By Chris Fuchs
Rameek Alston was all of 16 when he got to visit Rikers Island Correctional Facility. He had been accused of stealing a chain. Admittedly, the Jamaica resident was heading down a path paved by illegal activity. Rikers Island was indeed the turning point.
“I don’t want to say what it was like, but it was a bad experience,” said Alston, a slightly husky teen with a boyish face. But Alston turned his life around, and for doing so was one of 10 youths named Home Town Heroes this year, a four-year-old event sponsored by the New York Mets, St. Mary’s Children’s Hospital in Bayside, and the TimesLedger Newspapers.
The stories the young people told were oftentimes moving; the youths themselves seemed ordinary, though. There was Michael McGovern, a 14-year-old from Floral Park, whose enlarged aorta has prevented him from participating in sports. Cerebral palsy forced Isaiah Roman, a 14-year-old from Ridgewood, into a wheelchair at an early age, but his implacable smile is intoxicatingly appealing to small children whom he mentors.
“I want you to know as much as I can that I’d like this event to go down in history beyond what happens today,” said Donna Hanover, the first lady of New York City, who handed out awards to the youths at a ceremony at the Diamond Club with Mets Manager Bobby Valentine.
All of the honorees received official Mets jerseys, their last names written on the back, as well as an award, which was placed around their necks. They also got VIP tickets to the game on July 18, in which the Mets faced the Florida Marlins, defeating them 4-to-3 in the 11th inning.
Being a Mets fan was not a prerequisite for earning Home Town Hero status. Just ask Alston, whose counselor, Chris McLaurin of St. Cabrini’s Children School in West Park, N.Y., which the 16-year-old attends, said, “Today he is.” But McGovern, a self-proclaimed sports fanatic, was clearly in his element.
“I’ve been a huge Mets fan all my life,” McGovern said. In December, McGovern was diagnosed with an enlarged aorta that his doctor said “could explode” if he did not put restrictions on his active athletic life. McGovern was left little choice but to quit the swimming team at Bishop Molloy High School, and soon realized that his dream to play baseball was out of reach, too.
So he turned to other activities. For instance, he began volunteering at a shelter in Briarwood, tutoring children there in a variety of subjects. “I realized what else I could do with my skills and talents,” he said. His father recommended him for the honor, he said.
As McGovern waited on a slow-moving line to get autographs from some of the players, like second baseman Desi Relaford and catcher Vance Wilson, Roman had just finished making his rounds, wearing his usual bright smile. Roman, a dean’s list student at IS 5, is a role model for his peers at St. Mary’s Medical Day Care Saturday Program, said his counselor, Nicole Dover-Eaton.
“They look up to me,” he said, chuckling. “One kid, in particular, I’d just like to say hi to him — Sal.” Asked why all the children admire him, he said, unabashedly, “Because I’m very nice.”
Alston, who is attending St. Cabrini’s and lives there as well, was very protective of his Mets jersey, even though he is not a Mets fan. When someone sat down, not knowing it was draped around the chair, he became a little agitated.
His experiences in Jamaica, his brush with the law, and his effort to correct all that was what earned him the distinction of Home Town Hero. He does not plan to wear the jersey, he said. Instead, he says he will hang it up in his room, along with the medal he received, where it will serve as a lasting reminder.
“Everytime I come in my room I can look at it and say I went there, did that,” he said, adding that he hopes his 13-year-old brother will draw a lesson from his experience. “These are good times.”
Reach reporter Chris Fuchs by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 156.
