Details

Written by Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 18 December 2024

Created: 18 December 2024

Last Updated: 18 December 2024

Hits: 1062

Scarsdale's Tim Foley has announced his candidacy to represent us in the Westchester County Legislature. The term of long-time legislator Ben Boykin will expire and Foley will be on the ballot for the position in June 2025. See below for background on Foley and what he hopes to accomplish if elected:

Why did you decide to run for County Legislature?

I am a huge admirer of Ben Boykin who has so ably represented the 5th County Legislative District since he first ran in 2013. I supported Ben from the moment I moved to Scarsdale and was happy to work on many of his re-election campaigns. He’s not only been an extraordinary legislator but was an extraordinarily productive Chair of the Board of Legislators. However, Ben is limited to six two-year terms under the County Charter, and 2025 will see an open race for his seat. The 5th Legislative District includes all of Scarsdale, two electoral districts in West Harrison, and about 2/3 of White Plains.

I have always been interested in public service. My dad was a Boston police officer and my mom was a Boston public school teacher. I was fortunate enough to go to a Catholic high school with a deep commitment to service, and to not only grown in faith and reason but put ones gifts to good use, to “give what you’ve been given.”

At this moment in time, I decided to run for County Legislator because so many of the issues I have spent my career working on – affordable housing, health care and mental health care, infrastructure and climate change, and accountable, responsible, government we can believe in – run through the County. Given the direction we’re headed in as a community, as a region, and as a nation, I firmly believe it’s not just enough to keep the Westchester that County Executive Latimer and Legislator Boykin have built thriving as it is. We have to continue to lead and make progress with our values, with common sense, with a balanced approach to governance, and with creative problem solving to keep us moving forward together.

Tell us about your background and other civic and related work you have done.

Many folks in Scarsdale will likely already be familiar with a lot of my civic and volunteer work in the village. I’m a long-time member of the Scarsdale Forum, serving as President in 2019-2020, when I prompted the creation of the Forum’s ad hoc Committee on Climate Resiliency and advocated for the Village to enter the state’s Climate Smart Communities Program. After serving as President, I chaired the Forum’s County Fiscal Affairs Committee, which issued a report each year analyzing the County Budget, what it meant for Scarsdale residents, and making suggestions for improvements. I’ve been on the Scarsdale Democratic Town Committee since my family and I first moved here and have been First Vice Chair for the last several years. I have also served on the Scarsdale Bowl Committee, the Non-Partisan Procedure Committee, the Citizens Nominating Committee, the Village Planning Board, the Village Advisory Council on Human Relations, and as a basketball coach at Fox Meadow Elementary School.

But many are probably not familiar in my professional background in and out of politics.

I’m currently the CEO of the Building & Realty Institute, a housing and real estate advocacy association for Westchester and the Lower Hudson Valley focused on fixing the housing shortage in Westchester County, and one of the organizing partners of the Welcome Home Westchester campaign.

Prior to that, I served as Communications Director to our own Assemblywoman, Amy Paulin, learning firsthand the round-the-clock work of delivering top-notch constituent services while fighting for progressive policies like curbing gun violence, cracking down on domestic violence and sex trafficking, supporting unionized workers, and helping constituents after increasingly frequent extreme weather events.

I spent a decade working for multiple unions within the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) family, coordinating electoral and issue-based campaigns to expand access to healthcare, increase the minimum wage, ensure that budget shortfalls are not balanced on the backs of state employees and working families, and pass and then defend the Affordable Care Act (also known as the ACA or “Obamacare”). In that role, I helped take on the NRA to treat gun violence as the public health threat that it is, pushed for Paid Sick Leave and Paid Family Leave, and fought for many other policies to help working families.

I was also among the first staffers on the ground in New Hampshire for Barack Obama in 2007 through the first-in-the-nation primary in 2008.

