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Marisa: A little girl’s fight to live

Marisa Carney has been diagnosed with rapid-onset obesity with hypothalamic dysfunction, hypoventilation and autonomic dysregulation, or ROHHAD, an extremely rare childhood disorder that is difficult to diagnose and treat. To chronicle Marisa’s struggle, reporter Candice Ferrette and photographer Alejandra Villa have followed the Carney family since March 2011.

Her fight to live

Her fight to live

Marisa is one of only 75 children worldwide to be diagnosed with ROHHAD.

Newsday / Alejandra Villa

Marisa’s next steps

Marisa’s next steps

Marisa is taking back her life step by step — first ballet, then kindergarten.

Newsday / Alejandra Villa

Teen offers hope

Teen offers hope

Brigid Cooleen, 15, is an honor student despite being diagnosed with ROHHAD.

Newsday / Alejandra Villa

A mother’s love

A mother’s love

A seizure at age 2 left Trevor Ward, 20, reliant on his family for care.

Newsday / Alejandra Villa

Young ROHHAD patients

Young ROHHAD patients

Trevor Ward and Brigid Cooleen live with ROHHAD.

Newsday / Alejandra Villa

Off to Chicago

Off to Chicago

We follow Marisa Carney to a Chicago hospital for another series of tests.

Newsday / Alejandra Villa

Family, friends fundraise

Family, friends fundraise

As Marisa fights ROHHAD, the push is on to help fund research.

Newsday / Alejandra Villa

About ROHHAD

About ROHHAD

ROHHAD is an extremely rare childhood disorder that is difficult to diagnose and treat.

Newsday / Alejandra Villa

How to help

How to help

The Carney family and friends have formed a nonprofit to raise awareness and money for research.

Newsday / Alejandra Villa

A plague on the city’s communities

The derelict two-story house on 215th Street in Queens Village had been boarded up for months. The backyard was mostly overgrown with brush where it wasn’t dirt or covered in litter. The back door, sealed with plywood, had been forced open and nailed shut again.

It turned out that Felix Toro, who lives next door, had gone with a fellow neighbor to nail the door shut. “Sometimes squatters come in, kids maybe,” he said. “They were ripping the door and going in.”

Since the Great Recession, homeowners facing foreclosure across the country have been walking away from properties, unable to pay for their mortgages. In their wake, they’ve left behind so-called “zombie houses,” with no caretaker to oversee them, existing in a state between life and death. Such homes can remain vacant in New York for months or years because the state’s foreclosure process can take an average of nearly three years.

And there are thousands of these undead vacant homes decaying in plain sight throughout the five boroughs, particularly in struggling communities of color — a fact that is all the more troubling given the city’s acute affordable housing crisis. Because the foreclosure process drags on for so long, the homes decay so much it’s not worth it for an investor to buy them and fix them up.

An analysis of data obtained from RealtyTrac, a national real estate tracking company, revealed the following snapshot of city trends as of May 31, 2015:

  • The city saw an overall 28% increase in the number of zombie houses between January 2014 and May 2015.
  • Kings County had the most zombie houses — 1,050, which was a 22% increase between January 2014 and May 2015; Queens County came in second with 905 zombie homes — a 14% increase between January 2014 and May 2015.
  • The Bronx and Richmond counties had the largest percentage increase in the number of zombie homes, 42% and 62%, respectively.
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Zombie homes don’t just rot unnoticed; besides attracting squatters, they are easy targets for looters looking to steal copper wiring and pipes and for drug users to hole up and get high.

Such abandoned properties act like a viral infection, spreading through the area: they lower property values for neighbors; often lead to a cycle of underwater mortgages where the homes are worth less than the mortgages themselves; and can propagate the foreclosure cycle.

The problem — which is growing — has not gone unnoticed by policymakers.

