Ryan Outreach Golf Outing a Day to Remember: May 25th

TIMBER POINT GOLF CLUB / GREAT RIVER, N.Y.

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The rumor going around on May 25th was that Father Bill Brisotti was in charge of the weather. And having conscientiously served the OLMM parish and Wyandanch community for the past 40 years - Fr. Bill's prayers were answered from "on high" with a day of perfect golf weather!  There was brilliant sunshine, 85 degrees temps, and a cool ocean breeze--making any humidity a non-factor. It was the best possible weather, in fact.

View more photos of the Ryan Outreach Summer Camp Golf Outing, here: MEDIA GALLERY

Board of Trustees President Joe Gibbons commented:   "I would like to personally thank everyone who generously supported the golf outing and dinner for the Gerald Ryan Outreach Center. I've been to many golf outings in the past, but have never seen this level of attendance post-golf. It was gratifying to see so many people staying on for the entire night.  Once again, this reflects the high-caliber people and families we are so lucky to have leading the way in support of the Outreach Center. You are all part of who we are and what we do and I am very thankful for that!" 

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All 80 golfing slots (20 foursomes) were sold out in advance. There were 142 dinner guests, including golfers, Outreach friends, supporters, and sponsors. 

Jim H's three-piece slow jazz band was a big hit--and since then, people have been inquiring about where & when they can see the troupe perform again! Andy Carracino, the Timber Point pro and his staff were more than helpful, and complimented us on what a great group of people we had.  

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KEYNOTE:    The outing accomplished its goal of generating sufficient funds to extend the Ryan Outreach Summer Camp by an additional week, which now allows us to care for and feed the homeless and shelter children for one more week of the summer. 

We also raised enough to fund our After School Program, which provides a full meal daily for each child, as well as homework help, in a safe and caring environment for Wyandanch children during the school year (ending in May).  

CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL PDF LIST OF OUR SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS. 

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WITHOUT GENEROUS SPONSORS LIKE THESE.....THERE WOULD BE NO SUMMER CAMP FOR OUR LOCAL KIDS! WE CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH.

We are happy to extend an open invitation to you, your family and your friends to visit us at the Outreach Center at any time. You'll be able to see firsthand, or participate in, activities such as the Summer Camp, the Back to School Program, the After School Program, the Thanksgiving and Christmas distribution, the food and clothing pantry, or the Tuesday night Homeless Shelter. 

Special thanks to St John the Baptist DHS and Temple Beth Torah for their ongoing support of the Outreach Center and their frequent and continuing participation in many of our events and campaigns.

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Special recognition and kudos also are in order for Noelle Campbell, and her Outreach staff: Naycha Florival, Ivonne Tararas, and Myrna Salmeron for stepping out of their comfort zones and working tirelessly to make the golf outing & dinner a sure success. Just imagine the challenge of working hard for long hours with women and children in crisis all day.....and then having to worry if there are enough golf towels on hand at the outing! 

EPILOGUE:   The 50/50 raffle was won by a woman who had once been an outreach center client, and who had lived in a shelter. After crisis management by the outreach staff and her own hard work and determination, she now works full time and lives in a modest apartment in West Babylon. After she learned that she won the $2,500 prize, she said that she tithes at church and wanted to give back 10 percent. But Ryan Outreach staffers apparently told her:  "Absolutely not! You keep it all--and enjoy your windfall!" 

OLMM PASTOR WILLIAM BRISOTTI RECEIVES SPECIAL AWARD FROM ST. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE

Named after the College’s motto, Esse Non Videri: “To be, not to seem,” the Sister Elizabeth Hill Esse Non Videri Non-Violence Award is presented annually to individuals who exemplify compassion, social engagement and spirituality in the pursuit of social justice and peace. Recipients are chosen for their commitment to a nonviolent way of life and efforts toward bringing about peace, perhaps in an individual or personal situation, or to the wider community or world. 

[click on press release image to read full story @ St. Joseph's website]

Executive Director Noelle Campbell Awarded

The Gerald Ryan Outreach Center's Director, Noelle Campbell has achieved special recognition from State Senator Phil Boyle, and will be receiving an award on Thursday, February 4th. Noelle is one of 12 outstanding contributors to our region of Western Suffolk County--in connection with Black History Month (February). Noelle's hard work, dedication and determination are well-known to anyone and everyone connected to the Ryan Center, and so it is with great pleasure that we congratulate Noelle and applaud her very tangible achievements. 

