Meet Father Charly
OLMM's Administrator & Leader
It’s the start of a new chapter in the 90 year history of OLMM, as Father Charlince Vendredy, has arrived (as of June) to become our new leader, administrator, our chief priest, and eventually, our new pastor – according to the projected plans of our diocese in Rockville Center.
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He is the first ever Black / African-American to serve as head of the staff of our humble church in Wyandanch. Charlince Vendredy is still a young man (born in December, 1977) but a priest who is ready to “make his mark”.
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Fr. “Charly”, as he is known here, is trilingual, and ideally suited for our trilingual parish at a pivotal point in time. As a native of Haiti, he grew up speaking Haitian (French) Creole.
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Fr. Charly also learned a lot Spanish throughout his youth. At age15, he began learning English for the first time, as a high school student. And now he is fluent in all three languages and thus, able to preside at masses in any one of those three tongues.
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Fr. Charly was the youngest of 6 children growing up in a small town called Jeremie and the only one who pursued a clerical career. The family lived in a rural area in the southwest of Haiti, not very close to the nation’s capital and largest city, Port Au Prince. (Haiti is a small nation, but still larger than most Americans may believe: at 10,000+ square miles, it’s almost 8X larger than Long Island.)
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Outside of their family life, both Vendredy parents made their livelihood in business pursuits. His Dad - who Fr. Charly describes as a very dynamic and active man - was a broker in the coffee industry (moving coffee as a commodity from “farm-to-market”) and his Mom was a quite successful businesswoman too, locally involved with selling a range products as diverse as clothing and diesel oil.
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Fr. Charly says that as the youngest in his family, he ended up spending much more time with Mom at home than with Dad, as she was able to work from home in her job.
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Charlince attained knowledge of the business world and how it works under his mother’s influence, and had he not chosen to be a priest, he says he likely would have become a businessman. Unfortunately, during this past summer, right after he began working at OLMM, our Administrator’s mother passed away in Haiti.
CAREER YEARS from 2007 – PRESENT, 2022
After his ordination to the priesthood November 26, 2007 Fr. Charlie had several short assignments in Haiti, including time spent serving a parish in Previle, Jeremie, which he describes as a large congregation of poor but very kind people.
Because of the economic limitations in Previle, Catholic masses at the seven cathedrals of the Saint Peter and Saint Paul parish were held just once a month.
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Then from September 2008 to July 2009 he was assigned to work as associate pastor at our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Moron, diocese of Jeremie.
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From September 2008 until 2012 Fr. Charlince was given a range of different assignments and served as associate pastor in three different Haitian parishes - the longest one, an assignment that began in February 2010 and lasted more than 2.5 years.
This was another important period of learning and growth in Father's career because: not only did he serve as administrator of Saint Anthony of Eremite in Laurie, Jeremie....but he also gained much experience as a teacher. His students were the children of this parish's school, St. Augustine.
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In 2012, Fr. Charly received the blessing of continuing my mission in the United States. His first stop was St. Vincent Ferrer church in Brooklyn where he worked under father Joseph Nugent for a period of months until....
....March 2013, when a new assignment was given: Saint Gregory the Great Parish in Brooklyn--the residence of Bishop Guy Sansericq. Fr. Charly says: "...working under the monsignor, I learned a great deal. Not just honing my general skills as a priest, but truly gaining a new understanding of the values of life in a larger sense." This assignment also gave him a chance to increase his knowledge of English. Eventually, he was able to conduct masses in English for the first time.
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There will be an update added to Fr. Charly's bio in May
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The Woman Behind
~ the story of ~
The Miraculous Medal
When the Virgin Mary and Her Blessed Son were born into the world, the world had almost no knowledge of their coming, nor of the new covenant between God and man that they heralded. It was much the same in 1806 when Catherine Laboure, the visionary of the Miraculous Medal, was born. She was a country farm girl, hidden in a pocket of the Burgundian hills in France. Certainly the brilliant skeptical world of Voltaire and the proud world of Napoleon Bonaparte would have snubbed her. Yet she heralded a new Marian era that begun what many call the Age of Mary.