I have organized and fought for union workers and business owners, doctors and patients, and those who struggle to afford the housing and health care they need. Time and again, I have put together multi-stakeholder coalitions and campaigns to ensure all voices are heard, and everyone has a role to win the policies that will benefit us all.

What does a County Legislator do? What is controlled by the County Legislature?

The Board of Legislators is the legislative body of the County. There are 17 members representing roughly equal populations of Westchester residents. It is a co-equal branch of Government with the County Executive.

Their most important job every year is reviewing, revising, and ultimately passing the $2.5 billion operating budget each year. At the same time, they pass an additional capital projects budget to address critical infrastructure needs, including roads, bridges, parks and green space, parking facilities, the buses and vehicles that make up our local public transportation, and investments in key priorities like affordable housing and EV charging stations. As the last part of this process, they also pass the budgets for the “special districts” that operate and make improvements in our sewer, water, and refuse districts. The County budget uses a mixture of 1.) sales tax, b.) property taxes, of which about two dimes out of every dollar goes to the County, and c.) federal and state grant programs and other federal and state aid, which means the budget passed by the Legislature must set the property tax levy each year.

That’s a lot to balance in a single document, which makes it all the more remarkable that under County Executive Latimer and Legislator Boykin, the County has been able to hold property taxes either flat or with a small decrease while still making the investments in economic development that have kept jobs growing and private investment flowing into Westchester, while also making investments mental health, in child care, in critical services provided local nonprofits, in public safety, Medicaid, climate resiliency, flood mitigation, affordable housing, and efforts to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Asian bias – to name just a handful!

Lastly, the County Legislature also passed legislation in some limited areas where they have jurisdiction, like consumer protection, public safety, and public health, as well as approving appointments made by the County Executive to the many, many boards and commissions that help keep County government running.

And that’s just the official duties! As with any well-connected elected official, often serving your constituents also means being an advocate on their behalf with the state and federal government, with regulatory agencies at all levels, and with outside companies like Con Edison. Sometimes you can cut through a lot of red tape and logjams with some creative problem solving, a “never say quit” attitude, and a lot of vigorous advocacy.

Is County Legislator a full-time position – if elected will you retain your day job?

County Legislator is a paid position, but it is a part-time legislature. Most of the current Legislators have jobs outside of their legislative and political work. In my particular case, I would likely not be allowed to retain my current day job as the organization I run – the Building & Realty Institute – does engage in lobbying and advocacy work before County government. Many BRI members have received and are likely to apply in the future for County funding, creating a conflict. I would have to find something else to supplement my work as a Legislator, but there’s a lot of baseball to be played before I get to that point!

Where do Scarsdale residents see the impact of the legislature’s work?

“See” is an interesting verb choice here, because so much of what the county government provides is the network of infrastructure which allows Westchester residents to function and which also makes Westchester such a terrific community in which to live, work, and play. But well-functioning infrastructure is often invisible.

You probably are not thinking of your county tax dollars at work when you walk, run or ride along the Bronx River Parkway, when you flush your toilet, when refuse and recycling gets regularly picked up from Secor Road and the bins aren’t overflowing when you go to drop off some things from your house, and when violent crime remains relatively low – but you would certainly notice if the County wasn’t doing its job in these areas, and doing it effectively!

As just one of many examples, Medicaid funding comes from the federal government, the state government, and yes, your county tax dollars. Here in Scarsdale, most of us are fortunate enough to have access to private insurance or Medicare, but Medicaid is the underpinning infrastructure that makes our local healthcare delivery system work. Medicaid pays for 15.2% of the admissions of White Plains Hospital, and an even higher percentage at Westchester Medical Center, as well as Federally Qualified Health Centers and specialty clinics all around us. You’re not likely to be thinking of the County when you or a loved one have a medical emergency, but again, local government is providing the support to make our community function.

But the County is also capable of big, critical projects, often working in partnership with municipal governments and school boards, to handle big challenges no city, town, or village could face alone – as anyone who got their first COVID vaccines at the Westchester County Center could attest to in what was a very visible way!

