Episode 6 - "Doing Good" Radio Show - Featuring Gerry Compitello and Tia Fulford

In Episode 6 of the Mangano Family Foundation’s Doing Good radio show, our Founder Sal Mangano sits down with two guests, Babylon Town Clerk Gerry Compitello and Tia Fulford, Founder and Executive Director of The Butterfly Effect Project. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station, JVC Broadcasting Management, or its sponsors.

SPEAKER_04 0:21

All right. Thank you everybody for joining us on another edition of the Mangano Family Foundation Doing Good Radio Show. This is such a wonderful program where we bring on guests and highlight all the good that's going on in a local community. We're here with Sal Mangano, who's the head of the Family Foundation and also Mangano Family Funeral Homes. We also have two special guests here today. We have Babylon Town Clerk Jerry Compatello and Tia Fulford, the founder of and executive director of the Butterfly Effect Project. Thank you for joining us today.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

Thank you very much for joining us.

SPEAKER_04 0:55

So we're going to start off with uh with Jerry, um, who's town clerk in Babylon. Um so you began your public service in 2005. Um you served as supervisor, Rich Chafer's Deputy Chief of Staff. Um I know you were very engaged and involved in the local community during Superstorm Sandy and the recovery thereafter. Um you're very active in the local community, you know, with the United Way, the UGEMA program, Babylon Breast Cancer Coalition, and the Alzheimer's Foundation. Um you've just done a tremendous amount of work. You were you were elected first of November 2017, again in 2021, and you sworn in uh January 2nd, 2018. Um so talk to us a little bit. I know you're a lifelong Amityville resident, town of Babylon resident. Uh what made you get involved in government and ultimately enter the world of politics?

SPEAKER_02 1:52

So I yes, I am a lifelong Amityville resident. Actually, I live in the house that I grew up in. I'm finding that to not be uncommon, right? Um I grew up in a family that was very service-oriented. Uh growing up, we were always involved in helping the community. There used to be a motel on 110 that we would make dinners and serve them. This is how I grew up. I went to St. Martin of Tours. We were always we just my whole family, my mother, father, uh my sisters are teachers, uh we just one of those families we always uh felt the the need to give back to the com community because that's that's part of who we are. But uh when I decided to get into government, um I guess my daughter was about two and a half years old, and I started in the clerk's office. I worked with Janice Tinsley, uh James, yes, for a while. I learned an immense amount from her. Um and it just it was such a a good experience working with her um and for her, and I learned the compassionate end of government from her, from people like Rich Schaefer, uh, you know, and then I went to the IDA. I worked for the IDA for a while. One of my first projects there was um Wine Dance Rising, which is still an ongoing project. So little by little you learn all these, you pick up all these little things throughout your life, and then you find where you need to sit and be in the clerk. Before you perfect opportunity got into government.

SPEAKER_04 3:30

Yes. You worked in advertise no fashion.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

I did. I worked in the fashion industry for 20-something years um for various designers under the LVM making.

SPEAKER_04 3:40

We're only 30 years old. I'm not sure how this is going to be.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Well, thank you very much. I I started very young. Fuzzy math here. I don't know. Yeah, I worked for various designers, Johnny Versace, um Boucheron, Irma Gildo Zenya. Um, and I just always had a love for clothes and and all of that. So uh my degree is in music education, which just gave me that creative end. Um, but yeah, it was pretty fascinating. I enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_04 4:08

Yeah, that's what's great, you know, about your experience is being able to come from, you know, that business world and understanding kind of like what business owners go through and what the community goes through. And you're not just always, you know, kind of one track in government your whole life and really getting that real world. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

Absolutely. And you can do more than one thing in your life. It's like, you know, you want a taco, you want soft and hard, you could have both. You could do more than one thing in your life. And but they all amount to something. Everything that you do just amounts to something. Um, I do have to say, when I went to work with Rich uh during Hurricane Sandy, that is when I learned the most about where we live, our community, the environment, the people, the businesses. Um, and that to me, the I mean, for the rest of my life, I will I'm I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to be there at that time.

