THE NEEDIEST CASES: SURVIVING DRUGS' RAVAGES TO BUILD A PRODUCTIVE LIFE

Ray Ptomey speaks so quietly and is so modest in his manner that it is hard
to imagine that he was once on anyone's hit list. But more than a decade
ago he was shot five times by men who wanted him dead.

He was a cocaine dealer and had knowingly stepped onto another dealer's
turf. "I was in the street," said Mr. Ptomey, now 47, "doing what I wasn't
supposed to be doing."

Mr. Ptomey's competitors shot him five times in the abdomen, neck and
shoulder and left him for dead on an East New York sidewalk.

"They were trying to send a message," he said, adding that he had been in
that particular line of work only a week.

The shooting was the worst moment of his life, but also, perhaps, the luckiest.

He was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he stayed for a month and a half.
Now the only physical reminder of that cold night is the opening in his
lower abdomen created by the colostomy he had to have.

After leaving the hospital in 1988, Mr. Ptomey began using heroin to ease
his pain. He stayed on heroin for six years, during which time he survived
on welfare. His first step out of drug dependency came in 1994, when he
enrolled in the city's methadone program, which provided him with a means
to overcome his heroin habit.

But it wasn't until he started baby-sitting for his 7-month-old grandson,
Tharay, in 1998 that Mr. Ptomey realized he needed to find a job and stop
using drugs completely. "I couldn't look at him and still be doing funny
things," he said. "I wanted to be a good sight for my grandson."

He told his methadone counselor that he wanted to find a job, and she
referred him to a job counselor, who sent him to take an aptitude test at
Kings County Hospital Center. After the test, workers at the hospital
recommended that he enroll in a state program, Vocational and Educational
Services for Individuals with Disabilities, that helps find employment for
disabled people and training if they need it. His counselor from the
program, James Samuels, referred him to a job training program at the
Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service, one of the seven local charities
supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund.

At the agency, Mr. Ptomey began working with Mfon Ukpe, who evaluated his
job skills. The agency offers training in several fields, including
custodial and maintenance services, food services and messenger work.

Mr. Ptomey was most interested in working as a custodian. After training in
basic job skills, including how to dress for work and for a job interview,
how to conduct himself during an interview and how to show respect toward
supervisors, Mr. Ptomey was temporarily placed as a custodian and
maintenance man at a branch of Independence Community Bank in downtown
Brooklyn.

After several months as a temporary worker supervised by the Brooklyn
Bureau, Mr. Ptomey was hired as a full-time employee.

When he was hired, Mr. Ptomey did not have enough money for the
steel-tipped shoes and the blue uniform needed for the job, so the Brooklyn
Bureau used $160 from the Neediest Cases Fund to buy them for him.

"We thought it was our duty," Mr. Ukpe said. "We make sure we give people
what they need to get back on their feet."

Mr. Ptomey credits officials of the Brooklyn Bureau with helping him to
succeed.

"They really helped me stay focused," he said. "They allowed me a chance to
work, which kept my mind occupied and kept me on the straight and narrow."