Marie Layne, who lives in Brooklyn, is of Haitian descent and can be a member of the Flatbush Improvement Company (FDC).
Moreover being a member of the FDC, she writes and enjoys poetry. “My writing has not been the identical as earlier than work and household life however I used to be lately impressed to jot down once more and it simply made my coronary heart smile,” she mentioned.
For Layne, her biggest affect on the trail that she has chosen right now are her kids.
“They’ve impressed me as a guardian and a girl to place my finest step ahead to guide them into what the world has to supply. They’ve impressed me to smile extra, to need extra, to see greater than I’ve already skilled by their contemporary and thrilling eyes,” she added.
Her journey to Haiti occurred as soon as when her grandmother died, which was an absolute tradition shock. “Whereas my dad and male members of the family carried my grandma’s coffin on their shoulders to the burial website, everybody sang and danced the whole route. I’m positive there was extra however at this level it’s all that caught in my reminiscence,” she said.
Layne added that the kindness and love that was proven to her household by neighbors, different members of the family, and mates have been one thing she by no means witnessed as an Haitian American rising up in New York.
She has given of her time collaborating inside her group by serving to in meals giveaways organized by CAMBA. She began as a volunteer, doing registration for the meals pantry, sorting and bagging contemporary meals and canned items on a weekly foundation to folks of the Flatbush group who have been in want of meals.
For the again to high school giveaway, she labored with the New York Metropolis Councilwoman Farah Louis (District 45) in Flatbush, Brooklyn to offer faculty provides to households with kids going again to high school.
“I take part in PS 139 clothes donations with my kids’s faculty, to offer gently worn clothes to households in want. I additionally at present work with youths interning from quite a lot of excessive colleges and schools at FDC work are prepped with working in an workplace settling, talking and aiding purchasers with questions and referrals for companies,” she added.
In line with Layne, the influence these contributions have had on the communities will not be measurable, and she or he is proud to be part of these communities, watching them flourish regardless of all obstacles.
Apart from poetry, she didn’t have many hobbies. As a result of her mother died when she turned 16, she needed to be a mother determine to her three youthful sisters, whereas working and going to high school.
“My hobbies now are mainly making an attempt the whole lot a minimum of as soon as with my children akin to museums, meals, touring, dancing (my absolute favourite pastime), and studying,” she mentioned.
The legacy she would need to have in life could be to like and assist her neighbors. In line with Layne, the youthful technology is extra technologically impressed, which in some ways advances the group to greater and higher issues.
Nonetheless, for her, this can’t examine to seeing the honest smile and gratitude on my face when she is given three backpacks for her kids to attend faculty. It can’t examine to the grins that mild up my kids’s faces after they see the NewKirk Santa with smiles giving presents.
“I need the youthful technology to expertise extra of that inside love for his or her neighbors,” she added.