“If you are on a street with a bunch of abandoned properties, you’re also a victim of the crash, your entire community is damaged,” said state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman at a news conference in the Bronx in April where he spoke about legislation he sent to the state Legislature to combat the growing plague of zombie homes. “Property values go down. Crime and vandalism go up. It’s a huge burden on local communities.”

In May, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Department of Financial Services announced that 11 banks, mortgage lenders and credit unions had voluntarily agreed to adopt “best practices” to maintain homes during the foreclosure process, including conducting inspections, changing locks or boarding up windows. The institutions — which include Bank of America and Wells Fargo — are the lenders of 70% of the state’s mortgage market.

The institutions also agreed to establish a registry of abandoned houses. But that’s not guaranteed to fix the problem: Someone will still need to hold the lenders accountable, and that’s why housing advocates are backing state legislation that would create incentives for them to do so.

But, as long as banks don’t own the deed, it’s the owner’s legal obligation to maintain the buildings. Banks don’t own the property until a foreclosure judgment is issued.

A tour of Blight

A house in Queens Village that was in pre-foreclosure on April 27, 2015. Credit: Cristian Salazar.

Southeast Queens, from Jamaica east through St. Albans and Queens Village, to the border of Elmont in Nassau County, has been called the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis in the city, so it makes sense that it would have some of the highest concentrations of zombie houses per 1,000.

As of May 31, there were 9,103 properties in foreclosure in Queens, and 905 zombie properties, according to RealtyTrac.

Jean Sassine has become alarmed by the proliferation of zombie properties in his neighborhood of Queens Village, where RealtyTrac counted 609 properties in foreclosure, 57 of them zombie houses.

Sassine, 48 and married with two children, is the local chapter chair and a board member of New York Communities for Change, a nonprofit organization that works to help people stay in their homes and stave off foreclosure. He comes to the work through personal experience. At a City Council hearing, he testified he was on the verge of losing his home in 2007 when he lost his job and his wife’s spiraling medical bills forced them into the kind of heartbreaking choice millions of Americans were also making at the time.

“I had to make the decision on whether we were going to continue making mortgage payments or pay our medical bills,” he said in written testimony in April. “Since then, I’ve been in a constant fight with numerous banks and servicers, trying to modify my mortgage so my family and I can stay in our home.”

On a brisk April afternoon, Sassine agreed to lead a tour of abandoned properties in his neighborhood.  It soon became clear that the trick would be figuring out which ones were actual zombies and which ones were abandoned for another reason entirely, since no registry exists. Data compiled by RealtyTrac combines foreclosure filings with U.S. Postal Service data, but even the company admits it’s far from perfect.

But whatever the reason for a house being left vacant to degrade in plain sight, neighbors understandably find themselves helpless as they create blight.

Sassine drove a red SUV, wearing a “The Colbert Report” baseball cap, a gray long-sleeve shirt under an orange short-sleeve T-shirt with the logo of New York Communities for Change and blue jeans. Whenever the tour stopped, he would get out of his truck and talk to neighbors about his work.

The tour didn’t make it far from his home at 103rd Avenue and 217th Lane before the first stop: Just across the street was a two-story home, built in approximately 1940, that was partially boarded up but was occupied by what Sassine said were squatters. The building has been in the foreclosure process for nearly 600 days, according to RealtyTrac. The second stop on the tour was just a few doors down; RealtyTrac said it had been in the foreclosure process for more than 700 days.

Two blocks over, on 215th Street, Sassine stopped his SUV past 104th Avenue and pointed out two seemingly empty properties across from one another. The power at one home seemed to be cut off; the meter was dead.

Leonor Calderon, who lives next door, said the owner had died four years ago and the home had been empty since. “It was abandoned,” Calderon said of the home, speaking in Spanish. “But people got in there. Then they left. Then they returned.” At one point, whoever was living there had thrown garbage in her yard. “There are glasses, bottles, and they’re thrown on my side.”

