January 2021 Newsletter
| Happy New Year! As much as we all thought we could leave 2020 in its ruins, 2021’s start has not proven to be the “fix” that we all hoped for….BUT maybe we are moving toward possibilities after these first turbulent weeks. No matter what your political ideologies are, I think we can agree that yesterday’s Inauguration Day was calming and less stressful. Also, our Staten Island Giving Circle launched its 13th year last night in our zoom meeting. ONWARD! I’m glad to go on here to fill you in on the actual meeting and what some of our intentions are for being part of another productive community service year. Before we get started on agenda and work items, we want to acknowledge and console those of you have suffered COVID losses or badnesses. Almost every family now has been touched by this surreal time in our lives. Now here is a little “bullet list” to report on what’s happened since our last meeting and then I will give fuller description to both our Guest Speaker’s presentation and two new ideas for possible work in the New Year. Suffice it to say, we are busier than ever and making very positive strides in helping those struggling in our own community. Thankfully, several of our primary initiatives are trying and succeeding to break through the barriers into 2021. Our Weekend Food Backpack Program, under the watchful eye of Michele Yacovello and in collaboration with the five schools we are assisting with this program, is underway after the holiday and school shutdown breaks. Michele has done a yeoman’s job in propelling the program forward. FOOD continues to be the most pressing issue during the pandemic and making sure underserved children/families are fed when the school cafeterias are closed is essential. In collaboration with Literacy, Inc. (LINC), our S.T.E.A.M. and Literacy after-school zoom programs for underserved kids is rolling after the holiday vacation hiatus. Rosalind Diaz and Husniyah Hassan of LINC were on zoom with us last night and summarized the programs’ success. The S.T.E.A.M. program, under the tutelage of MaryBeth McCarthy (Science) and Christine Hanna (Art) is growing (doubling to ten students) and the students are very engaged and grateful for this extra attention and academic assistance. The Literacy program is going full speed ahead with Kindergarteners. It takes a special heart/patience and understanding of little people to make this a seamless operation and I am so proud of the 13 “educators” from the Giving Circle working so carefully with Rosalyn, Husinyah and Alyssa from Literacy to keep making this happen. We continue to collaborate with Julius Walker of NYCID and Arches to keep a watchful eye on his “kids” (young people traversing the Probation System). I sat in on their group meeting last week (Thursday nights) and offered to assist with basic resumes to kids with earnest thoughts of securing employment. Cabot Creamery continues to circle back to “Cabot Celebrities” to send cheese boxes and soap baskets (SIGC is a grateful recipient of their constant attention). Last month, Jamie Daragjati donated 40 bags of necessity items for the homeless and Bob Sweeney made the distribution. He also had lots of clothing donated to us to give. And just a few days ago, Jaime Rybak brought over two large cartons of socks (men’s and women’s) for Bob to take down by the ferry the next time he visits our homeless neighbors down there. Bob is a dedicated, sincere, genuine caring SIGC member who visits the homeless. We are deeply indebted to him for taking on this role. Last month, Margaret mentioned that Burlington Coats ran a huge coat collection and boxes and boxes of new and gently-used coats. Those coats were quickly swept up by seven different agencies and for this month, Margaret and Helen worked tirelessly to sort and package $35,000 worth of clothing from Children’s Place donated to us and the same seven agencies will benefit. WQXR Radio gave us kudos for our community work on their Friday morning program last week. Our friend, Cristian, nominated us and sure enough, the announcer gave us a gracious plug. Pat from Zion Lutheran Church dropping off another load of food and sundries this afternoon. Pat asks parishioners to help us in this way every week and they have really taken her suggestions to heart; we have received tons of needed supplies from this congregation. Stop & Shop will be donating back $1 (to us) for each shopping bag purchased in their store during the Month of February. We presented a $100 Random Act of Kindness to South Shore Rotary for their newly-initiated Go Fund Me page for Food for Staten Island. That will be their mission for the entire 2021 year…..food. MaryBeth McCarthy brought over the 2020 Fall Edition of BAYWAY, a very professional and complete publication for employees, family and friends of Bayway Refinery and the Linden Terminals (NJ). On Page 10, the SIGC was pictured and saluted when Michele, MaryBeth and I went to receive a check for $3,125 donated by the Refinery’s “Good Neighbor Fund” Committee after their golf outings. This money was earmarked toward our Weekend Food Backpack Program. Joan Wilton joined our zoom last night and has been a member of SIGC for years and years. Joan is a very involved community advocate and last night announced that one of her organizations will be collaborating with Little Victory Theater to put together a play/performance targeting the mental health and welfare of young people who are struggling during this pandemic period. Joan, Dennis McKean is interested in information on this project. Dennis is very involved in community little theater; he now has a huge inventory of props stored in his warehouse. Joan will provide me more detailed information as the project evolves. Joan Baggs has had a great idea which we can all duplicate. Joan is teaching a class of children working toward their First Communions. Ingeniously Joan asked them all to bring in cereal and rice as a collection to pass it forward….Joan will drop off to us and we will distribute. If you have a Sunday school class, group of grandkids, group of friends, etc., be sure to conger up small collections of food and/or hygiene products which are always needed. In “normal times,” any time we had a party or group dinner, I’d always say on the bottom of the invite, “Don’t bring me flowers or wine; please bring a bag of groceries for the poor.” You will remember that Carolyn Corbo very generously asked those friends and family memorializing the loss of her mother in December to donate to the SIGC in lieu of flowers. We are so humbled to tell you that that collection amounted to $1,235.00. Michele and I and our Executive Committee members will be deciding on which need to earmark this money toward. We will report back to you on that decision. Okay, now I want to separate out three bigger pieces of information