The Rockville Centre
St. Patrick's Parade
The Ryan Patrick O’Shea Foundation -- https://www.ryanpatrickosheafoundation.org/
The Ryan Patrick O’Shea Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We are a fundraising organization whose mission is to increase mental health awareness and education to prevent suicide. The Foundation aims to provide support to those in crisis in an effort to end the self-destructive behavior of suicide that is becoming an epidemic among young people in our communities and across America.
On January 11, 2019, Ryan Patrick O’Shea died by suicide at the age of 18. Ryan was a treasured son, brother to his three siblings, grandson, cousin, friend, and member of the Rockville Centre community – not to mention a recent graduate of South Side High School where he was the captain of the Basketball Team and a member of the Track Team where he placed 8th in the State and named All-County and All-State. Ryan was a part of the fiber of not only his family but also the Rockville Centre Community. He was a successful, accomplished, driven young man – who we now know lacked the skills and tools to navigate his mental health in a very complicated world.
The Foundation seeks to educate young people on both understandings and managing their mental health. While there are numerous programs in our school districts on the dangers of vaping and drugs, there is a lack of education and open candid discussions on mental health. We want to change the way mental health is viewed– to get parents and young people to discuss it publicly, to understand that we need to manage and care for our mental health as we currently manage our physical health.
Our hope through the Ryan Patrick O’Shea Foundation is to provide comprehensive efforts to arm young people with the tools to understand and manage their mental health in the hopes of evolving to a point in our society where suicide is no longer a viable option.
HELP Uganda -- https://help-uganda.com/
HELP Uganda, a local chapter of H.E.L.P. International in CO, works with the impoverished refugee village of Masese, Uganda to help break the cycle of hunger, disease, illiteracy, and poverty. When HELP Uganda started in 2010, our RVC team found a community with no hope, no dignity, and no opportunity. The families ate every third day, there was no clean water, high rates of cholera, malaria, and yellow fever, no education, and high unemployment. Through donations, in-kind and financially, from family and friends in RVC, we have rescued street kids, victims of sexual abuse, and adult prostitutes from a life of desperation.
In 2010, we opened the HELP Primary School with 39 children in a shed with a basic lunch program. Today our school, a safe oasis, provides two meals each day and educates 550 children from nursery school to grade 7. Over 180 graduates from our school now attend high school or vocational school moving to a life as productive citizens of Masese and Uganda. Hope, dignity, and opportunity abound.
We established economic opportunities for adults through micro-finance loans and computer and vocational training at HELP School. “Bigger than Beads”, our most successful loan, grew from 14 to 90 women using the artisan craft of making beaded jewelry from recycled paper. This is our ‘win-win’ fundraising model: we provide a market for the women, sell their jewelry here and the net funds go back to fund our school.
HELP Uganda is dedicated to empowering Masese to be a healthy, self-supporting, economically viable place to live. Funding from the RVC St. Patrick’s Parade will specifically address the daily food for the school children, salary and supplies for our new school nurse, and tuition assistance for our graduates to attend secondary or vocational school.
St. Laserian’s School -- www.stlaserianscarlow.scoilnet.ie
St. Laserian’s School has provided a quality learning environment for its students since 1969. St. Laserian's School is a vibrant, go-ahead school, established over 40 years ago. It is a co-educational school and caters to students aged 4-18 who have been assessed as having a mild, moderate, or severe to profound general learning disability.