Your Health

Snoopy, Woodstock come to life in Harlem Hospital mural

On Saturday, Sept. 25, children from the Harlem community joined staff members from Harlem Hospital in painting a six-panel Snoopy and Woodstock mural that will be displayed in the hospital’s pediatric unit. The mural is one of hundreds being donated by Peanuts to hospitals on six continents as part of the Take Care with Peanuts initiative, a global program that inspires everyone to take care of themselves, take care of each other, and take care of the Earth.

YOU ALWAYS KEEP THEM SAFE.

WITH VACCINES, THEY’LL BE EVEN SAFER.

CHILDREN AGES 12-17 CAN NOW BE VACCINATED AGAINST COVID-19.

Get your child vaccinated for a safe return to school. Children who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 are less likely to get and spread COVID-19.

LET’S KEEP OUR CHILDREN SAFE AND OUR SCHOOLS COVID-FREE.

complete with rooms for classes and programs, computers, quiet spaces for all ages, and all of the amenities that the “community needs, wants, and deserves.” He emphasized that the pandemic was an extremely stressful time, exposing gaps in the city’s education, economic, and health systems that can be corrected going forward.

“Loved the old library. Hard to see it go,” said Marx, “The silver lining has to be how do we rebuild as we come out of that time.”

Many of the partners present at the groundbreaking also spoke fondly of the original Inwood Library, reminiscing on it being a safe space for many immigrant children, like themselves, after school.

Rodriguez’s successor in his city council seat, Assemblymember Carmen de la Rosa, said that she spent a long time at the library learning skills to help her survive in a new country.

“I immigrated to this community as an undocumented child in the ’90s, and there was a trailer on the other side of this fence and that’s where I went to kindergarten,” said de la Rosa. “I didn’t know a word of English; my mother was a home health aide who also did not know a word of English. But the library welcomed our family. And the structure that was here was a place where I spent many after school hours, learning English, to translate the documents, so that my parents could also move ahead.”

The project is led by a vast group of community non-profits including CLOTH and The Children’s Village, their partners Ranger Properties, Housing Workshop, and Alembic Community Development, with coordinated public-private partnerships from the NYPL, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC), and Robin Hood, the city’s largest poverty-fighting philanthropy.

The project was closed in April 2021 and construction is expected to be completed by October 2023. In the meantime, Inwood residents will continue to have access to library resources, services, and staff at a temporary branch located at 4857 Broadway across the street.

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America Corps member and writes about culture and politics in New York City for the AmsterdamNews. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting: https://tinyurl.com/fcszwj8w financial loss, her 2-year-old son was diagnosed with severe autism. The back-to-back adversities Gordon faced left her in desperate need of medical support and resources for her son.

So, after receiving no tangible help from social workers, Gordon took to social media.

“Four women came to my aid and put their heads together. One contacted the local children’s specialized hospital. Whatever magic she did, within two weeks, got my son the therapy that he needed. Another woman decided that every month she was going to buy my son’s medical supplies so that I won’t have to worry. The two other women helped put me back into college. They told me that I have to expand myself, I have to uplift myself and understand there’s life after trauma. So, they paid my previous tuition and paid for me to get back into school, and as of today, I was 3.8 GPA,” Gordon said.

Since beginning her life after trauma, Gordon decided to pay the help she received forward. “Everyone deserves to get blessings. I’ve received some blessings, but I didn’t walk away with those blessings. I decided to give it back to marginalized communities across America,” she said.

With Hurricane Ida relief as her most recent way of paying it forward, Gordan’s magical assistance in helping the Black and Brown communities of New Jersey recover from Hurricane Ida shows that her mission continues to breathe life into disadvantaged communities.

“We don’t just help a person and just move on. That’s the problem with many nonprofits and shelters. A lot of people need emotional help. They need financial help. We need to uplift them so that they cannot continue to be in the same predicament each and every month, struggling,” Fairy Godmother said. “We decided to create a structured 90-day program that helps the families get at least 80% stabilized.”

The foundation’s 90-day plan supports families in obtaining trades, going back to school, building interpersonal relationships, perfecting their credit scores, finding safe housing and gaining other tangible life essentials.

CONNECT WITH THE BLACK FAIRY GODMOTHER

If you need help recovering from Hurricane Ida or other life disasters visit www.theblackfairygodmother.org and fill out an application.

If you want to get help from The Black Fairy Godmother Foundation’s mission visit www.theblackfairygodmother.org and join the ‘Adopt A Family Program.’