This 'survivor' is a Cleveland mom and attorney

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This 'survivor' is a Cleveland mom and attorney

By: JUNE SCHARF Contributing Writer

Escaping your life for 39 days is no easy task, but it's one of many challenges Solon resident Caryn Groedel faced during her stint on the popular CBS program "Survivor," which grants $1 million to its winner.

Groedel, along with 19 other contenders, clandestinely traveled to the Palau Islands in the South Pacific in late October to appear on the reality show, now in its 10th edition and airing on Thursdays at 8 p.m. on WOIO Channel 19. According to her husband Howard, she told friends and clients of her civil rights and employment discrimination law practice that she was going to Cambodia to build houses as part of a Habitat for Humanity project.

Howard, a corporate and securities lawyer, is serving as his wife's spokesperson due to restrictions placed on the media's access to "Survivor" participants. While it's true that Habitat houses were being built at that time and place, Caryn, 46, was nowhere near those sites.

Instead, she and the other contenders - a total of ten women and ten men - found themselves on a boat equipped only with oars approaching a sun-drenched Palau beach. As seen in the first episode, before they realized it, they were looking at their first challenge: getting to shore.

The program's host suddenly drove up to them in a motorboat and informed them that two "immunity" necklaces awaited on shore, and the first male and female to arrive would get to keep them and thereby grant themselves protection from being cast off the island during the initial cut.

"The fight was on immediately," Caryn says in a breakaway to contenders' comments during the episode that aired last week.

While she wasn't the first to arrive on the beach, her initial triumph came when she was picked to join one of two "tribes" being formed. The last female and male standing were instantly cast off the island.

As further evidence of the program's cutthroat competition, its slogan is "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast." This certainly plays to some of Caryn's strengths on which she elaborated in a video profile posted on the program's website.

"I have keen insight into people," she explains, a trait she developed further through selecting juries as part of her legal work. She also claims she can be "very persuasive." Other self-described attributes are "hard-working, ambitious and fun-loving."

"I think I'm perceived as being really, really tough," she adds. Some of that toughness stems from her upbringing in New York City by "very, very strict parents."

"We had to do everything just right. We had to give 110% - my parents would not accept anything less than that. This is what defined me from my youth."

Defining her as an adult, she says, are her three daughters: Hannah, 15, who attends Hathaway Brown School for Girls, Isabel, 12, and Mya, 6, both of whom attend Gross Schechter Day School. The family belongs to B'nai Jeshurun-Temple on the Heights.

It was Isabel, in fact, who encouraged Caryn to try out for the show, says Howard. Once the two of them hatched their plan, they presented it to Howard who responded with, "Go for it." Calling his wife "strong willed, motivated, dedicated and high energy," he thought she was well-suited for the challenge.

"Caryn wanted to be on the show because she loves challenges and trying new things," Howard explains. "Plus, the places where the show goes are beautiful. I thought she could be successful on the show because she can be tough when she needs to be and comfortable with many different types of people. She also is a good negotiator and a loyal friend. Those things should stand her in good stead."

Other family members, however, were "incredulous" about her participation at first, says Howard. But as they learned more about the program, "they came to realize that this was something that Caryn would like."

Casting is done either by appearing at an open call or by sending in a video that reveals character and personality. The Groedels went for the latter, and Isabel shot a roughly eight-minute video that captured Caryn rollerblading and painting and included comments from family members. Caryn also stated why she wanted to be on the show and why she would be good on it.

She soon learned that she made the cut for an in-person half-hour interview that required her to travel to an undisclosed location out-of-state. Next, she was asked to go to California for the final selection. A few weeks later, the island adventure began.

Presently, her life is slightly altered by her increasingly public profile.

"She's recognized by people we don't know," says Howard. Also, people now talk about her on message boards visited by many ardent "Survivor" fans.

But what does her future hold?

"People have been contacting us regarding different opportunities, but for now, we're taking one day at a time," says Howard. Previous "Survivor" cast members, many of whom are in their 20s, have appeared on TV as program hosts and as spokespeople in advertising campaigns. Others have gotten gigs writing for magazines.

Howard, however, separates his wife from many other "Survivor" alumni by the fact that she already has a full, meaningful life. "We're at a different place than some other people - she's not just out of college."

While plenty of suspense remains surrounding Caryn's fate on the program, she did make one definitive declaration in her online profile.

"I am going to go far in this game. Of that, I can assure you."