L&M Publications
Merrick Life • Bellmore Life • Freeport-Baldwin Leader • Wantagh-Seaford Citizen

MUSIC PROVIDES COMFORT: Nicholas plays on a donated guitar while waiting for work. At right is Liz O’Shaugnessy.

‘Tis the season for Santa’s Toy Drive,  Kris Kringle, the spirit of giving and wishes of A Happy and Healthy New Year.  There are some of our neighbors who practice that spirit of giving, all year long.
   
Liz O’Shaughnessy, a North Merrick wife and mom, had a life-changing experience when, as a volunteer at the Freeport trailer/hiring site, she arrived one morning to a shuttered trailer site. 
   
The site is off Sunrise Highway on the edge of an industrial area at the end of Bennington Avenue, Freeport.  It had been managed by Catholic Charities and funded by the Hagedorn Foundation for day laborers mainly from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Horace Hagedorn was a Long Island farmer who invented the product Miracle Grow, and formed a foundation focusing on migrant workers all over Long Island. 
   
The trailer, painted a bright red, was open to everyone looking for work and then one day it was closed.  “They are men with families who desperately wanted to work and support them,” says Ms. O’Shaughnessy.  From volunteer to director, she has tackled administrative work, improved her Spanish, (not enough she says) and expanded the services.
   
It is now known as Co/lo/ki  Inc. –  Compassion, Love, Kindness, and has a website.
   
With a desk wedged between a refrigerator and counter, her computer (donated) sits facing a wall of stick-up notes with job information. Jose, Juan, and Nicholas arrive early to prepare breakfast. The trailer opens at 6:30 a.m. serving a healthy breakfast to all, some 100-plus in the winter, and closes at noon.
   
In the three years, Ms. O’Shaughnessy has run the operation, she has applied for nonprofit status, 501 (c) (3) and brought in an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, Martha Wong – who comes every week to tutor the men – and connected with Mulcahy’s Bar and Grill in Wantagh who held a very profitable fund-raiser for the cause.                 

Bill, a Suffolk police officer, comes in on his day off to go to the Restaurant Depot for supplies, and the site is a member of Island Harvest. “I can really stretch a dollar,” she laughs. “Food is important; a healthy breakfast helps to start their day.”
     
A wall of family photos – the Nuestras familias of the day workers decorates one wall. “It is not just about these men bettering themselves, it is about survival.  I have learned not to judge anyone!” says the director.
   
The workers are picked up by contractors for full-time jobs; some come regularly to the trailer. One abuse that is a problem: the contractors who do not pay the workers.
   
This past summer, the men have planted a garden behind the trailer with vegetables and fruit, and hope to expand it next year.  Ms. O’Shaughnessy has re-applied for a grant to help with expenses, and would desperately like to have a volunteer social worker who speaks Spanish and a religious – bi-lingual priest, minister.
   
May some of these needs be met in the Christmas season!

By Eileen Dever

Comments(1):

1. Love thy neighbor Christmas

   Liz, I`m sure Jesus is proud of you. You really walk the walk. Poppa Jack

   Monday, December 19, 2011 jack