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<\/a>Dr. Gary Altheim, Psychologist, Activist and Author at Community Board 12 Manhattan advocating for counseling and summer programs for children, teens and young adults.<\/p><\/div>\n
2003 – A Biography written about Gary Altheim- written by a Columbia Journalism Student who was doing a profile\/article on someone who has impacted the community of Washington Heights.<\/strong><\/p>\n by W. Clark, Columbia Journalism student, 2003 Gary Altheim loved nature from the day he was born, but it wasn\u2019t until he was 16 that he learned about the wilderness inside.\u00a0At that age, he was captain of his high school soccer team, and dreamed of going professional. \u00a0He lived in a well-off section of Woodmere, Long Island. \u00a0He got along with his siblings. \u00a0His father was a successful electrical contractor who made time for his children. \u00a0His mother, a housewife, gave Altheim “materially” everything he wanted. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To this day it pains him to remember his teenage years and the \u00a0conflicts he had with his parents. He stayed out late, acted out and fought constantly with his parents. Eventually they gave him an ultimatum: it was boarding school, or a social worker.\u00a0Altheim chose the latter. \u00a0It is a decision that he credits with shaping his life, and, now, the lives of others. As executive director of GDS\/Camp Excel, his Washington Heights-based non-profit, Altheim, 38, now spends his days counseling neighborhood teens through the same social, emotional, and behavior turmoil he once experienced.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw someone from the outside could come and help when things were bad,\u201d he recalled of his first therapist and role model, Vinnie. \u00a0It was a relationship that lasted until Vinnie\u2019s death last year, but the lessons, Altheim says, remain with him. \u00a0\u201cHe was attuned to you, he was always available.\u201d<\/p>\n With his role model in mind, Altheim started the non-profit behind Camp Excel, Growth and Development Services, Inc. (GDS) seven years ago. \u00a0His former job as a Westchester Family Services psychologist exposed to him kids, but left his other passion, the outdoors, untapped. \u00a0Remembering his positive childhood experiences at camp, Altheim founded Camp Viva, a wilderness retreat for families of AIDS sufferers. \u00a0But Altheim says the camp was mismanaged, and it disturbed him to see his vision go awry. Two years out if graduate school out of frustration he quit the projects and decided to create his own agency, GDS.<\/p>\n With his solid frame, gruff voice, denim clothes and closely-cropped hair, Altheim\u2019s persistence isn\u2019t surprising. \u00a0He looks more like a potential replacement for Bruce Willis in the next\u00a0Die Hard<\/em>\u00a0sequel than a licensed clinical psychologist, or for that matter a non-profit administrator. \u00a0It isn\u2019t hard to imagine him keeping tight control over the unruly band of teenagers he leads up to Westchester County for a week-long summer retreat, though, and if he doesn\u2019t fit the stereotype of the soft-spoken, suited social worker, that may be precisely his secret: kids see him as an equal.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is an extremely gifted person in that he has an innate quality that makes him someone people can trust,\u201d said Altheim\u2019s brother, Marc, 40. \u00a0\u201cSo he tends to have kids gravitate to him.\u201d CLARK \/ PROFILE \/ 10\/13\/03 \u00a0\u00a0–ALTHEIM \/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2003 – A Biography written about Gary Altheim- written by a Columbia Journalism Student who was doing a profile\/article on someone who has impacted the community of Washington Heights. by W. Clark, Columbia Journalism student, 2003 —- Gary Altheim…
\n—-<\/p>\n
\nOther stories of immoral acts by nonprofit leaders, \u00a0corrupt human service agencies, and ineffectual delivery of services led Altheim to become an Activist. “I heard about one of the staff in a group home I was working at banged the kids head in the wall, I came to work the next day and saw the hole in the wall. I confronted the executive directors but nothing would change. \u00a0I was seeing kids already damaged being made worse, and a part of it was about money.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nIt is difficult, however, for the kids Altheim works with to relate to anyone. \u00a0A quarter have been arrested, three-quarters are depressed. \u00a0The vast majority are either welfare recipients or from low-income families. \u00a0One might wonder how the childless Altheim can connect so well with kids of another ethnicity, social class, whose problems are so extreme.
\nAltheim admits, \u201cPeople say you are the most unlikely person [to do what you do].\u201d \u00a0He disagrees. \u00a0His solution, he says, is to give back the commitment he received from his therapist. \u00a0\u201cI never stop thinking, \u2018Is that kid okay?\u2019\u201d he said.
\nIt is the only weakness Altheim admits to, but it is hard to find others. \u00a0He is a workaholic, he says, and this seems like no idle description. \u00a0Unmarried, Altheim confesses to missing out on having much of a personal life, which \u201ctells you when to stop.\u201d \u00a0He admits wanting \u201ca white picket fence, a wife and kids,\u201d but for now, he says, he is too busy rearing an administration.
\nNow, outside work, the only passion Altheim allows himself is the woods themselves. \u00a0There is no picket fence yet, but he lives on an 8-acre estate on a hawk preservation in Westchester County, where the problems of inner city youth are a world apart. \u00a0Or would be, if he did not bring his work home with him.
\n\u201cI think people are surprised that he has committed himself solely to the benefit of others,\u201d said attorney Stuart Serota, a GDS board member. \u00a0\u201cIf was to pick something for Gary to do, I would make this less administrative and more what he loves to do. \u00a0I would send him to camp 365 days a year.\u201d<\/p>\n
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