The owner, Linda Collazo, was listed as deceased as of 2009, according to an electronic death record obtained via the Nexis-Lexis database.

According to records filed in state civil Supreme Court, the house has been in foreclosure since a case was brought against Collazo et al. by BAC Home Loans Servicing LLP. The law firm representing the bank was listed as Ras Boriskin LLC of Westbury. A receptionist for the firm said the mortgage had been transferred to another bank; she confirmed that the case remained opened as of June 1.

Jonathan Cohen, an attorney for the bank, did not return a message.  A woman who identified herself as an assistant told amNewYork that the firm could not release any details. 

Neighbors Keep Watch

Jean Sassine looks at a boarded-up house in Queens Village on April 27, 2015. Credit: Cristian Salazar.

The owner of the house directly across 215th Street that Calderon had complained about had defaulted on his mortgage, according to RealtyTrac, and the bank had filed a formal notice initiating the foreclosure process. The windows on the side of the house were boarded up with plywood; the backyard was filled with debris, including a collapsed swimming pool. But the front windows were covered with black tarp from within, and the unmistakable chorus of Will Smith’s “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” could be heard from the home. No one answered the door.

When reached by phone later on, the owner, Garth Johnson, said the house was not in foreclosure and that he lived there. “I don’t know what you are talking about,” he said. “I realize you are definitely not talking to me. We have a piece of wood on the side of the house. I did not do the siding yet.”

“It’s not abandoned,” he continued, adding he had to go. “This is just a little difficult to deal with right now.”

However, a subsequent review of court documents showed that the mortgage holder, Citigroup, had filed a summons seeking foreclosure of the property in September 2014. Johnson did not respond to a message requesting comment.

Experts say it is possible desperate homeowners may continue living in their homes without paying the mortgage. Citigroup didn’t respond to questions about whether they had started the foreclosure process. It did say that, since the homeowner continued to own the property, it had no legal obligation to maintain it.

The tour continued a block north to a house on 215th Street identified by RealtyTrac as a likely zombie house. This was where the backdoor, covered up in plywood, had been nailed shut again by neighbors. Court records showed foreclosure proceedings had been brought against the house in 2008. A message left for the mortgage holder’s attorney did not return a message requesting comment.

Felix Toro, 31, bought the house next door earlier this year after it had been purchased and renovated. Toro pointed out that his home had been in worse condition than the one next door; that was confirmed by an image captured by Google Maps in 2013 that showed his house had been boarded up, too, with the entire front yard fenced with plywood and vegetation growing wildly past the first floor.

People want neighbors, not empty houses,” said Queens Village resident Felix Toro, who lives next door to a boarded-up house.

Toro, who was wearing a tracksuit and works for the Department of Sanitation, said that he had called 311 about the house next door a few weeks back.

“Everyone keeps their eyes on it to make sure that nothing happens,” he said, adding that animals have gotten inside, including raccoons. He said he hoped that it would be rehabbed like the one he purchased. “People want neighbors, not empty houses.”

Sassine, driving away, seemed exhausted by what he’d seen. “This is what the attack on the middle class looks like,” he said.

After visiting nearly a dozen abandoned houses, it was clear that zombie properties represent symbols of the foreclosure crisis that is alive and well in struggling neighborhoods. .

Whoever is on the deed is supposed to maintain the homes. The city’s Department of Buildings, which cites hazardous buildings, said it is not responsible for upkeep. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which is charged with stabilizing the city’s housing stock, didn’t respond to multiple requests for information about its efforts to deal with the zombie home crisis.

Like the banks, it seemed the city agencies were leaving it to homeowners and neighbors to deal with the problem.

The tour came to an end around the corner from Sassine’s house. Again, another boarded up home stood rotting at the center of a residential street. Queens Village, where about 70,000 people live, covers three ZIP codes. But the tour had only visited a few blocks. It was striking how many boarded-up, seemingly neglected, vacant homes infected the community.

