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
COURIER L 32 IFE, JULY 19-25, 2019 PS
who seek treatment at the hospital
— 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
/NYC.gov