DECEMBER 2017 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 33
By TIMOTHY BOLGER
Reducing poverty in low-income
neighborhoods. Offering housing
opportunities for people with
AIDS. Helping those struggling to
make ends meet pay their home
heating bill. Building homes for the
homeless. Scholarships galore.
These are just some of the many
health, education and anti-poverty
projects underway at the
United Way of Long Island, the
local chapter of the 130-year-old
global nonprofit that’s forged
more than 100 partnerships with
the goal of increasing impact and
reducing costs. They aim to help
entire communities at a time,
but they don’t just help “those
people.”
“The fact of the matter is ‘those
people’ are us,” says Theresa Regnante,
president and CEO of the
United Way of Long Island. “And
everybody needs to be treated with
the same level of respect.”
In nearly a decade of running the
group, Regnante has seen requests
for assistance come from residents
across LI — often those that don’t
make enough to survive, but make
too much to qualify for government
assistance.
Among their top initiatives of late
is helping veterans. Last month,
the group held a grand opening
for “the house that vets built” in
Huntington Station, their third
such venture on LI. Veterans who
moved into the house won’t have
to worry about the electric bill
since it’s a zero-energy home — a
house so energy efficient it won
the group its third consecutive
award from the U.S. Department
of Energy.
“Anybody who goes out and fights
for the homeland should have a
house to come home to,” Regnante
says, adding that it’s “not sustainable
to move them into a house
with a big LIPA bill.”
But the biggest need on the Island
isn’t something that can be calculated
as easily as a poverty rate or
donation check.
“There has got to be more people
that have compassion,” Regnante
says. “The biggest need is really
having more people to have compassion.
If you’re lucky enough
to walk through life being able to
give back, you should. Eighty percent
of humanity is not that way.”
Bridging the gap
How United Way of Long Island helps fulfill unmet need
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