ROCKVILLE CENTRE — When Joan Hyland was asked to assemble a package of items for a newborn child, she instinctively knew what to include.
At age 87, this Malverne resident has seven adult children, 28 grandchildren, and 15 great grandchildren. They call her “Nana,” which is how she always signs their birthday cards — “Love, Nana.”
One grandson, Ryan White, is a Lynbrook police officer who in 2020 encountered a young coffee-shop worker, about to become a dad, but with little money. The officer turned to his grandmother, a retired nurse, knowing her special affection for children.
She recalled, “Ryan said, ‘Look, Nana, this kid’s having a baby and I don’t think they have very much. Could you put something together?’
“So, I said, ‘Oh, sure.’ ”
Her husband, Jim, a retired banker who died later in 2020, commented that the bundle of baby duds, disposable diapers, and other items resembled a present. She responded that was her intent, and in that moment, she had an idea.
“I said, ‘Wait a minute; this is great,’ ” Hyland recalled. “ ‘Why don’t I make one, two, or maybe three more?’ ”
Now, five years later, her Rockville Centre-based nonprofit, “Love, Nana” has produced 12,000 bundles of clothes, and it aims to do much more.
The operation started in Hyland’s living room, but the growing volume prompted a move to a storefront in Rockville Centre, where volunteers receive and wash the clothes, and pack the bundles.
But now the nonprofit has outgrown the space.
To help get a larger spot, the New York Yankees made a $10,000 donation to Love, Nana as part of their recent Hope Week initiative. They presented the check to Hyland on June 16 before the 11-inning marathon against the Anaheim Angels.
She tossed out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium as her family proudly watched.
“The majority of those grandchildren — 19 of the 28 — are boys,” said Nana’s daughter, Jennifer Marcellino. “And, I would say, the majority of them are Mets fans.
“But that day, they were all Yankees fans.”
The bundles are distributed to families and single moms on Long Island and in New York City. Community partners handle deliveries.
An example is the Social Ministry run by Sister Barbara Faber at Our Lady of Peace Parish in nearby Lynbrook — the first non-profit to join Love, Nana’s cause.
Sister Barbara’s community is the Religious Sisters of Mercy, founded in 1831 Dublin, Ireland by Catherine McAuley. These sisters, known for corporal and spiritual acts of mercy, came to Long Island in the 1860s, Sister Barbara said.
She added that working with Love, Nana is an easy fit for her community. Parts of her descriptions of Nana and McAuley are similar.
“Catherine McAuley’s charism was to help those who just needed somebody to boost them up, and she did that beautifully,” Sister Barbara said. “Nana does a beautiful job of reaching out, especially to young moms and families that need help. So we’ve been able to assist her in that beautiful work.”
One of Hyland’s other daughters, Cristine Daly, is a preschool teacher at Our Lady of Peace Catholic School. She connected her mother with Sister Barbara when Love, Nana sought its first community partner. Thus, the Social Ministry at Our Lady of Peace has moved from helping to assemble the bundles to actually distributing them.
Love, Nana focuses on helping families with babies age 2 or younger. If donations come for older toddlers or preschool children, don’t worry. The team then turns to partners like Sister Barbara. During The Tablet’s recent visit to the Social Ministry, she showed off tables loaded with age-2-plus clothes destined for Haiti.
Daly and another sister Ellen White, Ryan’s mother, operate the non-profit Backyard Players (BYP) and Friends. Also based in Rockville Centre, BYP helps people with developmental disabilities learn work skills and social interactions through drama and theater activities.
To help their mother, the daughters expanded the BYP umbrella to include Love, Nana. BYP clients are eager volunteers who help fold the baby clothes and pack the bundles.
But many others also help. On June 24, a group of middle school-age boys wandered in and asked if they could help fold clothes. One explained that they learned Love, Nana was in their community while watching the June 16 Yankees game.
Following the boys was a steady stream of people donating disposable diapers or baby blankets — either sewed or knitted by the donors.
“It’s like this all day, every day,” Daly said of the visitors. “There are people who want to help, but they just don’t know where to begin. We give them the opportunity, and my mother — one of my mother’s favorite sayings, is, ‘Begin. The rest is easy.’ ”
Hyland praised her volunteers, especially the ones from BYP.
“This teaches them social skills, life skills, and dexterity — things you would employ on a job,” she said. “But we need more space for them, and that’s going to be a wonderful thing, because now a lot of the schools are finding out that we have this mission, and there’s work to be done.”