SPEAKER_04 5:05

Talk about what you saw and the impact uh what was going on in the community at that time, kind of take us back to what was going on.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Well, uh so you know the storm happened, it was one of those overnight things, and you could wake up in the morning thinking everything is fine, and then when you stepped outside, it was madness and mayhem. Uh there were boats in the middle of the roads, there were houses that were missing the backs of them. People lost everything. Um and the sad part about it is a lot of people they would just they were so so stressed out and so shocked. Um they almost didn't know how to start rebuilding. So we came up with a lot of good programs to help them just get back on their feet. Uh the United Way was was very impactful helping housing people and helping people get food, but people lost everything. Like every sock they ever owned was gone. You know, and they had families they had to take care of. Um insurance companies, they take a while. You know, I mean it's a necessary evil, but you know, those things take a while. So there there were it was pretty devastating. We were knocking on people's doors, finding people that were still living in their house that we were boots on the ground.

SPEAKER_04 6:21

Yeah, and that's the thing too, is like, you know, while that was going on, you know, all of a sudden these positions like at the time I was the CEO and director of the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency. Yeah. And while my house had no power and I have, you know, little children at home, and it's like, okay, well, now I gotta go and figure out how we have to get these businesses back up and running. Yes. What support can we provide? You know, what could we do? Well, kind of like you have to take your own situation. It's like, okay, what that has to be, and then kind of move forward. A lot of people don't realize how much you you know have to kind of roll up your sleeves and sacrifice during that time.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Right. And you just have to do it. You just have to do it. You know, I d I tell people now though, um, keep everything that that is important to you in your life in a binder. It may sound very analog and old-fashioned, but if anything ever happened, you could pick up that binder. At least you know where your insurance policies are, your birth certificates, your man because you need all of those documents, even to file a claim or to get, you know, anywhere. So it's a great idea. It it is. It's yeah. Mm-hmm.

unknown 7:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:24

So town clerk, people hear the word town clerk. What exactly, you know, just let us know kind of what you do on a day-to-day basis and and what what the town clerk's office does.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

Um, we actually do a lot more than than people realize. You know, I think they hear town clerk and they think that we're just all about the paperwork, but uh a lot of it is. It's the archives and all the town records and the history of the town records, all your vital records, uh birth, death, marriage. Um we're also the licensing agent for plumbers and landscapers. I mean, there's just so many facets to what we do. Um, I get to work with Sal quite often with death certificates and interments and um all of that. So my office is steadily busy. Um we never shut down. We were the one office that couldn't shut down during COVID because we did vital records numerous tasks, and I have a great staff. I do enjoy going to work every day, and every day is something different there. Do a lot of weddings? We do a lot of weddings, and that's like my favorite part of the job. Um I we could issue anywhere from 1,300 to 2,500, and those are actual numbers, marriage licenses a year. Wow. That doesn't mean we marry all of those people, but you know, we interact with that many brides and grooms a year. Um I people come in, they they're so excited to get married. It's you know, uh, so we try to offer them various services, and we do weddings in a lot of languages. And that's not just for the bride and groom, because generally they know what they're there for and they're the ones getting the paperwork. But if you have your family flying in from Italy or Poland, you want them to understand your culture and the ceremony. So we can do uh weddings in Ukraine, Turkish, Creole, uh, Spanish, American sign. So everybody that comes to your wedding is gonna understand what's happening. Wow. And it's a part of your culture of getting married here. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 9:29

That's that's great. I never knew that the town clerk, your town clerk's office could do that. I'm not sure they will.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Come on over a marriage license and tell us what tell us how you want it to go. Yeah. We also do um every once in a while, we'll throw together like a big wedding marathon, uh, which is always fun. We're doing Halloween weddings. We try to make it fun for people. That's interesting. A Halloween wedding. Halloween weddings, yeah. Very nice. So we try to, you know, and once a year I do a big vow renewal for people that have been married for a while that just want to say I do again or I still love you, kind of thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:04

So how do like the destination weddings or things like you know, that's a big trend? How do you, you know, they have to come to you?

