Episode 9 - "Doing Good" Radio Show - Featuring Shirley and Rev. Charles A. Coverdale

In Episode 9 of the Doing Good radio show, Mangano Family Foundation’s Founder Sal Mangano spotlights Shirley and Reverend Charles A. Coverdale from Family Community Life Center in Riverhead. 

Shirley Coverdale is the President and CEO of the Family Community Life Center (FCLC) in Riverhead, where she is responsible for implementation and oversight of all the agency’s key strategic and program partnerships. She serves as Chair of the Suffolk County Community College Board of Trustees, and is on the board of directors of the Long Island Housing Partnership.

Rev. Charles A. Coverdale, MBA is the Chairman of the Family Community Life Center and is Senior Pastor Emeritus of the First Baptist Church of Riverhead after retiring at the end of 2025 after serving as senior pastor of the church for 43 years. Reverend Coverdale also serves as a chaplain for the Suffolk County Department of Corrections, and has considerable experience as a college professor, consultant, sought-after seminar leader and speaker. 

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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_03 0:21

All right, welcome everybody to another edition of the Doing Good Radio Show, uh sponsored and brought to you by the Mangano Family Foundation, uh, Sal Mangano and Mangano Family Funeral Homes. Uh today we have really two amazing guests here. You know, I I would personally say that they really are, you know, icons on Long Island and true leaders of the community that have made such a tremendous impact and are real role models for the younger generation to look up to. And that's um Shirley Coverdale and and Reverend Charles Coverdale from Family Community Life Center and Riverhead and the First Baptist Church of Riverhead. So thank you both for joining us today. Thank you for inviting us.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Thank you for having us.

SPEAKER_03 1:06

Thank you very much for joining us. Of course, we have Sal here, as always. Sal, thanks for hosting another show. This is fantastic, and and having the Coverdales here.

SPEAKER_05 1:14

Yes, it was a great uh honor to have them here. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:17

So um, really, it it's it's an amazing um career that you've that you've had um and your backgrounds. I'm just gonna kind of just go over a little bit for everybody that's listening today. Um I'll start with with Shirley, who you know graduated from Hunter College, Harvard Business School, uh, currently the president and CEO of Family Community Life Center in Riverhead, um, really helps our youth and and education across Suffolk County as the chair of the Suffolk County Community College Board of Trustees. Um, also serves on the Long Island Housing Partnership, uh, just amazing uh credentials and background. And Reverend Coverdale, uh he is really just um a leader amongst Long Island and the community, um, graduate of Lincoln University and Harvard Business School, um, former pastor of the historic Pond Street Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island. I think from the South Bronx, too, if I'm not uh mistaken there. Um chairman of the Family Community Life Center, uh senior pastor emeritus of the First Baptist Church of Riverhead, uh recently retired, but I'm not sure how much retiring he's doing. He seems as busier than ever. Um has served in the church for over 43 years. Um I know close um with our Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon, does a lot of work in corrections and for the Sheriff's Department, and just an amazing uh professor, consultant, uh sought-after speaker. Uh also served on the commissioner of the Human Rights Commission for Suffolk County, uh as well as many other organizations. So, really just an amazing power couple who've done so much. So I think what I'm interested is how did you two even meet? How did you get together? Like, let's just talk about that before we kind of dive into the community stuff. Let's hear that one.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Well, I have a story that I'm not sure my wife always appreciates me telling. But I tell that we I was in a crib with other kids playing, and she came by and looked in the crib and saw me sort of sitting by myself in the corner, and I saw her coming and she looked like a wonderful person. Like, you know, we have a dog pound and have a dog. I looked at her and said, she could take me home. So I moved over to her and she squeezed my fat cheeks and picked me up, and I just hugged onto her and didn't let her go. And next you know, we were married. We've been married 63 years. Oh gosh, that is amazing. But we met more with integrity at a St. Augustine Presbyterian Church in New York where both of us attended and our parents and family attended. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 3:59

You do you corroborate that story?