“You don’t think of blight when you think of Queens or Queens Village,” Sassine later said. “People are mowing their lawns next to these boarded-up houses. You think it’s picturesque. You think you’re investing in your neighborhood but the life of your community is being sucked out of it by these zombie homes.”

Stopping the Infection

Jean Sassine stands outside a boarded-up house in his Queens Village neighborhood on April 27, 2015. Credit: Cristian Salazar.

While Cuomo’s announcement of an agreement between 11 banks and the state was hailed as a good first step, advocates said a legislative solution is required to codify any reforms. Advocates also point out that the agreement leaves out about 30% of the market.

“I think there’s definitely a need for a more marketwide solution,” said Matt Hassett, director of policy for the Center for NYC Neighborhoods.  “It would be great to have it as a long-lasting law on the books.”

That’s why the Schneiderman’s legislation, which was introduced by state lawmakers Sen. Jeff Klein and Assemb. Helene Weinstein, may be the key to ultimately curing the zombie affliction.

While the Cuomo agreement largely mirrors the legislation, there’s are two major differences: Under the legislation being considered, mortgage lenders would be forced to maintain the homes or face fines of $1,000 a day if they failed to maintain the property or to register it. The fines would cover the cost of hiring more code enforcement officers. And, second, the legislation would apply to all banks. 

The attorney general’s office has said that the legislation is still in play, in spite of Cuomo’s agreement.

Asked about the agreement that the state had announced with the banks, Sassine said he was skeptical that the banks would voluntarily maintain the properties. “If you think about it, they are supposed to voluntarily maintain these properties now and they don’t,” he said.

The City Council has held at least four hearings on the foreclosure crisis, including abandoned homes, and has been considering a variety of policy measures including the use of eminent domain to seize mortgages before homes become blighted.

But the solution to the zombie crisis may lie in stopping the infection before it starts.

Peter Nagy, the deputy director for New York Communities for Change, said that’s what his organization is trying to do. “What we always said is we should try to get to properties before they go into foreclosure, before homeowners get up and leave,” he said.

And there are potentially tens of thousands of homeowners facing the peril of losing their homes: A 2012 study by the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development found that 82,175 mortgages were underwater, a sign that the foreclosure crisis is far from over and that many more homes may become zombies if policymakers fail to act.

One person who no longer faces the prospect of losing his home is Sassine. In April of last year, his family finally got a loan modification, saving his family from being out on the street. He got work, running his own company, assisting film production by getting permits, scouting out locations and managing logistics. His wife is working as a sign language teacher.

Things were moving along in a positive direction for the family, Sassine said. “It didn’t have to have a rosy ending.”

Investigation: Police misconduct on Long Island

Police misconduct

Police misconduct

Police misconduct hidden from public by secrecy law, weak oversight
Unjustified

Unjustified

Report reveals how cop shot unarmed man – and kept his job.
Always Right

Always Right

Every Nassau deadly force probe since 2006 has backed the officer.
Beaten

Beaten

This 19-year-old ran from Suffolk police. It cost him his life.
The Southampton tapes

The Southampton tapes

A cop’s addiction exposed turmoil at the top of the department.

50 case studies of police misconduct

Nassau police deadly force incidents

Story: LI politicians respond

Database: See where your officials stand

Case studies: Read the documents

Unjustified: Complete coverage

Unjustified: Key players

Column: Lawmakers must demand answers

Column: Record defies probability

Column: Questions remain

Editorial: Cover-up demands justice

Editorial: Reform can help toxic police culture

Ramadan on Long Island: Share your photos and thoughts

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For Muslims, the tradition of fasting during daylight hours for the holy month of Ramadan will turn their lives upside down. From June 18 to July 17, breakfast becomes dinner, and throughout the night, families will pray and join in feasting.

Share your Ramadan photos and thoughts by using #ramadan2015nd on Instagram.