SPEAKER_02 10:11

Yes, people don't know that the a destination wedding is uh not necessarily uh a legal wedding. It's sometimes you're doing it at a hotel and you've got um a wedding planner putting it together. If it's not a government, what about Elvis in Las Vegas? Elvis in Las Vegas, those are the most contested weddings. So people come back to us and say, we got married in Vegas, we want to make sure it's legal, and we'll just get them remarried. But yeah, if you get a license in New York State, you have to get married in New York State.

SPEAKER_04 10:42

So the destination wedding, if you get married, you know, on an island, you st you have to get license from you, ultimately.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

Well, uh a license and a ceremony from us, unless you're getting married um like by the government there. Say you go to Italy and you go to, you know, the local municipality and you get your marriage license and you get married there. Um but it has to be a government certificate. But destination weddings sometimes those are those are like big dreamy plans, which I think are fantastic, but you know, to make it legal, you know, it's a legally binding contract.

SPEAKER_04 11:19

Gotcha. Yep. All right. Yeah. Well, let's leave it at that. And we'll talk to uh Tia a little bit. Um so Tia, thanks so much for joining us today. You have an amazing organization. Um, you're the founder and executive director of the Butterfly Effect Project. Um, your organization started back in 2014 with eight girls that came from Riverhead in the Flanders area. Now you have more than 30 chapters grown to over 700 girls and boys from Riverhead, Flanders, Cavalton, Mastic, Shirley, Belport, West Hampton, Peconic, Pathog, and West Isla. And really the mission statement rooted in you know creating safe spaces for our children to dream and succeed. Um, empowering young girls by giving them the tools to achieve emotionally stable and self-confident futures in hopes of bringing forth a generation of women who are strong, independent, and knowledgeable. Needed today more than ever. Our children are just, you know, bombarded every single day on a social media cycle and everything that every angle that they have to kind of live up to certain expectations for. Um, so tell us a little bit more from your perspective and your words about your organization and and what you're focused on.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Well, first, thank you so much for having me. I I really appreciate the opportunity. The Butterfly Effect Project to me is so many things. It's literally a family. So if you think about, you know, your own personal families and you have these very distinct roles in your household that help shape and mold you into the person that you're gonna be, like with your morals and your values. That's just what the program is. So we started the program, like you said, in 2014. And the goal really was to if what would happen if we took a numerous amount of girls and put them in a space that came from different zip codes and took away any label that or any precinct preconceived notion that we had of them based on what we assumed or any of our personal biases. Like what would happen to them? We allowed them to have these same lavish dreams that everyone else could or may possibly have access to. And what we realized really quickly was by doing that, you seen these girls that came from areas of that were poverty stricken, um, maybe single families, um, maybe you know, very shy uh youth come out and start laughing and joking. And we've seen something that for me I didn't see growing up, which was interaction. Like when you've seen people that came from this side of the road to that side of the road actually interacting with each other, having a good time. And we realized really quickly, like, wow, like this is something that could be beneficial if we made it, you know, how do we how do we make this thing grow? How do we keep it going? And I realized that as smart as I thought I was, I'm not that smart. So I went to the smart people in the room. The kids, they know exactly who they are, they know what they want, they know what they need, they know what they lack, and they share. And they told us simply, like, you know, we want a space where I don't have to hear about what my mom did or my brother did. I want a space where the first question is not, you know, are you a single family household? Do you have anyone in your family incarcerated? So many things that a lot of organizations and our school districts ask our children are embarrassing. And what happens unfortunately, is even though we're we're collecting this data because we want to ensure that we get the best assistance for the children, sometimes the children are filling out the data. So now they're we're labeling them and we're teaching them the labels that we have, and then we'll say use these code words like at-risk youth. And it's I don't think that there's no such thing as an at-risk youth or trouble youth. I think that I always tell people that there are people have bad moments in their life. And it's really important for as adults that we're able to correct the bad moments by giving them positive opportunities so that way they can make better choices. So I guess in a nutshell, the Butterfly Effect Project is an opportunity for each individual to make choices for their future and to really broaden their horizons by putting people in place and metrics in place to allow them to see in a different way, a different side of the corn per se.