SPEAKER_02 4:01

Um well the the St. Augustine farming.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

So how did so what what then how did you end up coming out to Long Island and and to the town of Rivad?

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Well, I was pastoring in Providence, and I was invited to the First Baptist Church to speak on a special occasion. And so I came down and spoke, and after I got finished speaking, uh, I was going back to Providence to serve my pastor there, and some people particularly came up and asked and said that, you know, we really are interested in calling you to be the pastor of the church. And I said, Well, I had no idea. I just thought I came down to speak. And they said, yes. So I went back and then they really called me down and invited me to come and consider to visit Riverhead. And I came in through Orient Point. So I didn't know how far I was from, actually the city where I grew up in the Bronx. But I visited the church and uh and preached there, and then they offered me a chance to come down and be a pastor. And the first time they offered it, I uh prayed as I always do, God, where would you want me to go? And I don't know if it was him telling me no or me telling myself no, because I never sort of was a pastor more out in the country type style church. I've always been in cities like Cambridge, New York, and a province and such. And uh so I went back and they called the pastor and it didn't work out, and they then reconnected with me and called me again and said, please come out. And this I went out and I said, God, if you want me to be a pastor of this church, uh, let them call me back and I will immediately respond and do what I'm supposed to do. And they called me back and talked to me, and I said, You win, God. I went back to my church I was pastoring, and I told them that I heard the clarion call from God and that I'm gonna be moving down to Riverhead, New York, to become pastor of the first Baptist Church of Riverhead, and that's 43 years ago. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

And how was the, you know, how have you seen over the years, you know, the the progress of the town of Riverhead? It must have been a lot different 43 years ago than to today.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Yes, that's what kind of scared me coming in from Orient. I saw nothing but cauliflower and I saw potato fields, and I didn't even know what what a potato looked like. I thought it was a flower. And they said, no, there's a potato plant. I said, oh, so many of them. And I came in further, and it was a lot of duck farms going back then. And so I watched the whole evolution of Riverhead changing. Uh Route 58 got more car dealerships and changed with stores and all. And I was a witness to that part of history. And so I definitely uh now realized why God sent me to the first Baptist Church because I really believed in my calling. He wanted someone who was able to mix well with people that were more from the farm community and more uh people that was not maybe raised in big cities and stuff, and yet I had the knowledge and stuff to help steer the church through that period of time and develop it in such a way that became a substantial part of community life and service and mission to the community at large.

SPEAKER_03 7:40

That's um, yeah, that's that's absolutely wonderful. And how was the in terms of the progression? So the family community life center, how did, you know, what was the origin of that and and how did that get started?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Well, it started with I really had a a spiritual sense of those who in church work might understand. I asked God, what did he want the church to do besides marrying people, baptizing people, and burying the dead. And after some weeks, I got a vision that he wanted me to bring the community more together and that the community it sort of came to me that they didn't have recreation facilities, no wives, no boys' clubs. Uh we through church programs, fulfilled many of those things as best as we could. And I got a councilman from Rhode Island who was in uh the business of looking at community and community development. I invited him down and he surveyed all the leaders in Riverhead, no matter what group was the library, no matter what the arts council and all said, what do you need? And we started with finding out what the community needed, and then from there we built up a list of what we thought we might be able to do to help the community develop in terms of what their needs were. And then I developed what we call the Family Community Life Center, uh, purposely calling it the Family Community Life Center because it's through family that we get life, and through life we can develop community. And I didn't want to be the like the First Baptist Church recreational family center. I didn't want to be, I wanted to be more expansive so people could understand it was more than what the church. The church was helped doing it, but it was entirely a community project for all the families and residents of the Riverhead and surrounding areas.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

So yeah, so it's so it's a like you said, it's expansive throughout the entire, you know, community that anybody can come and use the the facilities and what you built there. And and Charlie, you're a CEO of the organization?