[nd_photogrid title=”” pgURL=”https://www.newsday.com/long-island/ramadan-on-long-island-send-us-your-photos-and-thoughts-1.10546282″ promo=”<i class="fa fa-instagram"></i><em>TAG US and JOIN IN</em><a href=https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/share-your-ramadan-photos/ ;#">#ramadan2015nd</a>” pre_author=”<i class="fa fa-instagram"></i>”]

Ramadan on Long Island: Eat, pray, fast

For thousands of Muslims who live on Long Island, the tradition of fasting during daylight hours for the holy month of Ramadan will turn their lives upside down. From June 18 to July 17, breakfast becomes dinner, and throughout the night, families will pray and join in feasting.

Newsday.com asked five Long Islanders to share their experiences during Ramadan by sending in Instagram photos every day. You can share your photos by using #ramadan2015nd.

The commuter

The commuter

The single mom

The single mom

The teacher

The teacher

The teenager

The teenager

The sports fan

The sports fan

Send us your Ramadan photos & thoughts

Send us your Ramadan photos & thoughts

More about Ramadan

This year’s observance marks some of the longest fasts. The 30 days are set by the lunar calendar and come on the heels of the summer solstice, meaning that fasts will last about 15 hours. Those who practice the tradition will wake before the sun rises. In those early hours, some will eat an entire meal, while others may drink only a glass of milk. Then, they will go through half the day, in the heat of summer, without food or drink. The daylight fast is a religious rite passed down from the Prophet Muhammad, to exhibit self-discipline and patience and instill an appreciation of how it feels to go without food.

There’s much more to Ramadan than fasting and food. Communities come alive on weekdays as families come together for dinners. On weekends, youngsters visit mosques outside of their neighborhoods, making friends and tasting new flavors in the food offered to break the fast. In workplaces, colleagues will take a quick break to pray or find a quiet spot to nap. And in small, mundane moments — such as when one consciously chooses to pass on coffee — Muslims are reminded of their spirituality in the midst of their hectic everyday lives.

Send us your Ramadan photos and thoughts

Long Island’s class of 2015

Long Island has 39,419 high school seniors preparing to graduate this month. Select a school from the list below to see the senior class there and to leave a congratulatory message for any individual in the comments.


