‘From Here…Life Will Be Given’

COLLEGE POINT — When Griselda Pena and her husband Ivan Vasquez found out that she was expecting a baby in 2020, it was a frightening time for them. The pandemic was still raging and finances were tight, especially for people in their line of work. Vasquez is a construction worker and Pena is a cleaning lady. Besides, the couple, immigrants from Mexico, already had five children.

Feeling desperate, they made plans to have Pena get an abortion because they thought it was their only option. They were about to enter an abortion clinic when they met Francesca Yellico, executive director of The Bridge to Life, the pro-life center that assists women with unexpected pregnancies. “She told us if we needed help with anything, we could ask them,” Vasquez said. After talking to Yellico, the couple decided to have the child, a baby girl they named Vanessa.

[Related: The Bridge to Life Gets A New Service Center; The Tablet Gets A First Look ]

Ivan and Griselda brought little Vanessa, who is now 17 months old, to the grand opening of The Bridge to Life’s new service center in College Point on Saturday, April 30. “They helped us so much,” Pena said, adding that she was pleased to see the organization move into a bigger space because it will enable the group to help more families like hers.

The center opened with a great deal of fanfare. Bishop Robert Brennan celebrated a Mass at St. Fidelis Church down the street from the service center, then blessed the new facility and cut the ribbon. “From here people will be saved, life will be given. Hope will abound,” he said.

“Pro-life is somehow defamed. But in the end, it is about helping people, about building people up,” Bishop Brennan said.

The Bridge to Life was founded in 1992 and has provided food, clothing, strollers, medical referrals, counseling, and emotional support for women of all religions for 30 years. The organization also gives toys, books, and clothes to children. The group serves 4,000 clients a year.

At the ribbon-cutting on Saturday, Cathy Donohoe, president of the board of directors, recalled the organization’s early days. “We started off with humble beginnings over a half-priced card store,” she said. 

But even then, there were people who recognized the life-saving work they were doing. When they moved in, they found a portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe. “A picture of her was waiting for us. The landlord presented it to us,” Donohoe said.

The Bridge to Life is an independent organization unaffiliated with any particular religion but it does a great deal of work with the Diocese of Brooklyn.

In recent years, the demand for the organization’s services has been growing and the need for a larger service center was evident. For years, it operated out of a 2,500-square-foot space. The group’s new headquarters is a three-story, 8,000-square-foot former convent. It is leasing the building from the diocese.

The well-wishers at the grand opening included families who have been helped by The Bridge to Life, like Pena and Vasquez.

“Initially, my parents were thinking about aborting my sister, but Bridge to Life was outside (the abolition clinic) and they were talking to my mom. So my parents decided to have the baby,” said Lisbeth Vasquez, one of Vanessa’s big sisters.

“And they did help us,” Ivan Vasquez said. “They gave us diapers and everything.”

A hallmark of The Bridge to Life is the continuing support it offers to families — not just during pregnancy and the baby’s infancy — but throughout childhood.

“They supported us throughout everything,” Lisbeth Vasquez explained. “They always asked how we were and have kept up with us.”