This is the second story in a special holiday series celebrating altruists in our midst. Know a neighborhood helper who deserves a shout out? Email us at editorial@arlingtonmagazine.com.
As we motor through a daily sea of work, chores and other obligations, it’s the littlest things we leave in our wake that make the greatest contributions. That’s the philosophy of one of Arlington’s newer residents, Gary Shulman. He’s been making waves in the community ever since he arrived just 18 short months ago with his efforts to bring neighbors together, provide help and generally spread joy and compassion through something he calls “little legacies.”
“The ultimate goal is that when I’m gone, something has been left behind so that this world I was born into is left in some way better, not worse,” he says.
Shulman, 73, may be best known as the founder of Arlington Through the Eyes of a Newbie, a social media group he created as a way for neighbors to support each other and share positive observations about life in Arlington. The Facebook page would unite hundreds of residents in a shared cause, and launch Shulman into something of a local celebrity.
It all started when Shulman and his spouse, Marc Vassall, were planning to move here from Palm Springs, California. He joined the Facebook group Arlington Neighbors Helping Each Other (Through Covid-19)—initially to get recommendations for things like doctors, accountants and the best bagel shops in town. Soon, he was posting for fun about all the cool things he was discovering in the area. The posts gained such a following that he decided to branch out and form his own group.
“It was just becoming too much like the Gary Shulman show,” he says. “It didn’t seem right to take up the space and the time on somebody else’s Facebook group. Several people who had been following me there said, ‘Well, why don’t you start your own Facebook group? Because it seems like you have a different focus. You’re doing nothing but celebrating Arlington, you’re telling stories, sharing things that you enjoy. It’s very positive.’”
So he did. Within a day or two, the group had more than 700 members. Today it’s up to 1,600. It’s now a place where people share community goings-on and new places to visit—and generally remind Arlingtonians to look around and appreciate the neighborhoods and places they pass daily. One recent day found posts about upcoming philanthropic events, missing dogs and toys, and silly videos just to make folks laugh.
A published poet with three books to his name, Shulman has written several poems about Arlington and sometimes posts them to the group.
Shulman and Vassall, who live in Ballston, often post photos and discoveries from exploratory walks through town. As a result, they’ve become recognizable. People call their names on the street, or stop their cars and roll down the windows to meet them. Shulman wrote a poem about it called, “Famous for No Apparent Reason.”
“It happens all the time on nature trails,” he marvels. “I guess we are famous because we’ve made people feel good about living here. But at the same time, it’s not like we have any particular skill or talent. We’re just sharing positivity. [After] Covid, I think people were feeling extremely isolated, extremely depressed, extremely down. They needed a big dose of positivity and camaraderie—and just to feel good again.”
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Shulman has always had a passion for making the world a better place, partly through his lifelong career as an advocate for children with disabilities and their parents. He started out in the 1970s as a Head Start teacher and went on to work as the Special Needs Coordinator for the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. After that, he spent nearly 25 years as an advocate for Resources for Children with Special Needs, Inc. (now called INCLUDEnyc).
These days, he works as a private consultant running virtual special needs workshops—some of which he offers for free. He is also serving a two-year appointment as a member of Arlington’s Partnership for Children Youth and Families, which champions improved policies to meet young people’s needs.
Advocating for children is something Shulman says he missed during his short (two-year) sojourn in Palm Springs, a retirement community that is largely child-free. He and Vassall also missed the changing seasons, and didn’t enjoy the seven “mini” earthquakes they experienced in California, which were strong enough to rattle walls and send water out of swimming pools.
Here, they feel energized by Arlington’s magic combination of urban vibe—full of restaurants and bustle—and the fact that if you walk just a few blocks, you can find bucolic neighborhoods and nature paths to explore. He wrote a poem about that, too.
Shulman says he truly believes that everyone has different gifts and skills that they can use to make an impact—and it’s never too late to start.
“I consider these little legacies,” he says. “To me that’s the most important thing. Something you do has to leave the world a better place. It doesn’t have to be monumental. It’s not like you’re leaving $100,000 to the local hospital. It could be a simple thing. Maybe once a month volunteering at a shelter. It could be encouraging people to get back out on the nature trails.”
“And you know what?” he adds. “If you see some rubbish, pick it up. Be a kind person, whatever that means to you. Just exhibit kindness. We all have different ways of doing that.”