Amityville Memorial High School Babylon Junior Senior High School Baldwin Senior High School Bay Shore High School Bayport / Blue Point High School Bellport High School Bethpage High School Brentwood High School Bridgehampton School Sanford H. Calhoun High School Carle Place Middle Senior High School Center Moriches High School Centereach High School Central Islip High School Chaminade High School Cold Spring Harbor Junior Senior High School Commack High School Comsewogue High School Connetquot Senior High School Crescent School Deer Park High School Division Ave High School Drs Yeshiva High School Earl L. Vandermeulen High School East Hampton High School East Islip High School East Meadow High School East Rockaway Junior Senior High School Eastport-South Manor Junior Senior High School Elmont Memorial Junior Senior High School Elwood – John Glenn High School Farmingdale Senior High School Fishers Island School Floral Park Memorial Junior Senior High School Freeport High School Friends Academy Garden City Senior High School General Douglas MacArthur High School George W Hewlett High School Glen Cove High School Great Neck South High School Greenport High School H. Frank Carey High School Half Hollow Hills High School East Half Hollow Hills High School West Hampton Bays High School Harborfields High School Hauppauge High School Hebrew Academy of Five Towns Hebrew Academy of Nassau County – Uniondale Hempstead High School Henry Viscardi School Herricks High School Hicksville High School Holy Trinity Diocesan High School Huntington High School Island Trees High School Islip High School Jericho Senior High School JL Miller – Great Neck North High School John F Kennedy High School Kellenberg Memorial High School Kings Park High School Knox School Long Island Lutheran High School Lawrence High School Lawrence Woodmere Academy Lindenhurst Senior High School Locust Valley High School Long Beach High School Longwood High School Lynbrook High School Malverne High School Manhasset Senior High School Massapequa High School Mattituck Junior Senior High School W.C. Mepham High School Bishop McGann-Mercy Diocesan High School Mill Neck Manor School For Deaf Miller Place High School Mineola High School Mount Sinai High School New Hyde Park Memorial Junior Senior High School Newfield High School North Babylon High School North Shore Hebrew Academy High School North Shore High School Northport High School Our Lady of Mercy Academy Our Savior New American School Oyster Bay High School Patchogue-Medford Senior High School Paul D Schreiber High School Pierson Middle High School Plainedge High School Plainview-Old Bethpage – JFK High School Portledge School Rambam Mesivta Riverhead High School Rocky Point High School Roslyn High School Ross Upper School Sachem High School East Sachem High School North Sacred Heart Academy Sayville High School Schechter School of Long Island School 7 Oceanside High School Seaford High School Sewanhaka High School Shalhevet High School for Girls Shelter Island School Shoreham-Wading River High School Smithtown Christian School Smithtown High School – East Smithtown High School – West South Side High School Southampton High School Southold Junior Senior High School St. Anthony’s High School St. Dominic High School St. John The Baptist High School St. Mary’s High School Stella K Abraham Girls High School Stony Brook School Syosset High School Uniondale Senior High School Upper Room Christian School Valley Stream Central High School Valley Stream Christian Academy Valley Stream North JSHS Valley Stream South JSHS Village School Vincent Smith School W T Clarke Senior High School Waldorf School of Garden City Walt Whitman High School Walter G O’Connell High School Wantagh High School Ward Melville Senior High School West Babylon Senior High School West Hempstead High School West Islip Senior High School Westbury High School Westhampton Beach High School Wheatley School William Floyd High School Wyandanch Memorial High School

Long Island valedictorians, graduations 2015

Long Island 2015 graduations

Meet Long Island’s valedictorians and salutatorians and see photos from graduations across LI. The newest crop of high school graduates are about to earn their diplomas and, for many, the next step is higher education. Newsday has put together comprehensive galleries of Long Island’s smartest teens, including study tips, information you would have never expected and details on where they’re headed next.

Meet 148 of Long Island's valedictorians

Photos

Meet 148 of Long Island's valedictorians

Meet 137 of Long Island's salutatorians

Photos

Meet 137 of Long Island's salutatorians

Meet 12 of Long Island's Extraordinary Seniors

Stories

Meet 12 of Long Island's Extraordinary Seniors

Where are LI's top grads going to college?

Data

Where are LI's top grads going to college?

Write a message to your LI graduate

Live

Write a message to your LI graduate

LI's valedictorians 10 years later

Photos

LI's valedictorians 10 years later

Class lists

Data

Class lists

14 things you didn't know about LI's valedictorians

Photos

14 things you didn't know about LI's valedictorians

What do valedictorians think of Common Core?

Story

What do valedictorians think of Common Core?

What LI's valedictorians would tell their 5-year-old selves

Photos

What LI's valedictorians would tell their 5-year-old selves

Spider-Man, 26 other jobs LI's valedictorians wanted

Photos

Spider-Man, 26 other jobs LI's valedictorians wanted

Lucky socks, 14 other LI valedictorian superstitions

Photos

Lucky socks, 14 other LI valedictorian superstitions

15 people who inspire LI's valedictorians

Photos

15 people who inspire LI's valedictorians

Tips for success from LI's top students

Photos

Tips for success from LI's top students

11 apps LI's smartest teens can't live without

Photos

11 apps LI's smartest teens can't live without

Ramadan on Long Island: The commuter

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Ammad Sheikh’s family strives to eat healthy and homegrown all year ’round. They have eggs from the chickens they own, and Sheikh tends fruits, vegetables and herbs in the backyard garden of the family’s Suffolk County home. During Ramadan, the 37-year-old will depart early from his job at a financial services firm in Manhattan, so he can break the fast with his family at the Masjid Darul Quran in Bay Shore. Sheikh is founder of the South Asian Sports Network, which has helped create sports leagues across Long Island and in Queens and now has almost 1,000 participants. During the summer, even when he’s fasting, Sheikh will both manage and play for Hit N Run, his softball team in the South Asian Softball League. He also enjoys casting the occasional fishing line into the Great South Bay, in the hope of catching fluke or striped bass.