Newsday - Faiths' common ground celebrated as Passover, Good Friday coincide

By BART JONES  bart.jones@newsday.com

View video on the Newsday website here.

Two dozen tables were laden with traditional Passover food: the mixture of apples, walnuts and wine called charoset symbolizing the mortar Hebrew slaves used to build pyramids in Egypt, and the saltwater representing the bound ones' tears.

But the setting Wednesday night was not a synagogue, temple or Jewish home. About 150 Jews, Christians and Muslims gathered at a Catholic church in Wyandanch for the ritual seder -- two days before the start of Passover and Good Friday -- in celebration of their beliefs' common ground.

The commemorations, which this year fall on the same day, "should be bringing us together, helping us to be more understanding of different traditions," said the Rev. William Brisotti, administrator of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Catholic Church, where the dinner was held.

"There is so much division and hostility in the world based on religious groups," he said. "We're trying to come in from a whole different angle. We're all ultimately children of the same God."

The interfaith seder also drew congregants from the Dix Hills Jewish Center, Temple Beth Torah in Melville and the Turkish Cultural Center of Long Island, a mosque in Deer Park. The supper included food prepared by members of the temple, as well as kosher-style Hispanic, African-American, Haitian and European foods. A "Noah's pudding" dessert was provided by the Turkish center.

"I think it is wonderful they are honoring the Passover seder and the fact Jesus' last supper was a seder," said Judy Roth, a member of Temple Beth Torah.

Those at the gathering ate as leaders recounted -- in Hebrew, Spanish, Haitian Creole and English -- the story of Passover and the Hebrews' historic exodus out of slavery in Egypt 3,300 years ago, led by Moses. The Hebrews were instructed to place the blood of a slaughtered lamb above their doorways so that a plague sent by God to punish the Egyptians would "pass over" their homes and spare their firstborn sons.

Ray Russo, 76, of Dix Hills, a parishioner at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, said he came because he wanted "to deepen the relationship between us and the Jewish community, and to break barriers."

Diana Weaver, a middle school computer teacher in Brentwood, said she was attending her first seder.

"I'm interested in learning something new," said Weaver, who belongs to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington.

Her husband, Roger Weaver, who described himself as a nondenominational Christian, said, "It's good to get out and see the way other people do things. Otherwise, you get too insular."

Many Christians believe Jesus' last supper with his disciples, on what now is known as Holy Thursday, was a seder. Jesus, who was Jewish, most likely "went to the seder many times in his short life," said Rabbi Charles Klein, head of the Merrick Jewish Centre and a past president of the New York Board of Rabbis.

Good Friday commemorates the day 2,000 years ago that Jesus was crucified by the Romans. Christians believe he rose from the dead three days later, the Resurrection celebrated annually on Easter Sunday.

For many people, Klein said, Passover and Good Friday share the commonality of making the seemingly impossible a reality: the Hebrews escaping from slavery in ancient Egypt, then the most powerful nation on Earth, and Jesus' Resurrection.

"Both religions are saying what might seem to be impossible is not, so long as God plays a role in our lives," he said.

Of Long Island's nearly 2.9 million residents, about half identify themselves as Catholic and about one-quarter as Protestant, said the Rev. Thomas Goodhue, executive director of the Long Island Council of Churches. Those of other faiths, including Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, make up the remainder.

A growing number of Christian churches are holding "model" seders on Holy Thursday to help instruct the faithful about Passover and Christianity's common roots with Judaism, he said.

It is not highly unusual for the two holidays to fall on the same day, because they generally occur around the same time each year, Goodhue said. The last time Passover and Good Friday coincided was in 2012.

Rabbi Steven Moss, president of the Suffolk County Board of Rabbis, noted the coincident dates offer the opportunity for "communities coming together and sharing their culture and traditions."

"It's nice when these things happen," Moss said. "They don't happen enough in our world."

SEDER @ OLMM with Temple Beth Torah....A SPIRITED SUCCESS!

Thanks to many volunteer chefs and cooks too numerous to mention....and organizers (especially Edith and Elda, Dick and Betsy, Jim and Joe....and many others) we "broke new ground" on April 16th, 2014 by gathering for an interdenominational Seder Dinner and Celebration at the Miraculous Medal (OLMM) Parish Hall.