SPEAKER_04 15:21

What ages?

SPEAKER_01 15:22

From five to from five-year-old to 18-year-old is you're allowed to be in the actual program itself. Um, then if you go to college or if you take any type of higher education, we have a retention program which from 18 to 21.

SPEAKER_04 15:35

And so how did how does somebody have to apply for? Does it typically come from the school? Is it a you know parents, or is it, you know, how does how does how does a child you know end up, how does a girl end up in the program?

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Um so it's we have three different access points. So we are partnering with multiple schools, districts on the East End. So you can go in through the school district. Um, if you go through the school, the schools, like social workers and principals and teachers will kind of find you. Um we're looking, and I always tell people like this is not like a black girl program, a poor girl program. This is a youth program. Like we service uh girls, obviously, by the majority, because that was our mission, but we do have a few boys in the program, which called dragonflies. Um, you can also come in through, we have open enrollment for like a 30-day period where it's completely open enrollment, and you can sign up um to come to our one of our nighttime chapters. And then we have our art program, which is community-based, which is for parents that really can't commit to the whole program, but maybe they are really interested in gardening. So you want to be in our garden program, so they'll come out to just a gardening part of the organization.

SPEAKER_04 16:36

That's a that's that's fantastic. And and talk about um a little about what's some of the programs, like what's the what's the what's the child's experience, you know, look like?

SPEAKER_01 16:46

I'm smiling because I just answered that question today. Yes. And so uh what you can expect if you're a child in the butterfly effect project is two meetings a month. Um the meetings are uh New York State benchmark. We have a curriculum that we created um to make sure that our youth are in the program are actually learning things. So when I say learning things, I'm talking about what our grandparents taught us. So I want you to know how to sew, I want you to know how to cook, I want you to know how to measure, and we we have basic good life skills. Yes, and we partner with our our natural AD activities, daily living, with actual education. So if you can't make a cupcake, if I say to you, like, let's make a cupcake, and I say, but I need three cupcakes, not four cupcakes, like you have to do the math to cut that recipe in half. So by us having this activity of daily living and blending with education, we're teaching the kids how math is still very much essential, even though AI may tell you that it's not. Um, so they're learning about healthy relationships, confidence building, community outreach, um, and just a safe environment. They also have opportunities to over to a plethora of things from swimming lessons, horseback riding, hair care, dance opportunities. We kind of try really hard to make sure that whatever a parent may think that they want their child to be involved in, that we can kind of get it on our roster and create a chapter for that child. So from book clubs to um tutoring services. What you can, what the children think of is kind of what we put out there for them. And the interesting thing is we have over 700 plus youth because the kids are like, hey, Miss Tia, like I really like gardening, but I don't have access to a garden because I live in an apartment complex. Now our garden club is over 40 plus you know youth and over 30-year-old children, and it's our intergener, intergenerational garden, and they built it from the ground up. It's absolutely incredible. And now that garden club now harvests food to give to local food pantries and to the family. So, like, it keeps this building over. Um, we have a heritage high where we have a young man who literally loves learning about ancestry.com. So he does free, like, you know, he kind of digs up on your family and does his own little reveal. And this is all coming from a 17-year-old boy and his staff of two twin sisters who are 15. And it's really cool that they're actually having these really powerful, converge conversations with adults in the community. So it's teaching them a lot about, you know, just talking, eye contact, and putting your cell phone down. Those are things that the Butterfly Effect Project offers, and I think those small things that may be meaningless to some are make a huge impact in others.