Lastly, the County also has the ability to deliver important protections for its residents. Working with County Executive Latimer, the Board of Legislature ended the practice of gun shows taking place at the Westchester Count Center. They passed the Reproductive Health Care Facilities Access Act to protect patients and health care workers from harassment, including being prevented from entering or existing reproductive health care facilities. The passed paid sick days legislation to require all but the smallest businesses to allow their employees to earn sick time over the year to use for themselves when they’re ill or to care for a loved one. More recently, they established the Immigrant Protection Act to give law enforcement clear guidance that although we will continue to comply fully with federal non-immigration-related criminal investigations and lawful requests related to those investigations, Westchester law enforcement will not profile on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity or national origin or share information on an individual’s immigration status outside of those specific legal, investigative requests from federal agencies.

In times of crisis, it’s particularly important to have legislators who are dedicated problem-solvers, ready to dive into the details, and willing to work together with leaders and residents across our county to protect our friends, our neighbors, our communities and our values.

Do you anticipate that Westchester will be impacted by the change in administration in Washington? If so, how?

I think it’s unavoidable, and as a proud Democrat, it has been a major factor in my wanting to run for this position.

We have to be clear-eyed, based on our experience of the first Trump Administration and on the policies articulated during the national campaign, that when it comes to the big problems we face in Westchester related to affordability for our residents, mitigating the effects of flooding and climate change, expanding access to healthcare and providing better mental health support for schoolchildren and parents who are really struggling post-pandemic – well, the calvary may not be coming from Congress or the White House for years. There is a very real chance that Washington may yield little but chaos, corruption, and economic headwinds. If that’s the case, local government will be the place where we must make change happen.

In simple economic terms, the County funds itself through property taxes, sales taxes, and federal and state government. We already have among the highest property taxes in the nation. Even though the County is only about two dimes out of every dollar of property taxes, any increase will be a burden for families still struggling with affordability and high prices. But economists have warned that an aggressive tariff policy like that promised over and over again by President-elect Trump would exacerbate high prices in a way that could cause families to cut back on purchases, leading to a drop in sales taxes. Whether Westchester continues to receive its fair share of federal aid also is less certain than it should be. Of course, many of our residents in Scarsdale remember all too well the cap on the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction which was squarely aimed at the people in Democratic-leaning blue states, and the President-elect’s social media feed over the years has been quick to threaten funding to blue states, blue cities, and blue communities that don’t comport with his partisan policy preferences. There is a lot of risk ahead that could undermine much of the work County Executive Latimer and Legislator Boykin did to get our fiscal affairs in order.

In human terms, the fear in some of our Westchester communities is already palpable. Some of this is due to the President-elect’s rhetoric and campaign promises, and some of this is the emboldened threats and hatred coming from the most fringe and extremist parts of our society. Back in November 2016, swastikas, the initials “KKK,” and various racial slurs were found spray-painted on the Bronx River Parkway. Fast forward to this year, and self-professed Neo-Nazis held an unauthorized rally on the steps of White Plains City Hall just last month. Incidents of Anti-Semitic hatred have been on the rise, including right here at the Golden Horseshoe. Immigrant communities in White Plains and across the county are anxious over what the transition may bring, particularly including the many families of mixed immigration status who live, work, and pay taxes in our cities, towns, and villages. As we saw particularly in anti-Asian violence around COVID, when the partisan and divisive rhetoric from national leaders reaches a fever pitch, the worst of us don’t bother to check your immigration status or citizenship before leaping to the conclusion that you’re The Other because of your race or appearance or religion or gender identity and therefore must be intimidated and confronted. At this point, Donald Trump is who he is – and he’s not someone whose instinct is to turn down the rhetoric.

Who knows how much of this comes to pass, but as Shakespeare said, “The readiness is all.” We need our elected leaders to be ready no matter what comes our way over the next few years. I am confident in my ability to rise to these challenges, as I have throughout my career as an advocate and an organizer.

