Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
The Honorees for the Angela's House Spring Gala
The Honorees for the Angela's House Spring Gala
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Angel of Hope Statue
In 2007 Bob Policastro the founder and Executive Director of Angela's House met Pat Cassetta by chance. From that day Pat , Angelo and Bob worked on bringing the Angel of Hope statue to Eisenhower Park to honor all parents that have lost a child. On December 7th 2008 we had a breath taking opening ceremony along with a candle light vigil. This project would not be possible without the help and devotion of Pat Cassetta and Angelo Ciotta.
PAT CASSETTA
Pat came to the United States in 1939 from Rome, Italy. He joined the Marine Corp at age 16 and served from 1944 to 1947 in the Pacific and fought in the Battles of Okinawa and Saipan. He has served as President and has held various other offices in the United Veterans Organization of Nassau County and the 1st Marine Division Assn., NY Chapter. He works diligently on veterans’ issues to ensure that those who have fought to preserve our freedom are not forgotten. Pat also maintains a close relationship with the active Marines, assisting them with housing and education and helps familiarize them with the area to make their transition here easier. Pat also visits elementary schools and teaches the children the importance of honoring the flag and our country and to appreciate the freedom they enjoy.
Pat came to the United States in 1939 from Rome, Italy. He joined the Marine Corp at age 16 and served from 1944 to 1947 in the Pacific and fought in the Battles of Okinawa and Saipan. He has served as President and has held various other offices in the United Veterans Organization of Nassau County and the 1st Marine Division Assn., NY Chapter. He works diligently on veterans’ issues to ensure that those who have fought to preserve our freedom are not forgotten. Pat also maintains a close relationship with the active Marines, assisting them with housing and education and helps familiarize them with the area to make their transition here easier. Pat also visits elementary schools and teaches the children the importance of honoring the flag and our country and to appreciate the freedom they enjoy.
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Since 2003 both Pat and Angelo have helped with the Nassau County 9/11 Memorial Foundation. They worked tirelessly for more than 4 years, until its completion, overseeing the construction site in Eisenhower Park, assisting the volunteer construction workers and working with architects and local government officials.
Angel of Hope Statue
In 2007 Bob Policastro the founder and Executive Director of Angela's House met Pat Cassetta by chance. From that day Pat , Angelo and Bob worked on bringing the Angel of Hope statue to Eisenhower Park to honor all parents that have lost a child. On December 7th 2008 we had a breath taking opening ceremony along with a candle light vigil. This project would not be possible without the help and devotion of Pat Cassetta and Angelo Ciotta.
Angela's House Name Change
What is in a new name? Our new identity into the future. We have taking out Association for Technology Dependent Children (ATDC) from our name.
We felt it would be important to explain how we came to this decision. The term "Technology Dependent Children" was created over 20 years ago to medically describe and categorize children with special health care needs. This term was meant to simplify the difficult overall description of the hundreds and thousands of rare diseases, illness and accident-related medical conditions. At the time it was easier to use this term to help describe the children.
When we first chose to use this term for the name of our non-profit agency, we felt it would become well recognized in the community. Unfortunately, the use of this term was reduced by both our federal and state governments. By the time our first Angela´s House opened in 2000, we saw how well received it was and we also saw that people in the community knew us more from Angela´s House than from ATDC. We decided at that point to use both names to describe ATDC for our home care services and Angela´s House for our home-away-from-home alternative for children. Over the past seven years, the term "Technology Dependent Children" was not used and Angela´s House became more familiar to people.
The decision was made to change our name to Angela´s House. All of our services will remain the same. We will continue to support parents caring for their children at home and we will continue to offer out-of-home alternatives for children that can no longer live with their parents. We understand that we are still faced with the enormity of trying to explain to our community which children we work with. Our best description is to say we work with children with special health care needs that are medically fragile, chronically ill or living with a life threatening illness.
We felt it would be important to explain how we came to this decision. The term "Technology Dependent Children" was created over 20 years ago to medically describe and categorize children with special health care needs. This term was meant to simplify the difficult overall description of the hundreds and thousands of rare diseases, illness and accident-related medical conditions. At the time it was easier to use this term to help describe the children.
When we first chose to use this term for the name of our non-profit agency, we felt it would become well recognized in the community. Unfortunately, the use of this term was reduced by both our federal and state governments. By the time our first Angela´s House opened in 2000, we saw how well received it was and we also saw that people in the community knew us more from Angela´s House than from ATDC. We decided at that point to use both names to describe ATDC for our home care services and Angela´s House for our home-away-from-home alternative for children. Over the past seven years, the term "Technology Dependent Children" was not used and Angela´s House became more familiar to people.
The decision was made to change our name to Angela´s House. All of our services will remain the same. We will continue to support parents caring for their children at home and we will continue to offer out-of-home alternatives for children that can no longer live with their parents. We understand that we are still faced with the enormity of trying to explain to our community which children we work with. Our best description is to say we work with children with special health care needs that are medically fragile, chronically ill or living with a life threatening illness.