News

ASSISTING CHILDREN IN THE COMMUNITY

May 9, 2019

The Gerald J. Ryan Summer Camp at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church in Wyandanch has served the community for nearly 40 years. We enroll 150 children in Grades One through Six. Our goal is to foster the growth of self-esteem in our children as we give them educational and recreational opportunities that would not be readily available to them.

Our goal is to foster the growth of self-esteem in our children as we give them educational and recreational opportunities that would not be readily available to them. The summer camp has an educational component, which is reinforced by our staff of dedicated certified teachers. . The summer camp allows the children of Wyandanch to get off the streets and into classrooms where they have the opportunity to grow and feel safe during the summer. Campers are encouraged to build friendships, set goals and aspirations for the future.

We need your help in maintaining the quality of the camp and retaining professional teachers to guide and mentor these children. The Golf Outing is our largest fundraiser for the camp each year, so please join us for a day of golf, dinner, or help sponsor a child for the 2019 Summer Camp. The Golf Outing will be held on Thursday, May 23rd at Timber Point Country Club in East Islip. The dinner starts at 6 pm for dinner-only attendees.

Be the catalyst for change and help us take care of these children!

All the details about the outing, including sponsorship and registration, are in the Golf Outing link http://outreachsummercamp.golfgenius.com.

LONG ISLAND CATHOLIC APPLAUDS THANKSGIVING PACKAGE TRADITION ORGANIZED BY THE RYAN OUTREACH CENTER!

November 22, 2017

WRITTEN BY GREGORY SHEMITZ / THE LONG ISLAND CATHOLIC

The parish hall of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church in Wyandanch was humming with activity on Sunday, Nov. 19, as approximately 150 volunteers of various ages and faith backgrounds worked feverishly to assemble bags of Thanksgiving Day food that would be distributed to people in need living in the communities surrounding the church.

It took less than 45 minutes for the volunteers to pack 320 large, heavy-duty tote bags with fresh and canned vegetables, stuffing, cranberry sauce, cornbread, dry pasta, cake mix, a two-liter bottle of Coke, and a baking tray. The bags, along with a frozen turkey and additional provisions, were given to recipients on Monday and Tuesday.

The staff of the Gerald J. Ryan Outreach Center—a not-for-profit organization located on the campus of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal serving the people of Wyandanch, Wheatley Heights, and a section of West Babylon—coordinated the collection, packaging, and distribution of the food, and managed the volunteers. The charity has been running the Thanksgiving week event for nearly 40 years.

OUTREACH BOARD PRES. JOE GIBBONS’ UPDATE

Monday, October 9, 2017

1:00 PM 2:00 PM

Back to School Backpack program: over 350 backpacks were distributed this year. This is only possible because of your generous donations.

Homeless Shelter: Of the forty-one people we hosted each night during last year’s Homeless Shelter Program, seven have become Outreach Center Clients. Five of the men and two of the women have found permanent housing (local rooms to rent) and now have jobs. That is a positive, forward movement for 17% of our Homeless base.

We have been receiving a steady stream of funds, frozen food, clothing, and quality toys from the crew at Harbor Seafood, we appreciate this company’s effort to support the Outreach Center and our children.

Outreach Center: We have been working with a young girl and her parents for a few years (it took them 5 months to trust us enough to see where they live), they live in an unheated room which is one half of a one-car garage with no window or outside door and is lighted with a naked light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Before we gave them one of our shelter cots, the young girl and her mother slept on the cement floor on cardboard. They share a bathroom with many families and single men.

This is not a secure nor humane living condition. The father works 10 hours a day, 7 days a week for $300. The young girl would get eye infections (7 in 9 months) and the doctors attribute these to her living environment. The parents speak an indigenous language and cannot communicate with anyone except their daughter. As I was describing this to a parishioner who helps me with the PAL Soccer clinic and the Homeless Shelter, he asked to meet this family.

A week later, he told me he will fund an apartment to get the family off the cement floor and get some heat, an incredibly generous gesture. This week, we are moving the family to a two-bedroom apartment and this will be the first time in this 13-year-old girl’s life where she will have her own bed. Scott Veroline also heard of this situation and gave a nice donation to purchase beds and other items for this family. This is what the Outreach Center does best, we help the people in desperate need, regardless of who they are!

For All! Thank you for your continued support.

JOE GIBBONS’ UPDATE REPORT FROM 9/19

October 7, 2017

–Basketball Clinic: this year, Adventureland sponsored the clinic by donating 150 basketballs, snacks and water. Alfie, their mascot, came and participated in all the drills to the delight of the campers! 92 degree weather on blacktop can get very hot but Alfie was a hero and stayed in role and costume the entire time. Joe Gibbons Jr and Justin Hassenfeld ran the clinic and the pictures on the website says it all! It was cute that the campers wanted Alfie to autograph their basketballs.

