By Jessica Easthope
Another day, another shipment. Dust doesn’t have a chance to settle on these boxes at the Monsignor Joseph Pfeiffer Resource Center because somewhere, someone needs what’s inside of them.
Francesca Yellico, the Executive Director of The Bridge to Life, is focused more on where it’s going than where it came from.
“At the end of the day, it’s not about, oh, The Bridge to Life did this. Oh, Catholic Charities did that. It’s we, we did this,” Yellico said. “We are working together.”
The Bridge to Life and Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens are now sharing clothes for all ages, personal hygiene items, essentials, and food.
It happened by accident late last year. The Bridge to Life got a massive shipment they couldn’t store, but CCBQ opened their doors, and they’ve been open ever since.
“And little did I know, like that was the start of it,” Yellico said.
“Now we’re able to take in donations that can go out into the community,” said Richard Slizeski, Senior Vice President of Mission at CCBQ. “Our goal is always to empty this place, not to just kind of gather stuff, but it’s to go out into different places that it’s needed.”
Slizeski said there’s no competition when it comes to the work they do.
“In society, we’ve become very divisive,” Slizeski said. “If we’re about serving the people of God, this division really shouldn’t be there. It’s about taking care of God’s people.”
Debbie Hampson, CCBQ’s Senior Director of Community Outreach Services, oversees what comes in and goes out of the Howard Beach warehouse. She says this is where CCBQ and Bridge to Life’s missions become one.
“The need continues to grow and grow and grow. But now we actually have physical things to give them,” Hampson said. “And it just keeps coming, and we’re especially grateful for our partnership with Bridge to Life.”
This collaboration has shaped the future of these two organizations. With every box and every donation, they’re meeting the need with faith.
“It’s just such a wonderful, wonderful collaboration,” Yellico said. “You see the hand of God in every single one of these encounters.”
“The mission of it is best accomplished not trying to go solo because there’s just too much to be done,” Slizeski said. “And so, we need each other.”
“It’s an absolute win-win. And it’s God’s work, our hands,” Hampson said.
The Bridge to Life serves more than 5,000 women and children every year, and Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens reports hundreds of thousands of clients.
According to the research, emergency contraceptions made up almost 30 percent of all unsupervised abortions in 2023, chemical abortions made up about 24%, and a scary number to report, almost 22% of women tried to abort their babies by hitting themselves in the stomach.