Dear Staff,
Happy new year to all of our amazing staff here at ACLD. As we move through this first month of 2022, we want to again thank everyone for their commitment to our mission of providing children and adults with learning and developmental disabilities the opportunities to pursue enviable lives.
Earlier this week, we lost an integral member of our ACLD family with the passing of Faith Mazzone, Director of Nursing. Faith was instrumental in the early days of the pandemic and throughout the past two years. Her passing is a tremendous loss to our agency and the people she so fervently supported. A tribute to Faith is included in this edition of Limelight.
Last month, we finished out the year with several awards for our dedicated staff, including the Board of Trustees Exemplary Service Award and the Gail White-Rison Scholarship. See below in this newsletter for bios on both winners.
Also in this edition of the Limelight, you will find stories from the Holiday Season, recognition for our recent Employee of the Quarter Winners, and other news from across the agency. Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Rob, Gerard, Anne Marie and Kim
Robert Ciatto, Executive Director
Gerard DiMuro, Assistant Executive Director
Anne Marie Sime, Assistant Executive Director
Kim Leonard, Chief Financial Officer
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In Memory of Faith Mazzone |
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ACLD mourns the passing of exemplary employee, Faith Mazzone, Director of Nursing and beloved member of the ACLD family, who passed away earlier this week after a long battle with cancer.
Faith was a true maverick that dedicated herself to ensuring the health and safety of the people we support and staff, all while going through her own personal health battle.
We owe her a great deal for her years of service, and we would not have come through the COVID-19 pandemic as strong as we did, had it not been for her. Her leadership throughout everything has been inspiring. She touched so many lives and left them forever changed for the better.
Just last year, Faith was recognized for her efforts during the pandemic, with a COVID-19 Hero Award at the Long Island Business News’ Healthcare in Achievements Awards. Her unwavering dedication to the people ACLD supports, and her work ethic were unmatched. She was one of a kind and will be sadly missed. Faith's family will be holding a small private service for immediate family.
We, at ACLD, will be holding a memorial service for her within the upcoming weeks. We will send out details once those plans have solidified.
"Our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch"
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Faith with her granddaughter in 2021 |
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Faith (seated center) with ACLD nurses at ACLD's 2021 Nurses Week Celebration |
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Congratulations to the winner of the 2021 Board of Trustees Exemplary Service Award, Giuseppina Spinelli.
Giuseppina (Pina for short) is a Behavior Intervention Specialist and 15 year veteran of ACLD. She works at six residences and in total supports 50 people. She is loved by everyone she works with, and is known for how much she cares for all of our residents and for how thoroughly she understands everyone's behaviors, medical needs, conditions, families and circles of support.
Over the years, Pina has gone above and beyond in her work and makes herself available for anyone to call when they need help. She is always willing to take on extra responsibilities, and has volunteered to cover additional programs. She has been an incredibly important and reliable person throughout this pandemic, and was unfortunately needed to do a great deal of grief counseling for the men and women we support.
Pina is a great advocate and is one of the unsung heroes who works diligently behind the scenes and puts ACLD's mission, values and vision first.
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Gail White-Rison Scholarship |
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Congratulations to the winner of the 2021 Board of Trustees Gail White-Rison Scholarship, Bridgette Samuel.
Bridgette, who has worked at ACLD for over 20 years, is the Entitlements Coordinator in the Finance Department, and a Sociology student at SUNY Old Westbury
Bridgette is extremely dedicated to the people we support and ensures that everyone gets all of the benefits they are entitled to, such as Social Security, Food Stamps etc. She is always there when someone has a question or needs guidance, and without her, the people we support would not get all of the assistance they need.
As a testament to her work, Bridgette also won the Employee of the Quarter for Administrative Services this past September, and more than deserves this scholarship as well. We are very proud of Bridgette and look forward to her earning her degree.
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Congratulations to our recent Employee of the Quarter winners! Last month we celebrated these amazing men and women at our Employee of the Quarter Lunch and thanked them for all they do for the children and adults we support.
Residential: Lisa Garofalo, Residential Assistant Manager at SLF Site 1, and Hector Gonzalez, Direct Support Professional at 918 Rainbow Commons.
Day Habilitation: Louis Hoffstaedter, Maintenance Worker in Facilities Management and Rodlane Bien-Aise, Team Coordinator at STRIVE Program.
Children's Services: Huma Amir, Behavior Support Specialist at Kramer Learning Center and Bob Signor, Maintenance Supervisor at Kramer Learning Center/Spiegel Children's Center.
Administration: Beatrice Gonzalez, HR Generalist in the Human Resources Department, Heather Angstreich, Special Events Administrator in the Development and Community Relations Department and Amber Ross, Purchasing Agent in the Purchasing Department.
