the “Run As One” 5k run/walk.

Team Red, White & Blue, Team Rubicon and The Mission Continues are three national veteran organizations with New York communities. They banded together for their fourth annual “Run As One” 5k, which was created in 2012 by Team Rubicon to honor one of its founding members, Clay Hunt.

The 28-year-old Texan was a former decorated Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, struggled with depression and post-traumatic stress after returning home, and ultimately committed suicide in 2011.

This past February, President Obama signed The Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act, calling for evaluations of all mental health-care and suicide-prevention programs in Veteran Affairs (VA) and the Defense Department, a student loan repayment program, and a program that would remove unnecessary prescription drugs from VA patients, according to The Washington Post.

“[The run] is to remember [Clay] and for all those that are out there,” said Quinn, 35, an Army veteran of Brooklyn, running for his second time.

An analysis published by the Annals of Epidemiology in February reported findings on U.S. veteran-suicide. Nearly 1.3 million U.S. veterans who served from 2001 to 2007 were followed from the time of discharge to Dec. 31, 2009. It was found that 1,868 deaths were from suicides (351 deployed; 1,517 non-deployed). The causes of death were obtained from the National Death Index, which collects data on every U.S. death.

Often, many veterans lose their feeling of family when they leave their platoon and reintegrate back into America. While coming from various backgrounds and towns, many who ran on Saturday joined one of the veteran organizations to get that family feeling back.

“It’s about building genuine, authentic relationships”

 Quinn served in Iraq from 2003 to 2004 and 2006 to 2008. He was also a civilian advisor in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011.

“The first year or two out of the military was the hardest year of my life,” Quinn said.

Joe Quinn and Gena Rosselli-Geller, Athletic Director of Team Red, White & Blue, after the “Run As One” 5k run/walk on March 28, 2015. Photo by Stacey Kilpatrick

He was used to waking every morning, completing physical training and eating beef stew MRE’s (meals ready to eat) beside the same brother-and-sisterhood – a built-in social network. But when he left, that suddenly disappeared.

“That’s what you miss the most,” Quinn said.

He found himself living in Boston without family, friends or social support. His military life had disintegrated. But eventually when he returned to his hometown of New York, he joined Team Red, White & Blue and grew into a new family.

Mike Erwin, a retired veteran and friend of Quinn’s, founded Team Red, White & Blue in 2010. After participating in other service organizations and understanding the positive effects that physical activity and social engagement brought veterans, he wanted to create his own organization. Team Red, White & Blue consists of chapter and community programs that encourage veterans to stay active and local in their area, veteran athletic camps introducing sports and activities, and a leadership development program involving education, training, mentorship and leadership experiences.

“For me it’s about building genuine, authentic relationships,” Quinn said. “A lot of the time it’s not what we do, it’s who [we] do it with.”

Along with many runs, Team Red, White & Blue gathers for barbeques, yoga classes and other activities where the community comes together as one.

“I believe if vets have just simple social support, not a lot, it just takes that friend, that relationship that they can kind of get over the hump and transition successfully, and they’ll be great assets to the community.”

Nationwide, Team Red, White & Blue has around 56,000 members.

“I had to join”

Aaron Scheinberg, 34, of Harlem, helped organize this year’s run as Executive Director at The Mission Continues, alongside Quinn with Team Red, White & Blue and Team Rubicon. He was running for his third time.

Aaron Scheinberg, 34, and Kate Connolly, 24, ran in the fourth annual “Run As One” 5k, in honor of veterans across the country. Photo by Stacey Kilpatrick

In Iraq he served as a tanker and an Army officer, and later as a civil affairs officer at Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Monroe in Virginia and Fort Knox in Kentucky. When he returned to America in 2008, reintegrating was tough.

“Your brain has been wired to be in a combat situation and you’re dealing with really high-stress situations that are life and death,” Scheinberg said. “That just takes time.”

He explained that his role overseas was essentially that of a mayor of an Iraqi town, working on civil affairs projects, spending millions of taxpayer’s money on essential services, and setting up town councils for 250,000 people.

“Then you come home and you’re looking for a job and you’re definitely underemployed as soon as you start out,” he said. “You don’t feel like all the stuff that you learned and you put into work is actually being used when you come home.”

Post-duty, Scheinberg earned his master of public administration at Harvard University and his master of business administration at Columbia University before working fulltime as a strategy consultant at a top management firm in New York. On paper, he looked like a successful transition, he said. But he was missing something deeper, a sense of purpose and a connection to something bigger that he felt in Iraq.