and also highlight our Guest Speaker from last night, Sharmila Rao Thakkar, Staten Island Not for Profit Association. Sharmila made a very professional, informative presentation sharing the missions/activities of the Staten Island Not for Profit Association and the Staten Island Community Organizations Active in Disaster. Included in her slide show was the schedule and flyers for upcoming events; description of #Staten Island Stay Strong Stay Safe Campaign; and notification of their new address. Because Sharmila was so comprehensive in compiling all this information in written form, we are going to attach the flyers below so you can take some time to digest it all. It was easy to see how committed and enthusiastic Sharmila is about the activities of her organization. We love her spirit and dedication. Click to learn more about #Staten Island Stay Strong Stay Safe Campaign Charlotte Sciarrino and Junior Giving Circles We have had a resurgence of interest in young people wanting to establish and lead Junior Giving Circles in their schools or as a personal group. Charlotte Sciarrino (Jr.) has taken the initiative to create a personal circle of friends with giving hearts to pass it forward. Charlotte will be sending me some of their activities in motion. Junior Giving Circles mimic our “senior” Giving Circle in finding ways to assist the unserved children, seniors, military and homeless of our community. Gathering/collecting food, clothing, blankets, hygiene products, used laptops, and other needs brings in lots more kind hearts and necessary goods for our underserved neighbors. We have three other students who have expressed initial interest in forming a Junior Giving Circle in their schools. I will re-contact Chazz Siewert from St. Clare’s School; Gabriella Milata from St. Joseph by the Sea and Verginia Ganfalean who attends a charter school in Lower Manhattan. I’ll speak to these young people and see if we can guide them into forming and leading these groups. Stay tuned. NEW IDEAS Kids in Crisis (KIC) Program – This new possible initiative came to me as we continued to receive S.O.S. calls for needy people at Christmas. It occurred to me that we might be way too focused on one annual event. Not that we shouldn’t continue our efforts at Christmas, but I think we must think about and discuss the fact that thousands of kids struggle every day of the year; kids are in crisis all through the year. One meal in November and toys/winter clothes in December don’t begin to cover the crises kids endure every day, all year. It is true that we DO try to help all pockets/organizations of kids when we hear of distress, but I think we need to do more reaching out (Families on the Move, new immigrant kids, Los Promotores kids, families known to Joe Cohen, families known to Nancy Gonzalez; military families, probations kids, foster kids, kids known to church and school groups) to watch all year. Summers can be tough for kids when the schools are closed; they then don’t have adequate food, playgrounds, personal guidance. There are a million helpful ideas, I think, to reach out and make our “giving” circle bigger. This task force or watch group could catch kids falling through the cracks. We’d like to hear that kids “need” or desire a field trip (i.e. Lego’s store), extra movie, ice cream party, kickboxing lessons, driving lessons. We could use this as a modified “Make a Wish” scenario, but way less dramatic. Need of socks and underwear create a crisis for a kid, food scarcity is always a crisis. I’d love to brainstorm ways to hear from kids; we need a huge suggestion box (just using a simile) for kids to let us know what they need. These could maybe put in schools, churches, etc. I’ve spoken to Shannon Hoeg (Coast Guard) who made a great suggestion. She is interested in being a member of this task force and suggested we make this a quarterly event. I’m hoping to put together an initial zoom meeting with people interested in joining this think tank for Wednesday, February 24 at 7 p.m. I am going to ask Shannon, Lynne Persing, Margaret Grandstaff, Lori Ficarra, Joan Baggs, Pat (Zion Lutheran Church), Nancy Gonzalez, Joe Cohen and a few more unsuspecting members (lol)…..if you feel compelled to learn more about this idea, please contact me at sigivingcircle@aol.com with a subject line: KIC project. Staten Island Safe House – (Where independent live begins) I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Michael and Alicia Baugh, two young, beautiful people (married couple) who both traversed the foster care system so they have hands-on personal experience with the pitfalls and needs. It has been a dream for Michael and Alicia to work on the problem of foster kids aging out of the system and landing on the streets. We first heard about this problem through Ilene Pappart from Children’s Aide Society. I think it’s a problem that is not known well by our community and that would be the first step…..letting the public understand and realize this ‘crack’. Michael is putting together a comprehensive business plan outlining a community-wide program to work toward alleviating this serious problem. So Michael is looking for SPACE to begin gathering these kids and conducting instructional classes for daily living skills, job opportunity ideas, shelter, food. Michael hopes to apply for a 501(c)(3) designation so he can be eligible for grant monies. In addition, he would launch a community Go Fund Me. Rent for space will be necessary. Michael hopes to collaborate with Covenant House (where he spent some time) or the Foundling center to ask for available space to begin. The ultimate goal is for this initiative to have its own space. So…. we need a strong group of community leaders to work together to, step-by-step, learn about this problem and form plans to correct it. Last night , Rosalind Diaz, Pat Schwimer and Jayne Cooper had suggestions for contacts and will provide me them to share with Michael. If you are passionate about helping these foster kids prosper once they are on their own, please contact me to sign up to listen in for discussions with Michael and Alicia to get started. I didn’t know that over 100 kids just here on Staten Island age out of the foster care system every year…..this is a big problem. I really think this desire to create a Safe House has legs. What do you think? OUR NEXT ZOOM MEETING WILL BE HELD WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBUARY 17TH, AT 7:00 P.M. |
 |
 |
 |
| During the month of February, if you purchase a reusable bag at Stop and Shop you will have a chance go pay it forward by selecting the Staten Island Giving Circle as the recipient of the $1 donation included with its purchase. |
e-mail: myacovello@gmail.com
Evelyn Kormanik – (718) 980-4862;
e-mail: sigivingcircle@aol.com
Follow us on Social Media
FB: Staten Island Giving Circle
IG: SIGivingCircle