STANDING Brooklyn’s Biggest Booster
New volunteers set to join CERTs
BOROUGH WIDE
Let’s hear it for the 15 new volunteers
who will work with city emergency offi
cials to prepare the borough against
disaster!
The new disaster specialists graduated
from a 10-week program that
trained them to serve in the Community
Emergency Response
Teams. City offi cials including Emergency
Management Commissioner
Deanne Criswell, NYPD Deputy
inspector Phylis Byrne, and FDNY
Deputy Chief James Brosi praised
the graduates at a ceremony on July 8.
“Throughout the year, volunteers
dedicate their time and energy preparing
New Yorkers for emergencies,”
Criswell said. “Today we honor the 15
Brooklyn graduates who will join the
more than 1,200 volunteers citywide
helping their communities stay ready.”
The CERTs program debuted in
2003 and features courses on fi re safety,
search and rescue, traffi c management,
fi rst aid, and triage. One local
newcomer said he felt the program offered
him a chance to get to know the
borough better.
“Being a newcomer to New York
City I felt it was important to become
involved in my community. The CERT
program offered that opportunity,”
Brooklyn CERT graduate Mikeala
Sparks said. “The program is a great
tool in the mission to make sure all
New Yorkers are ready for the next
emergency. I look forward to helping
to prepare residents in my community.”
CERT graduates will join more than
1,200 serving CERT volunteers representing
more than 50 teams throughout
New York City. The graduates received
training from a number of the city’s
highly trained emergency responders,
including 13 Fire Department instructors,
seven paramedic instructors,
seven Police Department instructors,
and nine Emergency Management liaisons.
For more information about the
CERT program, or if you are interested
in becoming a CERT volunteer, call 311
or visit NYC.gov/EmergencyManagement.
— Chandler Kidd
FORT GREENE
Three cheers for the Brooklyn Hospital
Center, which broke ground
on a state-of-the-art new Emergency
Department to provide Brooklynites
with speedy lifesaving care.
The newly remodeled facility —
located at 121 Dekalb Ave. between
Ashland Place and Fort Greene Place
— will help bring better emergency
care to patients with traumatic injury
and illness, according to the
hospital’s president and CEO.
“We already serve more than
70,000 patients each year in our
Emergency Department,” said Gary
Terrinoni. “This renovation will
result in a state-of-the-art facility
within lifesaving minutes of our
neighbors’ homes.”
The $25 million effort is funded
by a New York State Department
of Health Transformation Grant,
and will take 18 months to complete.
Hospital honchos and elected
leaders — including local State Sen.
Velmanette Montgomery and Assemblyman
Walter Mosley — held
a groundbreaking ceremony at the
new sight on July 10 to offi cially kick
off construction.
When complete, the new department
will feature “bright, airy
spaces” that will accommodate the
growing number of patients who
seek treatment at the hospital —
COURIER L 36 IFE, JULY 19–25, 2019 M BR B G
which fi rst started serving Brooklynites
in 1845.
The renovation will include a
newly constructed lobby, waiting
areas, assessment and treatment
rooms, and a quick registration system
to accelerate patient fl ow, according
to Liz Fontaine, the chair
of the hospital’s board.
Hospital reps hope the state-ofthe
art design will help improve already
impressive emergency rapid
responses that the hospital offers to
their northern Brooklyn neighbors.
For example, the hospital’s response
time for heart attacks is among the
best in the state — clocking under 90
minutes for fi rst responders to intervene
in 100 percent of cases.
Standing O congratulates the
hospital on the groundbreaking!
— Aidan Graham
WILLIAMSBURG
Three cheers to Williamsburg
fi lm producer Natalie
Schwan, whose production
company Velocity Creatives is
working to bring a woman’s perspective
to the independent fi lm
scene.
The native Arizonan launched
her company in Los Angeles in
2015, before moving to Brooklyn
the following year, where she has
since worked on creating short
fi lms and advertisements, while
encouraging an environment that
lets women’s voices be heard in a
male-dominated industry, where
just slightly more than a third of
producers are women, according
to a recent study by the Center for
the Study of Women in Television
and Film.
“Being — for lack of a better
word — the boss as a woman fosters
that kind of environment,”
Schwan said. “It’s refreshing for
me to bring more women into the
fi lms that I make — not that I try
to fulfi ll a quota.”
Last month, she won several
silver and bronze Telly Awards
for her promotional and branded
videos for the activewear brand
Patagonia called “Find Your
Wild.”
Schwan said that the movie
industry is changing for the better,
adding that she used to be
the only woman on sets when she
started out.
“I just did a fi lm that 70 percent
of production heads were
female,” she said. “I’m trying to
foster that community and freelance
crew where it’s more easier
and approachable for women to
be involved.”
She found that — in addition
to fair representation — having
more women on set leads to a
more interesting fi lm too.
“The more women we get on
the crew set, the more diverse the
movie is,” she said.
— Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Hospital Center reps break ground on the new emergency facility on July 10.
Photos by Caroline Ourso
Brooklyn Hospital Center breaks
ground on Emergency Department
Graduates from the Brooklyn CERT class.
NYC Emergency Management
Brooklyn Hospital Center President
and CEO Gary Terrinoni speaks at the
groundbreaking ceremony.
CHANGE OF SCENE: The independent
fi lm industry is opening up to more
women-led productions, according
to Williamsburg producer Natalie
Schwann. Samantha Blinn