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Congratulations to Matthew Fayda of Residential Services who was recently promoted to Director after a reorganization of the Program. He will serve together with Anastasia Brillis, Director of Residential Services.
Matthew began his career in this field 15 years ago in Vocational Services and received his Master’s in Mental Health Counseling from New York Institute of Technology. He joined ACLD in 2012 as an Administrator, followed by promotions to Assistant Director and Associate Director.
Matthew has been a part of the agency during a time of tremendous growth, and has been instrumental in the expansion of homes and the number of men and women we support, including major initiatives such as the changes of auspice for the SRUs and transitioning men/women from the Bernard Fineson Developmental Center to ACLD during their closure. Matthew is also a Certified Fire Inspector through the NFPA.
Matthew says “I am very excited to continue my work here at ACLD as a Director. I want to thank all the amazing staff in residential for all they do to care for and support our residents every day. We would not be able to fulfill our mission without each and every one of you.”
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Thank you to everyone who supported our ACLD Giving Tree this year! As always, adults in our residences who don’t have family, and families in our children’s services wrote down their gift requests for the holidays, and everyone got at least one of the gifts they asked for.
This year there was a total of 434 gifts donated (173 more than last year) and our Program Without Walls and Bethpage Bridges day habilitation programs delivered the gifts to our pre-schools and residences.
We are so grateful to all of the staff that purchased gifts this year. Your generosity helped make the season bright for all those we support.
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Last month, The Organizational Care Committee organized an Employee Engagement Day called Ugly Sweater Day. Check out some shots of our staff getting into the holiday spirit below.
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Determined to celebrate the holidays and New Year's Eve safely, last month our day habilitation sites and community residences got creative with planning parties for their programs.
The staff and people supported at the Levittown Bridges day site threw a holiday party with everyone coming dressed in their favorite holiday pajamas. They had a scrumptious brunch consisting of pancakes, eggs, sausage, ham, French toast, and of course hot coco! After the brunch, everyone exchanged gifts with each other.
To finish off 2021, our Chichester community residence had a night out at the Milleridge Inn, enjoying a wonderful dinner and the inn's outdoor winter wonderland festivities. Levittown Bridges also had a New Year's Eve pizza party thanks to a donation of pizza from our friends at Mario's pizzeria of Plainview.
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The Children's Services Speech Department is looking forward to having Nicole Haas back to work this month, as she has been home enjoying her beautiful baby boy, Justin Brian Haas, born on August 27, 2021.
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Please join us in welcoming Tara Skehan, M.S. CCC-SLP, TSSLD to the Children's Services Speech Department! Tara has a degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Nova Southwestern University. She comes to ACLD with experience from Eastern Suffolk BOCES, as well as programs in Brooklyn and Queens. Her enthusiasm for the field of Speech Pathology and her dedication to helping children become effective communicators is evident and we are so happy to have her on our team.
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Chardé Kahanic of Children's Services and her husband welcomed a baby girl, Isabella Kahanic on October 3, 2021. Isabella is expected to go home this month after spending more than three months in the NICU. Congratulations to the happy parents of this beautiful girl!
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Karen Britton, Speech Supervisor for Children’s Services, is proud to announce the birth of a grandson, Noah Hakim Hussaini, born in December 2021. In other exciting news, Noah’s father received his license to practice Medicine and Surgery in New York State the day right before his birth.
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Employee Referral Program |
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Don't forget about the NEW EMPLOYEE REFERRAL PROGRAM! You can now earn up to $6,750 when you refer people to work at ACLD. See the flyer below for details.
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Message from the Center for Learning: The CFL runs reports which detail the training status of ACLD employees. We have posted a new version of this report. It can be accessed by going to MS Teams. Find the ACLD Today team and the Center for Learning channel underneath that.
Select “Files” at the top (See the red arrow on the image below) and then click on the folder named “02 – CFL Staff Training Reports”. (See the blue arrow on the image below). The report in that folder is organized to make it easy to find your staff’s information by work location, by department and by name. It can also be filtered so you are only looking at the staff that report to you.
REMINDER – CFL documents are now posted exclusively on MS Teams. See the image below.
This newest report has been revised to provide information on staff training in Blood Glucose Monitoring, Tube Feeding, Tube Medication and Sub-Cutaneous Injections. The report also covers:
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Employee certification in AMAP, SCIP, CPR-First Aid and AED (New Version which highlights when staff are close to expiring or already expired)
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- This report includes extensions made to staff certification expiration dates.
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Click on the report to view this information and stay on top of the training and recertification needs of your employee. |
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This month we are continuing with our new section in this newsletter that covers safety tips that we can all use in our everyday lives. This month's topic is on Dangers of Intersections. Click on the image below to read the 2 page article.
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Empower Retirement Meeting |
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Make sure you're getting the most out of your Empower Retirement plan by signing up for a virtual website demo today. See below for dates and times.