Newsday.com asked five Long Islanders to share their experiences during Ramadan by sending in Instagram photos every day for 30 days: the commuter, the single mom, the teacher, the teenager and the sports fan.

[nd_photogrid title=”Ammad Sheikh” pgURL=”https://www.newsday.com/long-island/ramadan-instagram-ammad-sheikh-1.10508804″ promo=”<i class="fa fa-instagram"></i><em>TAG US and JOIN IN</em><a href=https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/share-your-ramadan-photos/ ;#">#ramadan2015nd</a>” pre_author=”<i class="fa fa-instagram"></i>”] Send us your Ramadan photos and thoughts

Ramadan in Long Island: The single mom

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Sarah Eltabib is a single mother who wants her 8-year-old daughter to enjoy authentic Ramadan traditions while creating new ones the two of them can share. The night before the month starts, they light lanterns and dance about the house, singing Egyptian folk songs. On the last night of Ramadan, she will make sure they each have new pajamas to mark the ending. Eltabib, 33, was born in Egypt and moved to Lynbrook with her family as a toddler. Since childhood, she has been a member of the Islamic Center of Long Island in Westbury. Now her daughter attends that mosque, and Eltabib leads her daughter’s Girl Scout troop. She balances her career as a human rights historian and professor at Adelphi University with raising her daughter, who is into everything from playing violin to fencing. Not fazed by long days of fasting, Eltabib will spend her spare time during Ramadan engaged in favorite pursuits: kickboxing, jogging and photography.

Newsday.com asked five Long Islanders to share their experiences during Ramadan by sending in Instagram photos every day for 30 days: the commuter, the single mom, the teacher, the teenager and the sports fan.

[nd_photogrid title=”Sarah Eltabib” pgURL=”https://www.newsday.com/long-island/ramadan-instagram-sarah-eltabib-1.10508754″ promo=”<i class="fa fa-instagram"></i><em>TAG US and JOIN IN</em><a href=https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/share-your-ramadan-photos/ ;#">#ramadan2015nd</a>” pre_author=”<i class="fa fa-instagram"></i>”] Send us your Ramadan photos and thoughts

Ramadan on Long Island: The teenager

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Eighth-grader Ozlem Gunes remembers the man who walked around during Ramadan, banging a drum and calling for people to wake up for suhoor, the pre-sunrise meal. The 14-year-old misses how, in her homeland of Turkey, the month was celebrated openly outside on the streets, as well as in her home. Still, since she and her family moved to Babylon four years ago, Ramadan very much remains a family affair. She lives with her father, older brother, aunt, uncle, aunt’s mother and cousin. Gunes had to learn English after arriving in New York and said she picked up the language in six months. Because of her experience, she wants to pursue teaching as a career.

Newsday.com asked five Long Islanders to share their experiences during Ramadan by sending in Instagram photos every day for 30 days: the commuter, the single mom, the teacher, the teenager and the sports fan.

[nd_photogrid title=”Ozlem Gunes” pgURL=”https://www.newsday.com/long-island/ramadan-instagram-ozlem-gunes-1.10508739″ promo=”<i class="fa fa-instagram"></i><em>TAG US and JOIN IN</em><a href=https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/share-your-ramadan-photos/ ;#">#ramadan2015nd</a>” pre_author=”<i class="fa fa-instagram"></i>”] Send us your Ramadan photos and thoughts