SPEAKER_02 9:52

Um that not I not at first. Um the Family Community Life Center was established in 1988, in March of 1988. So um this is our what is that, 37th year? Wow. And um it was established to build the community center envisioned by what Reverend Coverdale just shared. Um and then uh at that time it I was not the first um CEO of the organization, but uh it it kind of grew in terms of the scope of what we were going to do as it became more and more apparent that not only um did young people not have a place to gather, not not a productive, supervised place to gather where they were doing things that were positive, but also um other people in the cum community had needs, you know. So our we have um a large senior population, and over the years it's become more and more apparent that uh many of them are isolated. So one in three of our seniors lives alone and isolation people are starting to realize now is a very dangerous thing.

SPEAKER_03 11:14

Um children it's almost as a there's like a a loneliness epidemic in the country.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Absolutely, absolutely. And then the um the need for housing became apparent. So um over time Reverend Coverdale did purchase additional property so that now the church sits on twelve and a half acres. Wow. And we said, okay, really what are we gonna do with this property? Um and originally people's minds were at okay, we could build the cemetery. And we said, no, we you know, we need to do something more than that. And so it became apparent that the need for housing also was was growing, and we kept hearing things about the brain drain on Long Island where you losing young people because they simply can't afford to live here. It wasn't just young people, we found out that, you know, a lot of people who had put down roots, established businesses or careers and grew their families couldn't afford to stay here either. And so um what started out as the focus on the community center grew and expanded to be, well, let's do something that really affects the whole person. You know, the church says it doesn't care it it cares not just for um the individual but the wholeness of the the community. And so um the the the idea grew and grew um in relation to the documented needs of people uh in the community. And so eventually um in the early uh 2000s I was I was doing something different. And um after I guess one or two people had a seat at the executive director's table, I came along in um the early two thousands and uh started working with them first kind of as an adjunct person that had some consultants and a lot of time and money was spent in doing things like engineering studies and mapping out the legal logistics of of doing this and paying for architectural uh renderings and all manner of things that went on behind the scenes. And so we kind of determined with um quite quite a lot of questioning. I don't think people really understood fully what we were trying to do, particularly in um governmental cent you know uh centers. They they were concerned about building things that would increase the density in a in in the place where we we're concerned about open space and things like that. So there was a lot of work that went into it. This was this was the early 2000s that's been going on a lot of work that went into trying to develop this and get people to be aware of what you know what we knew to be problems and you know, fine, it's nice, it's pristine, and we do, you know, care about our um environmental issues, but people need places to live. And Riverhead has been kind of a hub for uh working families who many of whom service the the more affluent families on the east end. And so people don't think about that. People looking in from the outside think, oh well, everybody on the East End is in the Hamptons. And everybody has a lot of money.

SPEAKER_03 15:07

Yeah, complete fallacy, right? So you think about your nurses, think about the people that work in offices, in the hospitals.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

100%. You know, the police, yeah, teachers, so um and you know, people who were doing domestic work for people in Hamptons. So where do they live? And what is the um likelihood that anybody wants to really drive out from New York City to serve these people? Yeah. So um, you know, that it became more and more apparent. We worked harder and harder. Many people asked us both if we were crazy.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

Why this is Yeah, I just give up already.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

This is not gonna happen. And um so, you know, it has it has taken a long time, but happily um uh we have a development partner now. We're working with Georgia Cook Green Ventures, and they have a great track record for building affordable housing on Long Island. And happily uh just um in the last few months we learned that we their application for um state funding for in income tax credit housing. They were they were given they were given a major award, and we've gotten awards from Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, and we've gotten some infrastructure money from the from the county and from Empire State Development. So now as we sit here, we can happily say we have um our development partner anyway has all of the monies necessary to build the residences and the residential portion of what is a mixed use development so on on these twelve and a half acres. So the church will sit in a complex for which there is a master plan that includes eighty uh rental type units, eight condominiums, and the community center, and the church is kind of in the middle of that. So kind of a community within the perseverance.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

