I was born and raised in Kearny, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City with a population of about 60,000. I liked everything about the town and Kearny High School. The town was ethnically diverse, as was Kearny High School. I did reasonably well academically and played basketball and baseball all four years.

After high school I went to Stetson University in Florida. That was also a great experience. The campus was beautiful, and many activities were offered. I played basketball at Stetson and loved it enough to know that I wanted to be a teacher and coach basketball after graduation.

After graduation from Stetson, I started teaching and coaching basketball at a New Jersey high school. At the same time, I worked toward a Masters Degree in School Counseling from Montclair State University in Montclair, NJ, graduating in 1971. After 12 years of teaching and coaching I became a high school guidance counselor and remained in that capacity for 23 years until I retired in 2003.

I have been married to my wife Susan for 46 years and we raised three children together. All have earned college degrees. Our oldest daughter is a Mitigation Specialist in the criminal justice system in Arizona. Our second daughter is a Vice President of Advertising and Marketing for Discovery Channel. And our son is a high school Special Education teacher.

I continued to play basketball in various leagues. In 2000 I was getting ready for a game when a teammate told me that Sandy had suffered a massive stroke. We all knew Sandy because she was the bartender at the local pub where we went after games. I found that Sandy had no family in the area, so I stopped in to see her every day at the rehab hospital on my way home from work. I would always bring something to give to her — ice cream, cupcakes, fruit, etc.

One day a nurse came up to me and told me about a mentoring program offered by the Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey. After a training session, I became Sandy’s mentor along with five others. After 20 years I am still helping Sandy, who is now 59.

What does a mentor do? I try to get the survivor as many benefits possible — housing, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. I introduce activities like handicapped horseback riding, joining a support group, finding work opportunities, etc. I always help them set goals that include gaining as much independence as possible. I take each of my survivors out to lunch at least once a week.

When I became a mentor, I decided to learn as much as I could about brain injury. I joined a support group, read books, and subscribed to magazines. I have leaned much in the last 20 years but continue to learn. I wrote and published two books and currently publish a free online magazine called Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Life Magazine. (You can subscribe by emailing me at satbilmagazine@gmail.com.) Over the years I have mentored many survivors. Some have died, some have moved, and some have moved on and continued their journeys on their own. Every one of them has learned to make the most of their lives with a just a little help from me. I am currently mentoring five survivors, and after 20 years I still enjoy my role as a mentor.