Christina Bosco Langert is the recipient of our first annual FA Award for Community Outreach and Social Justice. (photo courtesy Christina Bosco Langert)

As a follow up to the FA's awards and recognition celebration held on January 28, I have interviewed each of our award recipients so people can learn more about their good work.

Below the interview is the official nomination that was made on behalf of Christina Bosco Langert.

Q — When the pandemic hit last year and we went into quarantine, lots of special projects and initiatives were put on hold—understandably so—and since Professors on Wheels is founded on bringing educational lectures into Suffolk County nursing homes and residential facilities, it seems like a program that might have been shelved until the pandemic was over. And since you’re a full-time faculty member and mom of three young children, people would have understood if you did pause Professors on Wheels. Why didn’t you?

A — I was worried that if I didn’t reinvent the program, it might disintegrate. I mean, I knew it might be years before we’d be able to present physically, in person, in these nursing homes and residential facilities again. I was desperate not to let that happen; Professors on Wheels has been part of the FA for over a decade. And when dropping off the enrichment boxes, residents would say thank you, so I know it was worth it. I didn’t want them to feel forgotten.

Q — How did you come up with the idea of doing enrichment boxes?

 A — I actually did some research on loneliness with the elderly as well as ways to address that during a pandemic. Using our current facilities list, I reached out and got their ideas, suggestions and feedback too. Then I called my friend and previous co-chair, Ray DiSanza, as well as FA President Dante Morelli, and they were both supportive of the idea, so I felt more confident about doing enrichment boxes.

Q — How did you manage the logistics of collecting and delivering all these giant enrichment boxes of donations when everyone was working remotely? 

A — As you know we advertised by email, in The WORD and through the EC, and I was a bit worried that faculty might not donate, but our members really came through. One person left three giant bags of materials. So much stuff came to my front door, it was beautiful. My mom and I then added a bit more ourselves to make sure each box had what it needed. Delivery was tricky because the facilities are all over Suffolk County. People like Joan Cook were lifesavers (she has brought me so many books lately!), which is great, but next time I’ll ask for more volunteers to help with delivery.

Q — You’ve said that you’re also setting up a way for members to create videos for residents of nursing homes or care facilities too?

A — Yes, we’re hoping to get a half dozen members on board first and grow it from there. Even after the pandemic is under control, these 10-30 minute Professors on Wheels videos would be a nice addition to give residents another way to participate. It can be easier for our members too because they can record their videos at home at their own convenience. The facilities’ channels are private and the showings are private, so their intellectual property will be safe.

Q — It’s evident that your motivation for doing all of this is intrinsic, but how does it feel to be the very first FA member to receive an award for community outreach and social justice?

A — Well, it was really nice to get good news. This award meant a lot to me, and I do appreciate it. We can feel isolated during all of this; it’s hard being home all the time. But, really, so many people made this happen. I could not have done this without lots of FA members helping along the way, donating so much, giving me advice and cheering me on.

Nomination for Christina Bosco, Community Outreach and Social Justice

Since August 2016, Christina Bosco Langert has been co-coordinator and, currently, sole coordinator of Professors on Wheels. In the four years since Christina has been at the helm, this community outreach program has grown in wonderful ways.

Instituted in 2009 by Adam Penna, the Professors on Wheels program has long brought FA member volunteers out into the Suffolk County community, as we offer presentations and workshops to local nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The program is very successful, it has been featured in Newsday, and it has received awards from NYSUT and AFT.

Having come on board in summer 2016 alongside Ray DiSanza, her very capable co-coordinator at the time, Christina helped this already terrific program grow in even more robust ways. Professors on Wheels expanded to include not only senior citizens in nursing homes or assisted living facilities but also in area community centers and public libraries. In her first year with Professors on Wheels, Christina and Ray added a number of new libraries to the program and they started collaborating with the Long Island State Veterans Home at Stony Brook University. Christina's creativity in imagining new possibilities for the program was so wonderful to witness as well as her labor in actually making these connections happen. By 2018, Professors on Wheels was continuing to send FA members into the community, predominantly to nursing homes and senior centers but also to area libraries and then the Bellport Boys and Girls Club.

I write to nominate Christina for this award, however, not only for her four years of co-direction alongside Ray. No doubt they did a terrific job with it together. But when the pandemic hit in the spring, I believe that Christina truly demonstrated the depths of her commitment to the senior residents of Suffolk County. The chaos that our lives have been thrown into have caused all sorts of programs and initiatives to be put on pause, to be halted or to be dismantled altogether. And, obviously, especially with nursing homes, our FA members cannot possibly continue to go on site and offer our presentations. This was clear when senior facilities were hit so hard in the spring.

But rather than decide that Professors on Wheels would simply have to be put on pause due to the pandemic, Christina got creative. She wanted to help those residents more than ever, as she knew that families, friends and loved ones were no longer allowed to visit the residents. That left them even more vulnerable and more isolated than before. So she did something so simple and obvious that most of us never think to do it—but this is what gets precisely to the core of community outreach and social justice: She called the facilities and asked, "What do you need?"

Based on those conversations and her own good ideas, Christina came up with the idea of creating and donating enrichment boxes for each facility. Christina wasted no time putting out calls for donations, and in short order FA members rose to the occasion. Collecting items at her own home and in the FA office during a pandemic, Christina created a dozen boxes for delivery to senior residents at area nursing homes. They included books, magazines, art supplies, puzzles, games, decks of cards and a variety of other materials to help keep the minds, hearts and hands of these senior citizens active. Christina personally created the boxes, loaded them into her car and delivered them to each facility.

News of Christina's creativity even landed in our state union's newspaper, NYSUT United last month.

Still not content to rest on her heels, Christina knows that donating items is helpful but nothing beats human interaction. Limited by the pandemic, Christina has been hard at work learning the technological capabilities of each of the senior facilities as well as what she has at her disposal here through the FA so that we can continue to bring our FA members into these seniors' lives—only this time safely via the internet. Christina is working to develop a way using our FA YouTube channel so FA members can record their own educational videos, presentations, mini-lectures, etc., and upload them. These can then be streamed on each facility's private, in-house, closed-circuit TV systems, where residents can watch them on demand.

This way, senior residents can have another way to keep their minds actively engaged in this extremely difficult time that is bringing isolation, frustration and fear into their lives. Christina understands the ways in which the pandemic is impacting the senior citizens of Suffolk County the hardest, and her commitment to helping them in all the ways she can makes her most deserving of this award.