–Yoga and Ceramic classes: I was surprised how attentive and focused everyone was with the yoga! The campers really enjoyed it. Thank you Janice.

–The breakfast and lunch provided by Island Harvest was the best food ever, and we thank the organization for all they do for us.

–At the end of each day during camp the homeless, shelter and other less fortunate campers would come to the back and we would very quietly distribute whatever foods we had left. This was a humbling experience for me to see these children trying to figure out how they will eat that night and during the weekends.

–As we drove over the Robert Moses Bridge on the way to both the Captree Boat Basin and Cedar Beach Marina for the day trips I showed the campers how to count in seconds to see long it takes to see the light from the Fire Island Lighthouse ( seven seconds). This became a game and the entire van would joyfully call out one one-thousand, two one-thousand, I explained the lighthouse was built to provide navigational aid to safe harbors to protect the sailors. One young girl said “like the way you protect us.”

Sincere Regards,
Joe

RYAN OUTREACH STAFF HELP GET THE BALL ROLLING! PAL SOCCER CLINIC FOR KIDS OFF TO A GREAT START

May 28, 2017

FROM THE DESK OF JOE GIBBONS (Ryan Outreach Board President) — May 19th / Reporting after the 2nd of 8 scheduled clinic Mondays.

The Police Officers of the First Precinct, the Police Athletic League, some St John the Baptist DHS coaches, the TOB parks team, Councilman and Deputy Supervisor Tony Martinez, the Outreach Center, and a few local Wyandanch parents are using focused, community-building actions to help bridge the gap between local law enforcement and Wyandanch youth.

It’s gratifying to see 75+ children and their parents come to Wyandanch Park in their blue PAL tee shirts ready to work on developmental soccer skills, and then play some games. In the 2nd week, parents were seen walking the field perimeter for exercise and socializing in the bleachers.

It’s also great to see our local Police Officers running this clinic, and getting to know the names of these 3rd to 8th grade “futbol” players. We saw a lot of handshakes and smiles out on the field.

By this second session, children were getting to know Officer Liz, Officer Jeff, Officer Christine, and Officer Patricia by name. Officer Jeff walks the field and makes sure everyone is hydrated and interacting positively with the players, especially with encouraging words like “great job, or great kick” “way to be!” and so on.

Officer Liz, Officer Patricia, and Officer Christine welcome every child and parent that come through the gate and make sure they have a shirt and are ready to play. Some children need sneakers and Officer Patricia has a few new pairs to give out. We expect to have 100 children at our next clinic.

NEW BISHOP JOHN BARRES VISITS THE RYAN OUTREACH / MARCH 25TH

April 4, 2017

Our new Bishop in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, John O. Barres, came to be the celebrant of the 9:30am mass at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Tuesday, March 25th.

Afterwards, he visited the Gerald J. Ryan Outreach and was given the “grand tour” by Joe, Noelle Naycha and others.

Here’s how the story was reported in the Long Island Catholic in the last week of March: http://licatholic.org/bishop-barres-welcomed-by-wyandanch-parish

OLMM AND PASTOR BILL BRISOTTI FEATURED IN NATIONAL PUBLICATION

July 24, 2016

SISTER CAMILEE D’ARIENZO’S INTERVIEW WITH FR. BILL WAS PUBLISHED JULY 5th.

Bill, during the past 42 years, you have lived and labored in Wyandanch, reputedly one of the most economically challenged areas on Long Island. How did this assignment come about?

I came here in January 1974 as an associate until March 1983. At that point I moved over to Casa de la Paz, a new Catholic Worker community house, also in Wyandanch. I had asked Bishop McGann for permission to do this, and had the approval of the pastor, Fr. Andy Connolly, to live with the new CW community and promote its work in Wyandanch and continue serving as a curate in the parish. Bishop McGann refused my request and sent me a letter suspending me from priestly ministry. Another priest was sent to replace me at the parish.

That must have been a hard blow. What did you do?

I used the next three years to get increasingly more involved with the undocumented immigrants and spending significant time in Central America, the source of most of these immigrants, helping promote the visiting of many U.S. citizens to learn about the troubles causing this tremendous migration of people, and to promote the value of the ‘accompaniment presence’ to help ensure some bit of security for the people. I worked as a volunteer with the program of refugios for the displaced in the San Salvador archdiocese in El Salvador, living in one of the camps for several months.

PLEASE VISIT THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER FOR REST OF THIS INTERVIEW: http://bit.ly/2ahcNgq