Have any others announced their candidacy?

Two White Plains candidates have already announced that they are also running for the Democratic nomination, setting up the strong likelihood of a Democratic Primary in June of 2025

When is the election? How long is the term?

Primary Day for this race would likely be Tuesday, June 24. We haven’t heard yet if any Republicans or members of a third party are intending to run – I don’t believe one has run in the 5th district since 2013– but if so, their primary would be in June as well, setting up a November 4, 2025 general election.

Normally, Legislators serve a two-year term and are limited to six two-year terms for a total of twelve years. However, through a quirk of circumstance, whether the election of 2025 is for a one-year term or two-year term depends on a case currently pending in state court. The New York State Legislature passed a law written by our own Assemblywoman Amy Paulin to move the date of county elections across the state from odd numbered years to even numbered years, increasing turnout for these races while also saving costs for local boards of elections. That law is being challenged in state court right now. If it’s struck down, this would be a normal two-year term, same as always. If it’s upheld, this would be a special one-year term to implement the new state law, with two-year terms on even years to follow from 2026 onward.

Ask a simple question, get a highly technical answer, right? All of that is beyond my control. If I get the chance to serve as Legislator, my approach wouldn’t change whether it’s 1 year, 2 years, or more – I’d wake up every day ready to roll up my sleeves, dive into the details, and calmly focused on the best way to serve the needs of the residents of Scarsdale, White Plains, and West Harrison.

Details

Written by Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 01 January 2025

Created: 01 January 2025

Last Updated: 01 January 2025

Hits: 1080

Before heading to Washington to represent Congressional District 16, County Executive George Latimer gave a farewell address to friends and supporters On December 30, 2024. In a late career move, Latimer defeated Congressman Jamaal Bowman who lost the confidence of the Jewish community in the wake of the hostage crisis in Israel. Latimer, who has been in public service for the county and the state will now be a junior Congressman in the minority party and is cognizant of what he will and will not be able to do in his first term.

In his reflective remarks on Monday, he commented on his predecessors, his career trajectory and what he has learned along the way. He provided a lengthy list of his many accomplishments by building consensus with friends and colleagues.

He vowed to use these skills in Washington and rise above "petty angers, identities and rigid ideologies" to work toward solutions of the nation’s problems.

If he makes even half as many friends in Washington as he has in Westchester, he will quickly be sought out to sow agreement among rivals and build consensus among competing factions.

Who will fill his shoes in Westchester until the next election? Watch for an announcement from the Board of Legislators here.

Here is the full text of Latimer’s address:

Good afternoon friends; you have done me a great honor by being here today.

It has been written in prose and in song:
To everything, there is a season; and a time to every purpose under Heaven.
A time to be Born and a time to die
A time to plant and a time to reap
A time to break down and a time to build up
A time to weep and a time to laugh
A time to mourn and a time to dance

This is the human condition, throughout eternity.

A time to begin… and a time to end.

The first time I entered this chamber was 33 years ago, in 1991. At the tender age of 38, I sat in the gallery as a Legislator-elect, trying to understand the workings of this body. Next month, it will be 27 years since I stood at this podium, newly elected the Chair of this legislature. 20 years ago almost to the day, I stood up on the floor of this chamber and said once before “goodbye” - and after 13 years, leaving the County legislature to serve as a freshman State assemblyman. And 7 years ago, I returned to this podium in my first visit as County Executive-elect to ask for permission to bring the Annual State of the County Message to this Chamber. I said that night “The author Thomas Wolfe was wrong; you can go home again. Standing here before you, I am home again”. So I return here, once more home, in my last days in service in the government of this County. I am a lucky man, a blessed man, to have had this opportunity. I have valued each of you in your respective positions for the work you have done, and the work we have done together.

If there were a Mt. Rushmore for County Executives, the spots would have long ago been filled by the sculpted faces of Bleakley and Michaelian, DelBello and O’Rourke.

