NewsRoom

Leslie Lawrence, Director of Mother/Baby Program; Natasha Wollaston, Coordinator of Mentor & Volunteer Services; Gerard McCaffery, CEO; Mary Bingham-Johnson, SVP of Special Programs congratulate Volunteer of the Year Paulette Goto (center) and her husband Ken and daughter Juliette

More than 100 volunteers donate their time to MercyFirst every year, offering their talents and taking part in various activities including: cooking and reading lessons, landscaping and building improvement projects, clerical assistance, and one-to-one mentoring. All these volunteers donate their time and talent generously and help to enrich the lives of the children served by MercyFirst. The evenings of April 19, 2007 and April 24, 2007 were times to celebrate this generosity. Over 200 volunteers and guests attended the Annual Volunteer Recognition Dinners held in the Casey Conference Center on the St. Mary’s Campus of MercyFirst and at the Angel Guardian Building of MercyFirst.

Along with recognizing the tremendous contributions of all the volunteers, several awards were given out to groups and individuals in acknowledgment of their continued commitment to the agency. Volunteer of the Year Awards went to Paulette Goto for her work with the young mothers in our Mother/Baby Program and to Vincent Tullo for his work in our Garden City Preventive Services Office. Stacey Stringer and Stephen Greene were honored with One-to-One Mentor of the Year awards for their encouragement and unconditional acceptance, which have helped their mentees gain self-confidence and take on new challenges. Group Volunteer Awards, were presented to the Angel Guardian Gift and Thrift shop volunteers, who serve the community by maintaining the thrift shop, which raises funds for the agency and to the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Long Island Chapter who have provided a number of empowering and educational workshops to the young ladies residing in MercyFirst’s Group Homes and Supervised Independent Living apartments. Finally, the Corporate Mentor Award was presented to CMP Media, whose employees have been extensively involved with MercyFirst both on an individual and corporate level.