Cindy Stine with Alfie.
Cindy Stine and husband Jim.
Cindy Stine passed away on December 15, 2024. She was born at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, NJ, the daughter of Abe and Bobbie Green. She was raised in Fords, NJ, and graduated Woodbridge (NJ) High School in 1972.
While she enjoyed a professional career working for Eastman Kodak as a financial analyst for 20 years, Cindy ultimately found her life’s calling in social work. She left an indelible mark on the lives of thousands of people who benefited from her compassion, kind counsel, and limitless empathy.
In 1998, she was working as an educational outreach coordinator/child and teen advocate with Safe Haven of Pike County, Inc., then the region’s leading organization addressing domestic violence. She was instrumental in the creation of their RYOT (Rallying Youth Organizers Together) program at Delaware Valley High School, in Milford.
RYOT is a youth leadership program that engages teens in the movement to end sexual and other forms of interpersonal violence. RYOT was expanded in Pike County to include the Wallenpaupack School District and has served as an inspiration and model for similar programs across the country.
RYOT members perform socio-dramas and poetry readings, and utilized music and other resources to educate young people and bring attention to issues of sexual abuse, domestic violence, rape, and unhealthy dating relationships. RYOT operated through Safe Haven (now known as Victims Intervention Program) as the Pike County branch of the statewide Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR).
In 2012, Cindy volunteered to coordinate the Sero Project’s outreach program to incarcerated people living with HIV. Sero is a national network of people with HIV and allies fighting against stigma, discrimination, and criminalization. She ultimately joined Sero as one of its first full-time staffers, where she was employed until her death.
Over the next 12 years, Cindy was instrumental in Sero’s growth, including helping launch its now biennial “HIV is Not a Crime National Training Academy,” and the Sero Project Justice Institute’s “Turn it up! staying strong inside” magazine. She instituted, and each year organized, a holiday card program that mailed thousands of holiday cards to incarcerated people throughout the country.
Until just days before her death, she was in touch from her hospital bed with scores of people, including volunteers working on the holiday card program as well as a wide network of activist friends, people who are incarcerated and others involved in her social justice work.
In addition to her work with young people, women and families affected by domestic violence, people with HIV, people who are or have been incarcerated and other underserved, marginalized and at-risk populations, Cindy was involved with many Milford-area community organizations.
She served on the board of directors of Pike Opera, Inc. and volunteered with the Greater Pike Community Foundation, Milford Readers and Writers Festival, Milford Enhancement Committee, and other endeavors.
She was pre-deceased by her parents, sister Jody Healey, and her beloved husband James Stine. Surviving family members include her aunt Susan Saunders, sisters Shelley Harrison and Ronnie Pembleton, daughters Jaimee Muench (husband Eric) and Elizabeth Stine (fiancé Noah Olm), cousins, nieces, and nephews.
Her impact on the lives of so many people can be seen through the hundreds of tributes to Cindy posted on Facebook and other social media channels in the days following her death.
She was universally regarded as a person of gentleness, integrity, loyalty, generosity and an exceptional commitment to community.
She was a lover of Barbra Streisand, musicals, and buffalo chicken wings. She thoroughly enjoyed watching “The Santa Clause” movies any time of year, sitting by her fireplace with Jim and family and vacationing in St. John, Virgin Islands, with Jim whenever possible.
Cindy’s family is holding a private funeral service, but a public memorial service is being planned for the spring, to be held in Milford, Pennsylvania. For information, details will be provided via Cindy’s Facebook page, which will be updated by her daughter Elizabeth.
Memorial contributions to the Sero Project (seroproject.com) or to Greater Pike Community Foundation (greaterpike.org) are appreciated. If to Greater Pike, please note the donation is in honor of Cindy.