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Catherine Laboure was born on May 2, 1806 in the tiny village of Fain-les-moutiers, France, not far from Dijon. Her father, Pierre Laboure, owned the largest farm in the village and was an educated man, having studied for the priesthood in his youth. Her mother, Madeleine Louise Gontard, was a former school mis¬tress, whose family was well respected.
Catherine was the ninth of eleven children and during her adolescence her younger sister Marie Antoinette, or “Tonine”, was her close companion.While Tonine was the friend and confidante of her childhood and adolescence, Catherine's mother was the source of her sanctity and spiritual devotion, for Madame Laboure took pains to instill in her a special love of God and to lead her in the ways of holiness.
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Sadly her beloved mother died when Catherine was only nine years old. In the midst of her terrible grief at her mother's passing, Catherine turned to Our Lady. Climbing up on a chair, she reached for a statue of the Blessed Virgin that stood high on a shelf in her mother's bed¬room, clasped it to her breast, and said aloud:"Now, dear Blessed Mother, you will be my mother."
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R Y A N O U T R E A C H Programs Director
Naycha Florival
Until recently, Naycha split her duties between the Ryan Outreach Center and OLMM....but now, the GROC is lucky to have her at their disposal as a full-time, and very important staff leader.
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Ms. Florival is also Director of the Summer Camp program for the Gerald Ryan Outreach Center—the very same camp she attended as a young teenager. It’s clear that Naycha is a special individual who truly embodies the values and spirit of both OLMM, and the Outreach.
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The daughter of a father from the Dominican Republic, and a mother from Haiti, Naycha was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York until the family moved to Long Island in the 1990s.
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As the middle sister (between Dorline and Marjorie) Naycha can remember the Sunday mornings of her youth when the three sisters begged to watch re-runs of “The Munsters”. However, their maternal grandmother was a devout Catholic, and not a big Munsters fan. And so, leaving their tv behind, they walked to mass every Sunday together. Yes, Grandma was a very strong, important early influence.
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Now, in 2016, Naycha lives in Central Islip, the community of her teen years where she graduated from Central Islip High School. She’s the mother to two children of her own--a 9-year old girl, Rolanda, and 6-year-old Zackory.
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As for Naycha’s own education, she credits several years in the North Babylon school district (where her family first lived after leaving Brooklyn) for raising her appreciation of learning and academics.
Thus, when the Florivals moved to Central Islip, she became a standout honors high school student...and later, after graduating from St. Joseph’s College on a full 4-year scholarship, Naycha earned her MS in Education from Long Island University.
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Naycha at
Ryan Outreach
Golf Outing
Fundraiser
May 25th, 2016
R Y A N O U T R E A C H Executive Director
Noelle Campbell
Noelle Campbell was born and raised in Amityville, including her high school years spent at Queen of the Rosary Academy. A graduate of Stony Brook University (with an MSW earned in 2005) Noelle has been the Gerald Ryan Outreach Center’s hardworking chief since November, 2007.
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The Ryan Center provides a range of social services for Wyandanch residents, and on occasion, for others in nearby Town of Babylon communities—helping families and individuals in times of emergency or urgent need. The Center’s work can affect, directly or indirectly, up to 900 people in a single month.
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Additionally, the Ryan Outreach Center “reaches out” in many other ways by running a summer camp for local youths, offering immigration assistance for many newcomers to the USA, and by organizing and managing the distribution of holiday baskets at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
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When she took on her new role, Ms. Campbell was very experienced and quite capable (having logged over 15 years as a social worker before 11/07). But nothing could have fully prepared her for the misfortune the Outreach Center was about to face: just one month after she began her tenure as Executive Director, it burned to the ground....
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Noelle at Ryan Outreach
Golf Outing Fundraiser
on May 25th, 2016