I would add to that, it took us 40 years, but the real problem was, and I know we don't like to talk about the poor things back in history, is that the town would never okay us to build the project. And they uh from they I think they thought we were out of our minds, but they also they never had a district of uh uh where they're gonna have housing, recreation, and church. And it was just the church that they couldn't stop us from building it. But the church was undergoing supporting it by giving us the land, which I I got I helped raise funds for and bought and paid for from a farmer. And so they were really stopping us from moving. Uh this project should have been built. And we started around 83 and uh or so, and at least I would say by 87 that should have been built, but each town person kept stopping us. And in fact, one of the supervisors we actually acquired at the Catholic Church when he passed, uh Supervisor Stark said to me, because he gave us some grandma, he said, I can't believe that it keeps stopping your project. And then some people that worked in business area started talking it down. People, why are you stopping this project when we don't have anything here for young people? And we sort of started working at one time with the Y, and then uh some people wanted to take it over from us. And uh my assistant pastor uh verbally spoke up and said, after all the work we did, uh they didn't even want me on the board. That's how much they wanted to clear our church name and stuff out of it. And she objected, Maine, but now she's the pastor of First Baptist Thursday, as we sit here and talk. So there's a long history, but God kept us keeping the vision and moving it forward. And uh when we got the full grant, Shirley was talking about we have all the money to build the entire housing project. That's great. So that's it's the it's the recreational stuff that we're begging for now.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

It's the thing that the vision started with that we'll have to raise the money for for the community center itself.

SPEAKER_03 19:39

Yeah, so talk a little bit about that. Like, you know, so what's the what's the plan there? What you know, you're so you're looking to raise funds and and what's the community center.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Okay. So um at at this point, it is a uh conventional build building in the first phase of about 10,000 square feet. And in that building, um what we're planning to do at as again a community center that services the needs of the entire community. Uh we hope to have senior services, youth services, um the health and recreation, including supports for mental health and caregiver support, for example, and also um community education and advocacy. So we have some workforce development initiatives, we have adult services including uh social model adult daycare for children, child care, and after school programs, and then sports and recreation, and um we hope in the second phase to put up a an air-supported structure, an athletic dome or thought she was going to leave that part of the colour. So that so that we can have um indoor like an indoor walking track and multi-sports use that will be the community can come and flag for teams can practice and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

So that's great. And and and we excellent for seniors because one one of the things I found out when we started the project, I got many doctors to sign on to support our project community because there really was no place for seniors to walk. That's one of the things that really struck me. And when I bought the land from the farmer, that was one of the things I raised. I would try to make sure there were things for seniors in that center. And uh we had to laugh because when somebody in the family passed, I think it was the mother or father, I can't remember at the moment. But all the brothers and sisters came, and when we were on reception line, uh the sister said, that's That's the past that stole our heritage. But they voted on it. They had to vote on it. So she was laughing. That's the past right there. And so the first time the other brothers who voted to give the family share for us to buy it was there. And so it really developed our a really sense of community needs. And so we got the really a senior citizen center that works really well right now. And we operated out of the church because the center is going to be next door and the church has space. And I was a pastor, so our community awareness with the church over the years was a real growing process. And I had other pastors sit around the table with me at community clerical meetings and wonder how did you get your church degree on giving up the land to build the housing and all that. And I said I kept talking about the mission of the church and us reaching out to the community and that God did not put us in this community to do nothing. And I got that before when God told me to come down, that was a serious part of my calling. You're not going down to eat cauliflower and just have some ducks and do the things that the church normally do. Your job, Charles, will be to bring the church along the way. That's why I'm sending you to that church with different kinds of experiences. Not only a preacher, a pastor, but you have business experience as being a former teacher and educator in the business area and colleges, and you need to put that to work with the members of the church to see further than where they are now, what could be. And when Shirley came abroad, that that the partnership of us always talking about this, she became more involved and she has a proliferate of ideas and structures that we started putting together as a whole. And so as a team, we really began to get other people on that team. Pastor Ligan joined that team and others within the community. And we really started to build it to a level where the vision was the community of the church, community of now caught the vision, we might say. And when they caught the vision, they started working with us by having galaffies and different things that we did, supporting our food programs. And that's one of the things that uh Siles Foundation does extremely well, is that they particularly contribute to our monthly fee of senior citizens, and we bring a musician in who's in the Hall of Fame in New York, and he plays all the old tunes. So people sitting there, we have overnight people overnight of there. Different musical tunes, uh bring them to life. And Shirley and her can maybe we sit out splendid meals or get people like Sal and them to say, uh, we'll help out and sponsor two of the meals, so too much they might sponsor it. And then more responsibility because wife got involved in doing the baking, and now the people think we can bring that kind of baking in. Oh, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

