Friends.
“Mr. Joe, look at my Spiderman backpack,” said a boy as he ran up to me and showed off his newly obtained bag for school. He said “cool”, and I said “way cool!” His older sister rolled her eyes at him (and me) but said thank you as she passed by with her backpack. Her mother smiled saying “Gracias” as they walked home. This has been the spirit of the Outreach “Back-to-School Backpack Program” this year. The children are ready to get back to school and some sense of normalcy after being virtual learners for over a year. We first distributed to registered families a few weeks ago but then held a distribution for non-registered families on August 30th; we will continue to distribute backpacks, supplies, and masks as long as our inventory holds. This is a valued effort and a much-needed community service.
HAFALI, Inc. (Haitian American Family of Long Island) is holding a relief effort for the earthquake survivors of Haiti and Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church is a drop off point. Most requested items include soap, deodorant, body lotion, toothpaste, toothbrushes, feminine supplies, diapers, towels, sheets, gauze, bandages, cleaning supplies, sanitizer, hydrogen peroxide, footwear for all ages, etc. Items can be dropped off between 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM at the church. Haiti has had a rough few years with two devastating earthquakes and economic uncertainty with political upheaval leaving many people in need of urgent help.
The outreach is experiencing a significant daily increase of clients with requests for food and diapers; the winter coat distribution will start in a few weeks. We are still not allowing clients into the building due to the proliferation of the COVID Delta variant and the fact that only 50% of the Wyandanch population has been vaccinated to date.
No need to go into detail, but a very special THANK YOU to St. John the Baptist DHS Principal, Biagio Arpino, for his continued support and guidance.
We met Buster (street name) at our homeless shelter 8 years ago; he is a spirited man with a broken body due to a few accidents and a tough childhood. While he rents a room he would come to the shelter, eat, then talk to anyone that would listen to him, he liked the social aspect of the shelter. He is especially personable and we took very good care of him; his back was bad so he slept on the floor, we set up a living area for him next to where we would stay up all night. Buster would sleep a little then get up and drink coffee as he wrote poems and short stories. Buster wrote a poem about the Outreach Center Shelter staff and Father Bill was so impressed that he inserted it into the church bulletin. Buster would bring troubled women from the street to the shelter so that they could receive food and case management. One of the young girls he brought to us is now drug free, no longer walking the streets, and is back with her family in Commack. We see Buster all year round and he is always carrying a book of poems. So Buster came to the Outreach last week and was very excited to show us the book of poems that was just published titled, “Poems that Tell a Story”. He dedicated the book to his mother, Eva Bedell Nesbitt. It’s very nice to see a person with a troubled life come around, stay in his lane, and succeed! We will buy a few books once they are available. John will put his picture on our Facebook next week.
All good!
Joe Gibbons