My tenure here, 7 years, is among the shortest of my predecessors: six of my eight predecessors have served longer than I have. They built the platform on which we stand. Which is why I have asked you to help me honor them with the Andrew O’Rourke Trailway and the Andrew Spano Archives and as we re-dedicated this building, the Edwin Michaelian Office Building.

Yet, we have had our own achievements.

We have fixed Memorial Field, Sprain Ridge Pools, Washington HQ/Miller House, the infrastructure at Playland and the O’Rourke Trailway.
We built the new NR Family Court and placed EV charging stations everywhere
We electrified our buses and made them free over the summer
We fought COVID wisely and save lives.
We invested in affordable housing and the expansion of Regeneron and Morgan
We funded the police to fight crime and funded child care for those who couldn’t afford it
We honored Diwali and Nowruz, Gold Star Mother’s and WWI Veterans, Chinese Lunar New Year and African American Trailblazers and members of the LGBTQ community, and recognized our Hispanic/Latino, Jewish, Italian, Albanian, Armenian, Pakistani, Jordanian. Egyptian and Irish neighbors
We cut taxes and froze taxes, and built up our reserves and raised our bond rating
We built a new relationship with our local governments and school districts and shared revenue with them; we worked closely with our state legislators as colleague and friends
We treated migrants with respect and we treated mothers with maternal health care issues with respect as well
We passed laws to reduce plastic waste and to require truthful disclosure of candidates, and to ensure access to women’s health facilities
We repaved the Airport runway, and repaved Mamaroneck Avenue and countless other county roads and bridges and with those public projects, created good paying union jobs for our men and women who work with their hands in building and repairing this County
We supported our workforce with respect and compensation - Union and non-represented alike
And we did all of this with an attitude of friendship - no pomposity, no arrogance. With the spirit of respect and good Neighborliness. And we have shown that Democrats and Republicans can work together and can find common ground on major issues — further, that when we disagree we can still show respect to each other

We did this - all of us together - I am grateful to have reached this podium which so much good to report.

I suspect I will return to this podium, as a member of Congress, to update all of you on the progress in our nation’s Capitol, when the time is right. And we will continue to see each other across the communities we represent, and on the never-ending campaign trail which is the reality of holding a two-year term of office.

We have had our agreements and our disagreements, and we will again in the future. Democracy assumes debate and competition of ideas and of people - and it is in the hot fire of debate and conflict that the strongest steel is forged. It is true that we compete, for our ideas and for the power to implement them. But it must also be true we are all Americans, tied together by fate and faith, and we cannot succeed or even survive as a house divided as Lincoln once said.

When Lincoln took his leave of Springfield Illinois to go to Washington to assume the Presidency, he never returned — except to be buried. Modern travel and longevity changes that calculus greatly. But the power comes from here that propels you to DC, not the other way around.

Some people feel achieving power will make America great. Some people feel we are close to a crisis equal to 1860 or 1932. Time will tell. I hope what I learned in Rye City Hall, in the NYS Capitol and in this building will best prepare me for what lies ahead.

A number of my friends have remarked to me that I don’t seem especially exuberant to have won this victory, and to head off to the “Big Show” in national government. Perhaps so. I see the clouds at hand: the international threats, the domestic strife. It is very sobering. The moment is not about any personal achievement or electoral victory - the needs of our country comes first.

I’m not worried at all about how nice my DC office is or isn’t, or what perks may be provided. But I’ve always been that way - no name on the signs, no entourage, no pay increase. Tougher Term limits. The personal stuff doesn’t matter much to me.

The challenge ahead does. This land has serious problems to deal with, and I want to stand with the best minds and the best hearts to work through our differences and address those problems. And if we spend too much time dwelling and rehashing the past, we are going to lose the present and we are going to lose the future.

The future. That’s why people put us here.

This nation has risen to every test so far. 1776. 1861. 1933 and 1941. 9-11-2001.