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Tuesday, February 8th, 2022
10:00 am EST
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Tuesday, February 8th, 2022
2:00 pm EST
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Thursday, February 10th, 2022
10:00 am EST
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Thursday, February 10th, 2022
2:00 pm EST
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Help the people we support find employment |
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Do you know of a job opening in your area that would be a good fit for the men and women we support who are seeking employment in the community?
If so, please send an email to the Vocational Services department at Millerl@acld.org.
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Discounts for ACLD Employees |
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Did you know that by being an employee of ACLD, you can take advantage of exclusive discounts at different businesses such as Splish Splash, Verizon, P.C. Richard, Six Flags and a lot more?
You can also register as an ACLD employee on PlumBenefits.com to get even more discounts on vacations, entertainment, online shopping and other services. Use company code ac0825520 to register.
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Mirlande Joinville Direct Support Professional, Oaklake Lane
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Kevin Louverture Direct Support Professional, Northport
Sean Costigan Job Coach, Vocational
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Venise Dorilus Direct Support Professional, Bethpage 857
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Welcome ACLD New Hires - December 2021 |
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Doris Amoah Direct Support Professional, Yorktown
Dawn Artry Registered Nurse, Bethpage 857
Crystal Blackman Direct Support Professional, Autumn
Rachel Blanco Teacher Assistant, Kramer Learning Center
Meredith Bondy Special Educator, Spiegel Children's Center
Davonte Booker Direct Support Professional, Long Hill Road
Shakeil Broomes Direct Support Professional, Oaklake Ln
Alexander Bybee Direct Support Professional, Dix Hills
Edward Daly Maintenance Worker, Bethpage 857
Nathalie Delice Direct Support Professional, Bethpage 857
Barbara Dorval Direct Support Professional, Baldwin
Ginette Eneus Direct Support Professional, Bethpage 857
Katherine Fakhro Residential Administrator, Bethpage 857
Nadeige Fortune Direct Support Professional, Bethpage 857
DiVieka Glenn Registered Nurse, Bethpage 857
Samuel Iaccarino-Faye Job Coach, Bethpage 857
Veronica Johnson Residential Manager, Westwind Dr
Minerva Kim Nutritionist, Bethpage 857
Ashley Mackey Registered Nurse, Bethpage 857
Kristyn Matovich Behavioral Intervention Specialist, Bethpage 857
Taneisha Mclean Direct Support Professional, Roslyn Heights
Manfred Mendoza Respite Counselor - In Home Waiver, Bethpage 807
Sherly Pierre Direct Support Professional, Bethpage 857
Aaron Preston Direct Support Professional, Long Hill Road
Bertily St. Hilaire Direct Support Professional, Baldwin
Kenwill Valcin Direct Support Professional, Magnolia Manor
Nicholas Young Day Habilitation Specialist, B.L.U.E.
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Don't forget to give a SHOUT OUT to recognize someone at your location for something special they did for you, your department or a person we support. |
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The Organizational Care Committee is always looking for new ideas and suggestions from all of YOU to continue to make ACLD one of the best places to work, and for children and adults to receive supports and services.
Please share your ideas and suggestions anytime at brightideabox@acld.org or by using the "Bright Idea Box" at one of the following ACLD locations.
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807 Building
837 Building
857 Building
Program Without Walls
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Kramer Learning Center
Spiegel Children's Center
Hauppauge Day Program
Levittown Day Program
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Glen Cove Day Program
Westbury Day Program
Farmingdale Day Program
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RewearAble has replaced their bins on the Bethpage Campus with beautiful newly designed bins (see below). These new bins can also be found at the new B.L.U.E. program in Deer Park, and will soon replace the bins at the Hauppauge day program.
Donation bin addresses: 807 South Oyster Bay Road, Bethpage, NY 11714 / 305 Oser Avenue, Hauppauge, NY 11788 / 775 Long Island Avenue, Deer Park, NY 11729
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Submit YOUR stories for the "Limelight" |
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Each month we include stories in this newsletter about YOU and all of the amazing staff here at ACLD!
BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP to find out about these stories. Please send us anything to include such as:
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A story about how you or someone else went above and beyond to help the people we support, organized any fun or educational activity, or did anything to further our mission in any way
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Information on any staff member or team who you would like to see spotlighted for their exceptional work.
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Information or news useful for staff across the agency. Anything important or fun.
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Proud moments for you or your family (Personal or professional milestones, awards, weddings, educational degrees or works in the community).
- Or anything else you can think of!
Don't be shy about submitting stories - we need new ones every month!
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"the limelight" is an initiative of the
Communications Committee
and is produced by the
Development and Community Relations Department.
Jonathan Dolan, Editor. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email dolanj2@acld.org
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Thank you to all who have submitted information
and photos. Keep them coming!
We welcome your comments and suggestions.
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