SPEAKER_04 19:16

Wow, that is fantastic. And talk about you know, funding. Is it you know, do you is it grant funding? Do you accept donations from the public? Because I know that South, you know, speaks so highly of you, and you know, the Mangano family loves the work that you're doing. How, if I'm interested in making donations, you know, can I do that? Like, talk a little bit about the funding.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Yeah, so um we we are as a nonprofit, funding is always that cursor that kind of dangles over your head. So we do um grant fundings where you know we write obviously grants, we also try to get county funding, we uh foundation funding, uh individual funding, um, in-kind donations, and we I can say we're one of those organizations that get a lot of different types of fundings because we are because how a vanish that we are. So we're really lucky. I remember one year um uh Sal's family donated a Christmas party, uh a whole Christmas party, completely paid for for our staff. And it was really cool that we actually invite like families and kids to come out. So um to donate or any type, I always say, I don't like the word donate anymore, I always say to create a ripple effect in the organization, you can go to our website at b epgirls.org. Um, you can give us a call. Um, our telephone number is 631-591-0759. And like we essentially we try our best to make house accessible and funny, like I said, is it important to us, but also just getting involved. So, like volunteering, giving back, leading your expertise to ours, and you know, coming in, having empowering, touching with the girls and guys about what you do, how you get involved, how do how do you get to your next level? A lot of kids want to be like firemen and teachers and lawyers, but then they don't realize that there's a a town clerk, or as you know, I'm sitting here waiting for this to end, so I can like say to say, like, hey, what about those kids that's into that field of like you know, mortifers and things of that nature? Because, you know, we have a young lady who like loves dissecting and she's very much into it, and it's like, why? But like, why not? So I think these are things that you know where I'm learning as I'm working with the youth, and I feel like a donation to me or a ripple effect really is use like making an investment into someone's future, into their family.

SPEAKER_04 21:23

And you know, what I love about what you're doing is direct impact, grassroots level. You know, your donation to your organization to the Butterfly Effect project goes such a long way. Uh, love all of our nonprofits. Uh, it's not a big national, global nonprofit with a billion-dollar budget. Every dollar that's donated to you really goes a long way and goes to a local child that could help provide a better future for them. So that is just you know an amazing impact. So everybody remember that, you know, when you're making your donations.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

uh you know consider this yes i always tell people the our I have a lot of there's a lot of incredible chords out there but what makes for me butterfly stand out is you are not just helping a child you're helping yours because your child is gonna run into one of these youth or one of these young men and they may not sit at the same lunch table with them how do you want them to treat your child and sometimes when you have a bad day you it just kind of keeps rolling and what we're teaching kids is how it's okay to have it's okay not to be okay but what do you do with that? And so when you give to the butterfly effect project you're not just giving to a child or someone's child you're making sure that your child and your children do not experience what we have to experience and you're bringing up a whole community most likely yours.

SPEAKER_04 22:44

Yeah that's so so true. And I know the Mangano Family Foundation has been up to a lot recently so Sal was uh the Grand Marshal of the uh Long Island Columbus Day Parade. One of them one of them one of them one of he's very humble as we say one of the grand marshals um and that was a great event it was a it was a it was a phenomenal event yes you know our town clerk was uh super fun des you know just it was so lively and fun and yeah great great that it changed locations to Deer Park this year it was a great change from Huntington. Yeah and then you know your family has you know owned and operated uh Mangano family funeral home in Deer Park for a lot of years now right yes uh we originally started in Brooklyn in 1911 and uh moved out to Deer Park in uh the 1960s and then uh then we purchased another funeral home in Middle Island and also in Riverhead and uh so we're basically uh in Deer Park community since the early 60s. Wow yeah and when during the parade like you know I I we were just I just saw somebody walk past our booth here waving to Sal. So you know Sal is uh you know he everybody was was you were you it was a big hit that day so I'm glad you were able to do it. You were also very generous to support the parade organizers which was the uh uh New York State Grand Lodge of the Sons and Daughters of Italy um which they also do a tremendous amount for the community so I know they were very appreciative of your support. I know the Family Florest which which your family also owns in Deer Park um teamed up with the funeral home to do a shredding event.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