Let us, in this season, again heed the words Dickens gave to the ghost of Jacob Marley when he confronted his partner Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. When told by Scrooge he was a good man of business, Marley replied

“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business. Charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence were all my business”.

It is time for us to rise again, to rise above petty angers, and identity, and rigid ideology, and raw ambition, to show drive and determination in the face of difficulties. So I take my leave from this building. Your challenges continue - the work is never done.

There is no indispensable man. My time here ends, yours continues forward.

But there are indispensable principles.
There is indispensable faith.

And on some Monday soon to come, I will look out the window on the Amtrak train, over the open lands of New Jersey, the skylines of Philadelphia and Baltimore, the backyards of New Brunswick, Bristol, Newark and New-ark. I will never forget what I learned in this building.

And I will still be found on the streets of
Yonkers and Harrison, Tuckahoe and CoOp City, in Hartsdale and Wakefield and Port Chester. Right alongside you, proving in small things everyday that democracy is still the best form of government known to mankind.

Goodbye… for now.

Details

Written by Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 02 December 2024

Created: 02 December 2024

Last Updated: 03 December 2024

Hits: 6531

Friends of Rayyan gathered at Helen Hayes for Friendsgiving“The boy that left the house today is not going to come home.” Those were the surgeon’s dire words to the family of Rayyan Mian, assessing the young man’s condition after a terrifying motorcycle accident on March 1st, 2024. Rayyan, age 20, lay in a medically induced coma and his brain scans showed such severe trauma that doctors could not offer hope to the stunned family in the waiting room at Westchester Medical Center.

Though we often imagine motorcycle accidents occurring on highways, this one happened only feet from the Mian family home on Mamaroneck Road in Scarsdale. Rayyan, who was in his junior year at Lehigh, was home to celebrate his 20th birthday. What did he want as a gift? A motorcycle. His parents steadfastly refused. Unable to convince them to buy him a bike, Rayyan used his own accumulated savings to purchase one. Before riding the bike on public streets, he took it across the road to the parking lot of the Saxon Woods Golf Course to get some practice riding there.

Around 6 pm on March 1st, the family got a panicked call from Rayyan’s friend Adam. Rayyan had lost control of the bike and rode full throttle into a tree. The family ran across the street to find Rayyan on the ground in a pool of blood. He had severe trauma to his head and face.

Scarsdale Village Ambulance Corps arrived within minutes and intubated Rayyan at the scene and transported him to Westchester Medical Center.

The surgeon offered little hope, saying there was extensive brain damage, the situation was bleak and he was unsure if Rayyan would make it through the night. He said he would need to perform a procedure to relieve pressure from the swelling brain by removing a portion of Rayyan’s skull.

Friends of Rayyan, and friends of his parents, all gathered at the hospital to wait out the procedure, staying until they got word from the surgeon at 4 am.

Then the agonizing wait began. Rayyan remained in a coma for 40 days, with an open skull from the surgery, 17 facial fractures and a tracheotomy. During this period, no one knew if the injuries were permanent or if there was a possibility that he would regain some functioning.

Family and friends maintained a vigil at his bedside, playing tunes from Rayyan’s playlist, reading to him and holding his hand.

After a month and a half at Westchester Medical Center, the next stop was Helen Hayes Rehabilitation Hospital in West Haverstraw, a 50 minute drive from Scarsdale. The hospital specializes in treating traumatic brain injuries and there Rayyan received several more surgeries and rehab. A shunt was inserted to drain the fluid from his brain, facial reconstructive surgery was done to repair all the broken bones in his face and in July a cranioplasty was done to replace the piece of his missing skull.

Through it all his parents, his sister and Scarsdale friends were by his side.

During many long months, Rayyan still had a trach tube in his windpipe to ensure that he could breathe. It prevented him from speaking or eating, but he managed to communicate by writing questions and answers to his visitors.

