by Staten Island Advance
Sunday June 21, 2009, 7:00 AM

Today, dads on Staten Island and across the country will be honored for teaching their children important tasks in life.

Yet, what often goes unnoticed is how children actually teach their fathers.

Take Concord resident Tony Avilez for instance.

Avilez, 42, a fitness trainer and owner of Staten Island Boot Camp in Grasmere, learned the importance of persistence when his 2-year-old son, Antonio, started learning how to walk:

"It's amazing how many times he fell down and picked himself up and never complained. It reminds me what it's all about. You fall down, you pick yourself back up."

The Concord resident also realized he has to be on his best behavior at all times, since Antonio's always watching him.

Take the time Avilez, a fitness trainer and owner of Staten Island Boot Camp, brought the toddler to his fitness studio in Grasmere.

The 42-year-old father was demonstrating with weights when his clients started laughing. He looked over to see his son mimicking his actions and lifting tiny kettlebells.

"He makes me want to stay on my toes and remember I have to be the best I can possibly be, not just for myself and my wife, but for him," Avilez said.

by Barton Horowitz / Island Business Upclose
Thursday July 23, 2009, 9:35 AM

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- GRASMERE -- You don't have to be in the military to benefit from boot camp. Tony Books Avilez's Staten Island version promises to get you in shape within weeks. Better yet, you won't have to ship out when the training is completed -- unless you plan to show off your newly toned physique on the pool deck of a luxury cruise liner.

A seasoned fitness, weight-management and nutrition consultant, Tony has been helping Islanders fine-tune their bodies for over 13 years. And whether you choose to participate in Tony's Staten Island Boot Camp at his Body House Gym, 1192 Hylan Blvd., Grasmere, or in the open air along the FDR Boardwalk in South Beach, you should quickly expect significant changes in the way you look and feel.

The reason is simple: Tony is an expert who truly cares about his clients.

"I gave up a very promising future in finance to pursue fitness as a career. Many of my friends and family thought I was crazy, but I knew I was doing the right thing," said Tony, who is designated by the National Strength and Conditioning Association as a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS).

Tony's six-week fitness camp members attend three 50-minute sessions a week. Parts of the program incorporate Tony's self-designed product: The Total Body Accelerator.

"It's a very simple and portable piece of equipment that allows you to work out, using your own body weight, no matter what your fitness level may be," he said.

An avid sports enthusiast and athlete, Tony was inducted into the Staten Island Hall of Fame in 2005 as a member of the St. Peter's Boys' High School City Championship basketball team of 1983.

"I cut my teeth as a fitness coach working at the St. Peter's summer basketball camps in the 80s," said the 42-year-old Concord resident.

Tony's years of training experience and diligence have brought him recognition far beyond the Island. In 2004, he was recognized by Personal Fitness Professional magazine as one of the top-100 trainers in the nation. In addition, he's written seven books and produced a variety of fitness and nutrition videos.

"My goal is to become the fitness czar of Staten Island," Tony said. "My only focus is to make an impact right here where I live. Staten Island as a community is in need of its own health, fitness and weight-loss resources. So the future plan is to reach out, touch and help as many Staten Islanders as possible."

For more information, Tony may be reached at 718-420-0720 or via his Web site, www.StatenIslandBootCamp.com.

Barton Horowitz is the Advance senior business writer/columnist. He may be reached by e-mail at horowitz@siadvance.com.

byDeborah E. Young/ Breaking local news
Monday March 8, 2010, 7:57 AM

Personal trainer Tony Avilez carries a 14-year-old girl, Matilda Marie, after she finished one of several surgeries for a shattered leg. "In a case like that, the people we did see were the lucky ones," said the owner of Staten Island Boot Camp. "Even the amputees, because so many were killed." (Photo courtesy/Tony Avilez)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Nearly two months have passed since the earthquake shook Haiti's capital of Port Au Prince to the ground, killing hundreds of thousands and leaving hundreds of thousands others gravely injured and homeless.

While the tragedy has faded from the headlines -- replaced by the earthquake in Chile and closer-to-home domestic issues -- a Staten Island doctor and personal trainer who traveled to the region Jan. 19 and saw the devastation first-hand say they are haunted by the desperate situation facing survivors.

MORE ASSISTANCE

Inspired by the resiliency and warmth of the Haitians they met, they said they will return to the Caribbean country in upcoming months and years, to continue offering whatever assistance they can.
"Imagine you wake up, and you find out two of your children are dead, you can't find your husband or wife, you're missing one or two legs. For me the world would be over," said Dr. Ken Testa, a South Beach general surgeon. "We saw people who had lost eyes, third degree burns, a lot of amputations, ears, fingers, hands, arms, a pregnant woman with a pelvic fractures, children with amputations without parents."
As Testa helped transport the worst cases to the just-docked U.S. Navy Hospital ship and performed operations alongside other medical volunteers in an overcrowded clinic in the Dominican border town of Jalabi, he said he was moved by the deeply spiritual, stalwart patients, who never indulged in self pity.
"I don't know how these people were functioning and they were. People who had lost their family members were taking care of people who weren't their families. They prayed a lot they were grateful and thankful," he said, describing a bright, English-fluent University student who had lost a leg and his home, but only had positive words, even as he went through several excruciating operations.

LONG RECOVERY
Recovery will take decades: Many of the patients, he said, are children and single and double amputees, who must go forward, living in a country with virtually infrastructure for the disabled.
"It's hard enough to be disabled here where there are resources, imagine being in a country with only dirt roads," said Testa, who is starting to network with prosthetic providers and other physicians to set up an ongoing program with Haiti. "I want to be able to go down there with prosthetic technicians have prosthetics made, and go back and refit them."
Tony Avilez, a personal trainer and owner of Staten Island Boot Camp who accompanied Dr. Testa, is also figuring out when he will go back.
He spent the week transporting patients -- often them carrying in his arms --two football fields' length between a makeshift a tent where they lay head to foot on cots and the ground, and the rudimentary operating room where volunteer doctors worked in the searing heat.

CAME BACK CHANGED
"I don't think there's anybody went there that came back unchanged," said Avilez -- who like Testa decided to make the trip after seeing the excruciating images of the quake's aftermath on TV.
"The first thing I realized I don't have any problems,' he said. "I really felt like wow, with this amount of tremendous personal devastation and physical devastation the people there still demonstrated a tremendous amount of hope."
He said not an hour has passed since he returned more than a month ago that he hasn't mulled the life lessons learned.
"We have so much abundance in this country," he said. "I'm able to have a business and career to help people lose weight, based on an overabundance. These people have so little, and even with whatever they had that was left, they realized it was going to be okay."