Yes we did um yes just in the beginning of uh October we had over uh 200 and uh about 225 people uh come through uh the parking lot that day to shred uh documents that they uh wanted to get rid of and they just want to throw out uh we filled almost uh the whole truck up oh wow yeah so it was great it's a great event and then I know um did some stuff at the VA hospital right I think the that was uh yes for Easter time yes we did some uh some things at the VA we uh some flowers for uh actually Veterans Day excuse me yes yeah yeah yes yeah you got a lot um a lot going on which is uh which is great and I know um back to uh our town clerk yes um talk about a little bit about the um the the work that you do in Alzheimer's and you know that field and I know you you did you have a park that you put together or um respite park talk a little bit about how that came about so I guess it's about nine or ten years ago uh Chuck Baschillo had come to town hall he used to be one of our senators in my district uh he became the CEO of the Alzheimer's Foundation and he wanted to know uh we just roundabout like questions what do you think people need we found out that 60 000 Long Islanders suffer with dementia related andor Alzheimer's disease that's a lot because therefore it affects the families it affects you know an entire household so one of the ideas that he had come up with let's do something for the caretakers so we put in the very first respite care relief park um and that just got the ball rolling now there are three of them on Long Island uh he's opened them all over the place they do educating America Alzheimer's in dementia is not sexy to talk about but I I do believe the Alzheimer's Foundation is bringing an awareness that people can talk about it that there is help that they can uh they're not alone in their plight to take care of you know a family member sibling an aunt and uncle and the amount of research that they do but uh one of my favorite things is they just opened up the Barbara Binowitz Health and uh education and resource center uh in North Amityville right on Schliegel Boulevard uh they do free programs free memory screenings free consultations they have support groups like they're really in it and they're in our community because nobody knew where to go before but once we put that part piece in with the phone number their phone's been ringing off the hook. So um it's just something that's very near and dear to my heart because it doesn't just affect you know a certain amount of people we're talking 6000 that's Long Island alone.

SPEAKER_04 27:03

That's a big number and on the caretaker side you know it's so demanding and oh you know at the end of the at the end of a long day of caring for your loved one you forgot to care about yourself. Yes take care of yourself.

SPEAKER_02 27:14

Yep and that's what the respite care elite park is for um there's i we interchange the signs you know for things that for them to know and do and give them information there but they can also just go sit there and listen to their favorite music or you know sometimes they'll call I just met a gentleman who was came in and he said how do I get involved with this park you know so I sat with him for a while and got him hooked up with the Alzheimer's foundation because he lost his wife so they have bereavement groups and he said that his life was unimaginable uh for so long. So it you know it's something that it affects almost every single Long Islander.

SPEAKER_04 27:54

And Tia any any uh you know programs or events or anything you want to you know kind of leave us with you know as a some final thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Yeah so we have uh our spook tacular event that's coming up on October 31st from 4 30 to 6 30 it's gonna be held at our our new headquarters at 1146 Main Road in the riverhead and essentially it's two hours of getting these kids sugared up having a blast with spooky tables getting to uh meet different vendors but it's a completely free event uh we also have our adopter butterfly or dragonfly campaign launching of the next week where an individual can have an opportunity to adopt a child or two for Christmas um and pick up their things and you know put a smile on someone's face and then we have our Thanksgiving uh drive happening where we our goal is to get about 200 uh baskets and we have a massive Thanksgiving dinner um held somewhere and I said somewhere because we're always looking for this perfect spot and we bring a lot of families out to have a family style dinner and then after they're able to kind of shop uh we'll over to do with all the donations that we receive to kind of personally pick out what they need as opposed to someone saying this is what you get. So we really try to make everything community oriented and make sure that everyone leaves feeling empowered and like feeling like they got lifted up and not given a hand up you know those great events yeah thank you very very nice.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

And you give them baskets now the kids know how to cook because you're teaching them.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

Yes and it's it's I I I will tell you this on Thanksgiving I do not eat turkey um I spend two weeks for Thanksgiving in stores lifting turkeys purchasing turkeys moving turkeys just give me a piece of fried chicken or brisket and I'm thinking all right I want to thank everybody for joining us today Mangano Family Foundation doing good radio show with Sal Mangano.

SPEAKER_04 29:46

Thank you for everything that you do for the local to you Jerry thank you for joining us the views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station JVC Broadcasting management or its sponsors