What do a 17-year-old and 77-year-old have in common? More than you’d think.
Tristan Burchett is a 17-year-old high school student who is interested in history, technology, ethics, and philosophy — among many other topics. Willo Font is 77 years old, which in his words, is “real old.” Willo is an accomplished photographer that got his start while attending the Universidad de Puerto Rico and began shooting magazine covers in the ’70s and ’80s.
Tristan started volunteering with SAGE at just 14 years old. Participating in Pride parades since he was young, he was exposed to SAGE’s work early on. One day, he visited a SAGE Center with his mother to see how he could help despite his age, and he has been volunteering ever since.
“SAGE is not just one thing you support: there’s big diversity in its community, and there are a lot of ways to volunteer,” he said. “It becomes your family, and we all help each other like family.”
Similarly, Willo has been a member and volunteer at SAGE for over two years. Willo helps serves dinners at our Edie Windsor SAGE Center. He says it’s a “delight” to see members from different nationalities and backgrounds. Volunteering keeps him in touch with the gay community as he does not go to bars or clubs as often anymore.
“Come on Wednesday night, they serve great eggplant parmesan at Edie Windsor,” Willo said. “When I was young, I never ever thought about a place like SAGE would ever exist for us. Plus, Cher is 78 and she should pop by and do ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’ at karaoke.'”
Who is Willo?
Willo was born and raised in Puerto Rico and came to New York City when he was around 20 years old. His career started off with working for a Puerto Rican women’s magazine called Intima and became a photo editor for the magazine in his early twenties.
Although he had dreams to study cinematography in Italy, he had a career that paid the rent and was happy. He met his husband, James, while photographing Bloomingdale’s interiors for Christmas. At the time, James worked for a store that sold Christmas ornaments.
The pair started off as good friends, but they ended up falling in love and they were together for 12 wonderful years. After James passed away in 2017, Willo was looking for help.
“A little birdie came to my window and chirped “SAGE, SAGE, SAGE,” Willo joked.
Willo received legal assistance and grief support through SAGE. He valued the support he received so much that he wanted to become a volunteer to give back.
Examples of Willo’s work and a photo from his time on set.
When it is Friday, SAGE comes first, and other days Willo focuses on his photography or anything else he is shooting a camera. He has focused on architectural photography mainly but now transitioned to photographing the NYC Ballet, the premier ballet in Manhattan.
Willo’s first paid photo was of Ivonne Coll. You may recognize her from the hit show ‘Jane the Virgin.’
Willo shared that as he ages, he has learned more about the importance of pronouns and the effect of racism in our communities. He stressed that he does not care about “what” other people are, just “who” they are. He has always had a diverse community of loved ones, including drag queens and transgender, gay, straight, and lesbian identifying friends, and never had to ask his friends or talk in-depth about labels before.
When asked about his age, he emphasizes that he stays young by not thinking about his birthdays. His mother taught him this. In fact, he never knew how old his mother was until she passed.
Once his current photography job wraps, Willo wants to do a photography project with the members of SAGE called “Wrinkles.” Willo hopes to teach members about modern photography styles, particularly surrounding color styles.
Who is Tristan?
Tristan Burchett (he/him) was born and raised in Brooklyn and attends Saint Ann’s School. He has relatives from Puerto Rico, so he loves hearing from Nuyoricans like Willo and learning more about their histories. He hopes he’s lucky enough to “attain as much wisdom as him” in his next 60 years of life.
Outside of volunteering, Tristan is interested in history, writing, philosophy, art, and computer science. Particularly, he investigates the intersections of technology and the LGBTQ+ community. At SAGE, Tristan volunteer work spans oral history interviews to technology assistance. His oral history showed him that preserving stories can be about refusing to forget what the world would prefer to erase.
“Working with SAGE members made me realize how essential that refusal is right now, when LGBTQIA+ people are facing backlash and erasure,” he said.
Through his work in the Cyber Center providing technical assistance, he often encounters malicious websites that members accidentally visit. On more than one occasion, Tristan has had to stop scamming websites and uncover viruses. He has also helped people learn about translation tools and swapping keyboard shortcuts to access Spanish accents.
Additionally, he has built new initiatives at SAGE blending his strengths, such as an oral history project and a class about using technology for preserving history.
Though, his favorite part of volunteering at SAGE is simply helping and making intergenerational friends.
“It’s easy to exist in a world of friends your own age,” he explains. “So, it’s been a revelation to become friends with older people and community elders.”
Throughout his time as a volunteer, has been confronted with a lesser-known aspect of diversity: how each generation experiences and understands and experiences sexual and gender identities differently.
“I find it really freeing to hear about how trans and gay identity weren’t always distinct for some people, and it is enlightening to learn about past rifts in solidarity between some gay communities and gender expansive ones,” Tristan said. “This generational diversity has helped me see how identity is molded by time and culture and that building LGBTQ community means finding connection across age.”
Tristan has also learned just how expansive ageism is, especially within our community. Similar to Willo’s journey, many LGBTQ+ elders don’t have adequate support and are often left to face the difficulties that come along with aging in our society alone. For example, he encounters elders worried about discrimination in living facilities or not having family that will support or help them as they age.
“Watching folks help address this at SAGE, and getting to be part of that, made me realize this is community power: showing up to help, imperfectly, sure, but as freely as we can,” he said.
Tristan finds resilience and inspiration in the braveries and experiences of the elders at SAGE and the LGBTQ+ community, showcasing how powerful and healing intergenerational connection can be. Further, he has learned that resilience doesn’t always look neat.
“There’s resistance without recognition,” he said. “Some stories don’t end with resolution or triumph. And that’s what makes them powerful. These aren’t narratives built for a documentary; they’re people’s real experiences, sometimes jagged, sometimes brave. That complexity has helped me accept uncertainty in my own life. That’s a kind of emotional resilience I’ve developed here.
As Tristan faces the future as the next generation of the LGBTQ+ community, he recognizes the power and hope that comes from learning from those who came before him.
“It doesn’t make the current moment any less urgent, but it gives me context, and that context makes me resilient,” he said. “When you realize you’re not the first to feel afraid, you start to see fear as something you can live through, not live in.”
