What You Need To Know:

  • Ryan Betancourt is doing well after battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The high school sophomore was granted a Siberian husky from the ‘Make A Wish Foundation Metro NY’
  • Flushing Town Hall is hanging artwork on its fence that expresses people's emotions and feelings as we deal with the profound changes we've seen over these past few months
  • You can hang your artwork yourself or send a scan of your work to education@flushingtownhall.org and they will hang it for you
  • E-mail Kristen Shaughnessy at AokKristen@gmail.com to submit your acts of kindness

Ryan Betancourt is a 15-year-old from Bushwick, Brooklyn who endured five rounds of chemo after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma last year. He's healthy now and spending his summer days with his new dog ‘Shiloh Wish’ by his side. But when Ryan was in the fight for his life, the Make A Wish Foundation reached out, because attending a Los Angeles Lakers game would not be possible for months. Ryan said his next biggest dream was to get a Siberian husky.

 

 

"All the NBA games got cancelled, so it was going to be a much longer process. So I knew I always wanted a Siberian husky, so Make A Wish, Amazing people they are, granted me a Siberian husky,” said Betancourt. "She is right here, she is playing with a bottle right now, but she's so good, funny, amazing, she's such a good dog. I’m so thankful to everyone who made it possible."

 

 

Ryan and His mom Janira are paying it forward by raising $3,100 at the ‘Light the Night Walk For Lymphoma.’

 

 

Works of art are now being displayed outside Flushing Town Hall, expressing people's thoughts and feelings as we work through the profound changes in our city. The outdoor exhibit is called ‘Call and Response,’ where you can create your own artwork expressing hope,  grief, gratitude or anxieties and hang it on the fence to the right of flushing town hall on Northern Boulevard.

If you can't get there, you can email a scan of your artwork to Education@FlushingTownHall.org and someone will hang it for you.  You can find some of the artwork on their Facebook and Instagram pages.

 

 

 

Finally, on the walk back home from getting his braces on and without being asked, 12-year-old Quinn Fullington rushed to help a woman struggling with the door on the Upper East Side.

It is those little moments that can mean more than you know.