“The Mission Continues came along and offered me the opportunity to help veterans reintegrate and also make an impact in my community through service,” Scheinberg said. He’s been with the organization for the past three years working for the northeast region in New York.

“I had to join,” he said.

The Mission Continues  was established in 2007 by retired Navy SEAL Eric Greitens. After he returned home from serving in Iraq, he realized while visiting wounded Marines at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland that many still wanted to serve their country, even if they were no longer in the military.

The organization offers programs for veterans and others who want to serve. Its Fellowship Program is open to post 9/11 veterans who volunteer part-time for six months at the community organization of their choice. They receive a living stipend, complete a leadership development program and further develop skills. Veterans of all eras, active duty, guard, reserve and Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) can contribute on a service platoon, volunteering in their community as often as they like. Lastly, The Mission Continues also offers service missions to anyone who wants to volunteer on single or multi-day projects.

A group photo of the “Run As One” 5k participants of Team Red, White & Blue, Team Rubicon and The Mission Continues. Photo by Stacey Kilpatrick

“[All three organizations] believe that through comradery, through community and through a sense of purpose that veterans can thrive and be contributing leaders in our community back home,” Scheinberg said.

Between its Fellowship Program and its service platoon program, The Mission Continues boasts around 4,500 members nationwide.

There are currently 33 service platoons across the country, with some of the cities offering multiple platoons. New York has two, with a Brooklyn platoon in development. The Manhattan platoon works around youth education and mentorship, while the Bronx platoon revolves around neighborhood beautification and the arts.

“[The public] is going to look at us, not as victims or screwed up veterans, [but] they’re going to look at us as leaders and assets and … that’s why I love it.”

“I saw parallels in my own life”

Awaiting the start of the run with Scheinberg was Kate Connolly. This was her third time running.

“I’m a civilian, so it’s nice to see that there are civilian supporters here,” said Connolly, 24, of Middletown, Conn. “It’s a great way to meet new people and just kind of understand that there are so many other folks out there with similar interests as you and then also you’re just a part of something bigger than yourself and I think that’s important.”

Connolly became involved with Team Red, White & Blue and Team Rubicon in 2011, shortly after suffering a severe knee injury that sidelined her Wesleyan University athletic career and put her in physical therapy.

 Team Rubicon  was founded after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010. Two Marines, Jake Wood and William McNulty, paired with six other veterans and first responders, gathered medical supplies from friends, headed to Haiti and treated thousands in need. As part of Team Rubicon, veterans utilize their skills and military background to work with first responders and volunteers during emergency response deployments.

“I had always defined myself as an athlete and I felt like I was kind of a little bit limited in what I could do … being restricted by that knee injury,” Connolly said.

Working through therapy, she met a veteran and the two swapped stories. They understood one another’s struggles and she saw parallels in her life. Eventually gaining speed, she participated in Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Rides, a four-day cycling event, where she met another veteran.

“He said, you know Kate, you gotta do some more with Rubicon, you gotta do some more with Team Red, White & Blue,” she said, “And through that I ended up just really connecting and feeling like I had a second family with these groups of people.”

“We’re working together”

 Leaving Grand Army Plaza, the mob of red, white and blue crossed West 59^th Street onto East Drive at 11:30 a.m. Flag-bearers stood at the front of the group. When sounded, those who elected to walk had a head start before the runners took off.

Those who walked made one lap around the lower loop of Central Park, while those who ran made two.

The tight-knit crowd that began as one complete waving American flag eventually separated along the course by skill level, but one by one crossed the imaginary finish line at Columbus Circle, welcomed by cheers and “Run As One” leaders. Some ended their “Run As One” by completing push-ups – the bravest one-armed – before Quinn jumped a few steps on the Maine Monument for a quick word.

“Good work everyone,” he said, before reminding them of the social that followed at The Perfect Pint and shaking a number of hands.

“All in all we’re working together to help provide that social support for veterans,” Quinn said. “[We’re here to] connect better into the community.”

The post Veterans and civilians “Run as One” appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Five years ago, Joy Ladin, 51 was Jay Ladin, an English professor at Yeshiva University, in Washington Heights.

“I am what we would now call transgender,” she said.

Married with three children, she  planned her suicide to escape this feeling of “being in the wrong body.

When she started to transition in 2006, Ladin was placed on indefinite leave by the Orthdox Jewish university’s administration. After regaining her status through legal channels she became the first trans person to teach at a Jewish Orthodox institute.

Now she feels more alive than ever.

The post Transition leads to Joy appeared first on Pavement Pieces.