COLLEGE POINT — Newly arrived in New York from her native Dominican Republic, a pregnant Raynellys Nunez feared for her future and contemplated aborting her baby.  

“I was having a lot of dark thinking. I was lost,” she recalled, looking back two years ago.

But the friend with whom she was staying brought her to The Bridge to Life, a nonprofit organization in College Point providing counseling and support for women experiencing unexpected pregnancies. 

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There, Nunez met with Bridge’s executive director, Francesca Yellico, who promised that she wasn’t alone and that she could depend on Bridge for help with anything she needed — whether it was a shoulder to cry on or baby clothes.

Nunez ultimately had her baby, and now the mother of a two-year-old girl named Zoe.

“My friend brought me here to speak to my dear friend Francesca at Bridge,” Nunez said. “They opened their doors, and they offered space for me to just vent my fears, and they listened.”

She currently lives in Orlando, Florida, but she keeps in touch with Yellico, who welcomed her back to Bridge on July 9 when she hosted a reception in her honor. Nunez, 34, was presented with two scholarships — $3,000 from the Kathleen Mullally Foundation and $500 from Bridge — to help her pay tuition at a school where she is improving her English-speaking skills. Her native language is Spanish.

The Kathleen Mullally Foundation was established in 2020 by Mullally’s niece, Josephine Catalano, to assist pregnant students and students who are mothers. Mullally had no children of her own, but she doted on her nieces and nephews, Catalano said.

And so, she wanted to pay lasting tribute to her by starting a scholarship, and since Catalano was a member of Students for Life as an undergraduate and volunteered at Bridge, she decided on a pro-life scholarship.

“I could never have imagined when I was an undergrad at Queens College that I would still be doing this years later,” Catalano explained at the reception. “I just wanted, as a volunteer, to give back, and it’s turned into its own thing. 

“And now I’m still giving scholarships to these beautiful, beautiful women with beautiful stories. And I’m always so inspired by them.”

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In her scholarship application letter, Nunez wrote about how much Yellico and Bridge helped her.

“Talking to Francesca was like talking to a friend. And everybody at Bridge is the same,” Nunez said. “I am so grateful that they opened their doors and they listened to me because my little girl is here and I am here and we are in a better place.” 

Yellico even asked Bridge volunteers to donate baby gifts for Nunez, then packed them into a big box and shipped the box to her in Florida.

For Yellico, it’s all part of Bridge’s mission — to be at the side of pregnant women and mothers in need.

“When you tell someone, you’re going to be there for them — ‘Don’t worry. You’re not alone’ — your words have to mean something,” she explained.

“It’s so rewarding, because it shows it doesn’t take a lot to help someone,” Yellico added.

At the reception, Nunez kept a watchful eye on her daughter: “I am so happy to be her mother.”