Newsday Feature Article / April 19, 2014

More than six years after a fire destroyed the outreach center at Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Catholic Church in Wyandanch, a new center was built from the ground up to replace it. Executive director Noelle Campbell, left, Father Bill Brisotti and director of youth education Naycha Florival are shown in the new center's food pantry on Tuesday, April 15, 2014. (Credit: Newsday / John Paraskevas)

Tears streamed down the Rev. William Brisotti's face as he watched a fire set by an arsonist consume the outreach center at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church in Wyandanch on the night of Dec. 30, 2007.

The raging blaze at the parish he serves was "about the most devastating moment I've ever experienced," the priest recalled.

Today, as hundreds of thousands of Long Islanders at Easter services celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Brisotti and his staff are filled with amazement and gratitude: The Gerald J. Ryan Outreach Center, a vital lifeline for families in one of Long Island's poorest parishes, has literally risen from the ashes and is operating in a new $1.3 million facility.

"They destroyed the building, but they didn't destroy the heart of the parish and this place," said Brisotti, 71, who has worked on and off in the parish the past 40 years.

"At times people thought it would not happen" and the center never would reopen, he said. "I knew the heart of this place is not going to die."

A local man, who had apparent mental illness, was convicted of setting the fire.

That night, Brisotti was en route to the center after visiting relatives when he neared the church and rectory, where he lived, and saw firefighters battling the blaze.

The outreach center was engulfed, and flames were threatening the rectory and the church itself. Brisotti dashed into the church's sanctuary amid the smoke and retrieved the Blessed Sacrament -- the Communion hosts. When the fire finally was extinguished, much of the complex was gutted or damaged.

The long road back

Days later, the outreach center resumed operations, working in the parish hall and then from rented trailers and storage containers in the church parking lot.

It was hardly ideal: There was little privacy, and clients' conversations with case workers -- often including intimate details of family troubles -- could be overheard. To use the restroom, workers and clients had to don jackets and walk through rain, snow or cold to the parish offices.

The parish needed substantial money to build a new outreach center. Fundraising challenges and other problems dragged out the process for years. The 3,600-square-foot center was completed in June 2012, though it was months more before it resumed operations.

Today, it hums with activity, serving about 1,000 families a month. The center provides food, clothing, rental assistance, job counseling, translating and other services. It also runs an after-school program for up to 50 children and a summer camp for another 150 children in grades 1-6.

"We don't just have a building, we have a home," said Noelle Campbell, the center's director. "For me it is God -- God making it happen when there is no way for it to happen."

For many clients, the center is a godsend.

Pamela Beasley, 44, a single mother of two from Wyandanch, said she probably would be homeless if not for the help she has received. The disabled former factory worker survives on about $650 a month in welfare payments and relies on the center for food, clothing and other necessities.

"They did a lot for me when I was down and out in the gutter," she said. "I just love them."

Rebuilding the center and keeping it open has been a community effort, stretching far beyond Wyandanch. Parishioners gave what they could and donations came from many other sources. Twin college-age brothers ran from Montauk to Queens to raise money. Teenagers in Amityville held a dance-a-thon, while others in Nassau held a walkathon.

Some children literally emptied their piggy banks, Campbell said.

The effort also was ecumenical. Temple Beth Torah in Melville, two of whose members serve as chairman and vice chairman of the center's board of trustees, donated funds. So did the Dix Hills Jewish Center.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre became the single largest donor, providing several hundred thousand dollars.

The ongoing fight

Though the center is completed and the church and rectory have been fully repaired -- at a cost of another $1.6 million -- the battle is not over. Miraculous Medal still must pay to keep the center operating, and is running a $75,000 annual deficit, Campbell said.

The center, with four paid staff members and 35 volunteers, has an annual operating budget of about $325,000.

Cuts in government programs, including food stamps, have led to an increase of about 50 families a month seeking help, Campbell said.

One evening last week, the parish held an interfaith seder dinner to raise funds to help reduce the deficit. Jews, Muslims and Christians came together to mark Passover and Holy Week.

"The center is everything we wanted, but the poor are still with us and there are more of them," said Richard Koubek, a member of the board of trustees.

"We've been resurrected, but the truth is we are trying to keep our heads above water."