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Businesswoman devotes energy to local pantry By TIMOTHY DENTON tdenton@liherald.com
Timothy Denton/Herald-Citizen
MARY MONAHAN DECIDED to channel her energy into helping others after being furloughed from a job the state classified as nonessential.
It’s hard to imagine Mary Monahan standing still for more than a few moments at a time. So when she was laid off from her marketing job in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, she decided to use the break as a path of service, rather than an enforced vacation. “I’d been working in marketing for about 15 years,” said the Wantagh native and mother of two boys. “Even though my job wasn’t seen as essential, I knew
I wanted to stay busy.” Monahan’s “door-side” pickup happened almost by accident. A friend had an extra case of vitamins, Monahan said. “She didn’t know what to do with them. So I took them.” Monahan offered the vitamins to her local food pantry at St. France de Chantal Catholic Church, in Wantagh, where she is a lifelong parishioner. “I was baptized there and confirmed there,” she said. “I was married there. My boys were baptized and confirmed there.” Monahan knew many famiCONTINUED ON PAGE 4
Fundraisers falter in the face of cancellations By TIMOTHY DENTON tdenton@liherald.com
In most years, the beginning of school represents the starter’s pistol for a long list of events. School sports teams begin competing, high schools prepare for Homecomings and local charities raise money for causes as varied as pancreatic cancer research and potable water in the Third World. This year, though, dozens of annual activities have been canceled or postponed. “Usually, there’s a lot going on this time of year,” Seaford community activist Donna Jebaily wrote in an email last
week. “If Covid didn’t exist, we’d be finalizing our plans for Oktoberfest [this] weekend. But that’s not happening. It’s quiet.” More than two dozen events that normally take place in Seaford and Wantagh from Labor Day through Columbus Day are in some form of abeyance. And in some cases, the postponements or cancellations mean the loss of significant revenue for their sponsors and the local charities they support. At Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, the annual festival normally scheduled for Labor Day weekend was taken off the books three months ago. The
parish, which serves the entire South Shore, depends on the income from the event not only to help pay its expenses and support its food ministry. The festival is an important part of the church’s local outreach efforts to the surrounding communities, Parish Council President Loraine Babaian said. “We were able to get a PPP loan to cover the lost revenue,” Babaian said, referring to the federal Payroll Protection Program. “That should eventually be forgiven.” But the food, music and fellowship are also a vehicle for generating interest in the Orthodox faith, and no loans can replace that.
The parish also had to cancel its annual CROP Hunger Walk. Last year the walk raised more than $14,000 to help provide food security, clean water and micro-loans to fledgling businesses, both locally and in the developing world. “Twentyfive percent of the money raised is used to support local needs,” Babaian said.
Donations can still be made online, by visiting https:// w w w. c ro p h u n g e r w a l k . o r g / Donate. Christ Lutheran Church, in Wantagh, has not given up hope that it will be able to hold some version of its fall fair, according to the Rev. Martin Nale, the church’s pastor. So far, however, CONTINUED ON PAGE 10