A summer visit with friends.Once the trach was removed, Rayyan rallied – and could even explain to others what had happened to him. He began to speak again and eat, defying the doctor’s negative prognosis. His friends set up large inspirational poster boards in his room and visited as often as they could. He was immediately responsive to music, bobbing his head to the beat and singing lyrics to songs he didn’t even know before the accident.

As the family is Muslim, they added spiritual songs to the mix which also stirred Rayyan who had gone on an Umrah, a religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia just two months before the accident.

At Helen Hayes he made steady progress, learning to speak and eat and to walk again. Though for now he is still dependent on his wheelchair, he can take 300 steps a day with support and will be able to walk on his own again. He is also making an incredible recovery cognitively; he has maintained his famous sense of humor and his long-term memory seems to be intact. He is able to connect and laugh with his loved ones as he did before the accident.

Rayyan’s family shares, “He has always had every single type of friend, across religious and ethnic backgrounds; Rayyan is gifted at Following the accident, sister Sophie moved home to see Rayyan through.bringing everyone together through his sense of humor and love of people.” Sister Sophie said, “Rayyan has a beautiful heart. It takes a village to pull through something as traumatic as this, but it is easy to have a village rally behind you when you are as special as he is.”

This past summer, SHS friend Adrian Duval from the Class of 2022 helped organize a fundraiser for Rayyan called #RYStrong. In an amazing show of support, more than 350 students donated a total of $5,500 for Think First, a traumatic brain injury prevention organization. Those who donated were given bracelets that say #RYStrong. About Rayyan, Duval said, “He was instrumental in bringing all the guys together during our senior year of high school. He is hilarious and honest, and always says what he thinks.”

Along the way, the family was assisted by others who had experienced similar traumas. Anne Moretti, whose son Luke suffered a spinal cord injury during college came forward to speak with Asim and Ayesha Mian and offer support, resources and hope.
Thanksgiving weekend was another milestone, when 27 Scarsdale friends came to the hospital for a Friendsgiving, to cheer on their friend who is slated to go home on December 18, 2024.

Cary Fuchsman, whose stepson Ethan Rifkin is a friend of Rayyan’s came along to the hospital. He said, “When Ethan mentioned he was going to visit Rayyan at Helen Hayes Hospital for a Friendsgiving, I asked him if it would be okay if I joined him. I remember only good things about Rayyan throughout the years. He is respectful, polite, kind, smart and always has a smile on his face. In general, I can tell he has a great soul. Since his accident, I had been thinking of him and his family and how difficult it is for them to navigate through the decision process for Rayyan’s care in order for him to make the best possible recovery. When I arrived at the hospital, I was super excited to see Rayyan’s recovery progress and additionally moved by seeing the support of over twenty of his good friends engaging with Rayyan and catching-up with him IN PERSON to see how he was doing.

Rayyan and his parents.Every person visiting Rayyan had the chance to speak to him directly and Rayyan recognized every one of them including myself.
It is truly remarkable how Rayyan has an emotional connection and a deeply positive impact on the lives of so many of his friends.
I also had the chance to meet Rayyan’s Family (Dad, Mom, Grandma and Sister). I only have terrific things to say about them. Their unconditional support and love for Rayyan is beyond anything I could explain.

Rayyan is a lucky person, the love and support from his family, friends and community is priceless as is his strength and determination to fully recover from his injuries.”

When the surgeon asked Rayyan for the reason behind his success, he said, “I believe in myself.” His family attributes his resilience to his spirituality, his friendships, his sense of humor and his love of life.

When Rayyan comes home in December he will continue his therapy as an outpatient at Burke Rehabilitation Center. He is looking forward to regaining his independence and getting his life back on track.

And his family and friends are looking forward to having him back in the neighborhood where they can see his progress every day.
Maybe the same boy that left the house on March 1st will not come back, but ten months later, Rayyan Mian, a boy with a renewed appreciation for his family, his friends, his community and his health will defy all expectations and make his way home.

To contribute to #rystrong, Venmo Sophie Mian @sophiemian with the caption #rystrong.