“My family has always been involved in helping their community,” he explained, “and when I learned about Family it greatly appealed to me. It’s a fantastic organization that helps the less well off in our community, and I think we all know that there are many people who are only a few paychecks away from needing Family’s support and services. Like cancer, troubled times touch us all, either personally or someone we love.”
He will not shave a hair until he’s met the $10,000 goal. “I see hundreds of customers a day and they all have a comment about my beard,” he said. “They like it, they hate it, they’re wondering why I’m growing it out. And that gives me the opportunity to share with them the project we’re working on. In fact, one gentleman dislikes my beard so much he gave us a $500 check just so I’d get closer to the goal and shave it off!”
The meeting room, originally constructed ten years ago in loving memory of a son who died of a heroin overdose, is located just behind the main Family building on North Chestnut Street. It is used by various support groups, twelve-step programs, single-mother courses and instruction.
“Here you have people who are struggling, trying to make a positive change in their lives, and they’re in a structure where the heating system and air conditioning often don’t work, where the toilet freezes, cabinet doors are coming off, leaks in the ceiling,” said Family volunteer Paul Brown. “They need and deserve a safe and comfortable setting to get well in, and that’s what we’re going to do with the money raised.”
Brown said that McCloskey and the Rotary’s efforts dovetail beautifully with the New Paltz Community Foundation’s recent $60,000 fundraising campaign for the complete interior renovation of Family’s main building. “Now they want to raise $80,000 to renovate and repair the exterior, the roof, the handicap accessibility ramp, the siding,” said Brown, “and I can’t tell you what it means to our clients, our volunteers, to be in this beautifully renovated space. It lifts everyone’s spirits.”
McCloskey’s own spirit is so infectious that word-of-mouth of the campaign has already raised $1000. “I’ve been running 18 miles a day, but last week there was nowhere to run with all the snow, so I joined the gym. I’m not a gym person,” McCloskey said. “I run because I love being outdoors. But I knew I had to stay true to my training, and so I ran 17 miles on the treadmill, staring at a parking lot! It was like getting all of my teeth pulled or being force-fed cardboard, but I did it because I’m a thick bastard, but I also know I’m doing this for a great cause.”
Now McCloskey is off to Ireland to visit the family’s two sons attending college in Dublin and to see family and friends in Donegal. “Make sure you come back, and don’t get injured!” scolded Brown.
“Oh, don’t worry,” McCloseky reassured him. “I’ll finish that race on my hands and my knees if I have to.”
To support McCloskey’s run and Family of New Paltz, make out a tax-deductible donation payable to The New Paltz Community Foundation earmarked for the A.J. Baab meeting room. Send it to the New Paltz Rotary at 127 Main Street, New Paltz, NY 12561 or drop it off at Shea O’Brien’s or Family of New Paltz. To make a credit-card donation go to www.fowinc.org, click “donate on line” and designate your payment to “A.J. Baab Reno.”
“I known many people who say that they’ll donate money when they win the lottery or hit it big,” said McCloskey. “Well, guess what? You may never hit it big. If everyone just gave a little, a little adds up to a lot.”
Brown concurred. One Family client was forced to shut down her bank account because she only had $20 in it. “She wrote her last check, with her last $20, to Family of New Paltz,” said Brown. “It’s so often the people who have the least who give the most.”