Her crumb cake is legendary.

SPEAKER_05 25:23

Have to have her make some more for you guys. So the peach cobbler, I think everyone liked as well.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Oh, yes. But you know, even talking about the center, it could not be if it wasn't people like Sal Magano, his mother, and his family at large. Because they began to take us in. And I remember the first Christmas gathering they invited our staff to, and we went, and how his mother opened up her arms, embraced us, and loved us, and uh she told the Catholic priest that was friends of their family, I guess, for years from their church, she said, You gotta get up and let these Baptist folks have a chance at this table. And the way she said it made me laugh. And they started laughing and chuckling too. But it was the breadth of her understanding of who she was in the community and what I guess her business was originally with her husband was, and how they embraced us and supported us, and and and it it filtered right down to Sal and his sister and them. So it's almost like sometimes I I said, Pastor Lincoln, we can't go back to Sal. I thought, sure, we can't go back to Sal. He helps us so much. And then when we say, we have to go to someone that loves us and support what we're doing for the community, and at the same time, we try to be supportive of him and his work when uh he took over one of the outstanding fair homes there and uh in our community, and a lot of our people had gone through that, but they didn't know Sal, so he told him about Sal, introduced him. And so it spread throughout his family and his business. And so when the foundation was started, it just excited me when they told me that he's they started a foundation in his mother's name, who had the initiative and helped just without ever being uh a closed person, open up to people in the community, you know, recognize skills and abilities and who you were spiritually, and just helped the community at large. So I want to get that plug in because I think that's very, very important for what he has done in his mother's name and his family, because she was a magnificent person and she embraced us with all the love that she had and assistance, and he has carried on that tradition, and he's so wonderful. And I know that building the last part, getting some of the money together for the youth part of the center, that he's gonna at least be standing behind us, if not next to us, making sure that you know that we get some assistance or know some people that might be able to help us accomplish what we're trying to accomplish. And if I fail, and I know Sister Coverdale, who sees me as one of her loving partners, will be there to make sure that we encourage him and the foundation to do the best they can.

SPEAKER_05 28:32

Thank you very much, and thank you very much for all those kind words, Pastor. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 28:36

Yeah, and and and you know, at Mang, you know, Mangano, you know, funeral home, Tothill Mangano Funeral Home in Riverhead, you know, you really are really are shown like you know, you're a core part of the community and giving back is really part of the fabric of the company that you lead as a family and you demonstrate to everybody. Yes, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

He's a consummate business person in the community that gives back. Not not everybody does that. And so, you know, he's he's kind of like the heart and soul of Riverhead. And actually, a few years ago we honored him. We we think so much of him, we had we had to make him our honoree because it's a great honor. He uh he does so much for so many people.

SPEAKER_03 29:18

That's wonderful. And we're we're coming to a close, we're wrapping up. Um, I want to thank you both, um, Reverend Coverdale, Shirley Coverdale. Thank you for everything you do in the community. Um, First Baptist Church of Riverhead Family Community Life Center. You know, look them up online. Um, I encourage everybody, you know, to continue to support them and their mission. Uh, they're a really uh an example of perseverance, um, the accomplishments they've had over this 40-year period, and the best is yet to come. So thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_05 29:52

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_03 29:53

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

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