No Greater Wealth







Volunteers with Church Food Donations


NO GREATER WEALTH

Published Great South Bay Magazine

There is no greater wealth found

Than in the silent peaceful sound

When taking your own life’s path

Absent of false worship on behalf

Of wealth, materialism and greed

There can be no lesser creed

With all the money sought

Love cannot be brought

Seek to measure real life’s worth

By way of peace and love on earth

Aim to live a life to share

Giving your love, help, and care

Help a neighbor and volunteer

Needy people are always near

In the end it will make sense

Life is more than dollars and cents

Susan Marie Davniero

NY DAILY NEWS SERIES ON COMMUNITY SERVICE

PUBLISHED NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Reaching Out Community Services Food Pantry

Daily News readers are answering the call to community service since Help NYC launched last month.“We're getting donations! Amazing! ” says Susan LaRosa at the Henry Street Settlement’s Good Companions Senior Center, which feeds aging lower East Side residents lunch and dinner six days a week.

 “I just want to say thank you,” adds Thomas Neve from Reaching Out Community Services, a food pantry in Bensonhurst. “Many people for the first time came to recognize the service we provide in their community.”

The NYC Coalition Against Hunger released new research reporting that 500,000 city children — or one in four kids — live in homes that are food insecure.This has overwhelmed food pantries and soup kitchens across the boroughs, which saw demand rise 12% this year as more working men and women join the food lines to make ends meet between paychecks.

Good Shepherd Services’ Red Hook Beacon Community Center — one of 80 city Beacon Centers aiding kids and adults in underserved communities — lost 50 slots from their afterschool program as a result of budget cuts.

The Daily News has highlighted neighbors helping neighbors over the past four weeks, This giving spirit is best summed up by Daily News reader Susan Marie Davniero from Lindenhurst, who writes, “We are all in one family. Help your neighbor. Try to leave the world a little better than how you found it. One person can make a difference, after all.”

SHOP TO DROP

Published LI Press

Shopping has become an epidemic that has ransacked our neighborhoods in the pursuit of possession to fulfill one’s ever want. The pastime of shopping impregnated with anticipation to revel with purchases. Greed supersedes the needs, buying luxury, fun and games – to shop to drop.  The negative impact of greed has perpetrated our society due to the demise of values that falsely attributes the magnitude of monetary wealth or material possessions pursuant to the intensity of value of one’s life.

The false worship of monetary wealth or possessions abets a materialistic culture buying financial awards to monitor their merit of success.  There is a loss sense of personal identity as you are what you are worth. As a result, greed has created an epidemic of obsessive compulsive spending maximizing credit limits, over extending budgets, borrowing and debt to “keep up with the Jones.”

There is a need to essay a kind of familiar that may exist. Fed on celluoid fantasy of the rich Hollywood luxurious lifestyle, or even by your neighbors, irreconcilable demands are on all of us to withstand. I am amiss by the behavioral excessive buying that steals from the true value of one’s life.  Ironically one absent of wealth is without the luxury to distort their vision of life with possessions and find their wealth in the true value of life.

Alas, many people have yet to learn the great peace found in the quiet comfort of choosing your own path in life devoid of false worship of material possessions or wealth.  I suggest people rewrite their shopping lists prior to their next venture to the stores to eliminate their search to buy happiness. You may not have all that you want but you probably have all that need.

Susan Marie Davniero



GIVE!
Twins Laura and Susan

GIVE!

I (Laura Marie Bowman) always wanted to give to others, because I shared my “things” with my twin sister (Susan Marie Davniero).  Childhood enabled me to donate my time, energy and finances to charity drives and cake sales.  However, upon adulthood and marriage, it became challenging to find resources to share. 

My first step was to keep myself healthy. I couldn’t help anyone if I wasn’t in good physical condition.  I looked at food as nourishment to maintain good numbers (weight, blood pressure, cholesterol).  I was ready to go!

My next stage was to find the means to share.  It’s almost impossible to have extra income to donate with monthly bills.  I abolished unnecessary expenses; weekend gambling trips and non-essential house improvements.  I had the funds!

My final stride was to decide how to share myself with others.  I left food boxes anonymously at neighborhood churches.  One day a Priest said to me, “You’re the one leaving the boxes – thank you!  You don’t know how many needy families are in your own neighborhood.”  I realized than I wanted to see the faces of the people I was helping!

I became acquainted with my community’s large or unemployed families by visiting laundry rooms and shopping centers.  I distributed everyday necessities (soap, shampoo, cleaning items) in new laundry baskets to families. My ideas increased!

My twin sister, Susan (Davniero) and myself donated in-person to non-profit shelter, church and rehabilitation center; coats, work clothes, gloves, blankets, home furnishings, business suits (used good condition), canned food, grocery bakery items (not sold cake, bread) and coupon (free turkey) holiday promotions.

Every holiday we shared with others!  For instance, help serve Church Thanksgiving Dinner or prepare delivered meals, attend Christmas Mass at a Nursing Home, give Mother’s Days presents and hand-made cards to Women Shelters, welcome Veterans at the VA Center, distribute U.S. Flags on 4^th of July and sometimes prepare Easter Baskets for hospital patients.

I also speak on behalf of stray cats and submitted a petition (400+ signatures) to the NY State Capital to evaluate animal laws. I rescue stray cats, connect families with pet organizations to stop the repopulation and write stray animal letters printed in local newspapers.

My giving will never stop!  GIVE! – make a difference in someone’s life!

Laura Marie Bowman

SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE 
Published Pancakes in Heaven

It is truly far better to give than to receive. Give and sacrifice by helping others and plan to go beyond words. Find your moral compass to radiate goodwill and social compassion. We are not here to do it alone. Nobody wins till we all do. In a country as rich as ours no one should do without 

Have empathy for the needy, feel someone’s pain. Of all the needs one has, the one that must be satisfied is hope. Give the forgotten, the poor, the displaced, and the lonely hope for a better tomorrow. Extend a sincere handshake, offer a warm smile and listen to a lonely soul. “To listen to someone who has no one to listen to him is a beautiful thing” said Mother Teresa  

“Love your neighbor ” to volunteer with cheerful visits to hospitals, nursing homes or shut-ins elderly, feed the hungry at soup kitchens and donate to the less fortunate. Perhaps someone in your own neighborhood or family needs your help for true charity starts at home.

My twin sister, Laura and I wanted to see if the word volunteer could fit us. Neither of us knew how much we had to give but we knew we wanted to share it. Being identical twins all of our life we learned a long time ago to “share and share alike” with each other. Through the years Laura and I evoked an awakening and evolved to share faith, love and charity with others. We put our faith into action.  

Our care spreads from visiting forgotten Veterans of past wars residing in VA Nursing homes, serving Thanksgiving dinner at charitable faith based soup kitchens, bringing gifts to unwed teen Mothers shelters (all mothers deserve to be remembered on Mothers Day not just our own) and distributing contributions of baked goods donated to Pantry Inns, Teen Rehab Centers and Missions.

“It’s not how much we give, but how much love put in giving,” said Mother Teresa. Give freely of yourself whatever it may be. The old adage proves true - money can’t buy you happiness - the best things in life are free after all. This is your time to leave the world a better place than how you found it. True wealth is charity, love, giving, and sharing. Helping is its own reward. For we get to heaven on the arm of the person we’re helping.

Written by Susan Marie Davniero)

 Days of Forgiveness

(Published Write On Magazine)

By Susan Marie Davniero

Borne of morning each day we live

Seek to find the heart to forgive

Broods in sympathy for a day lost

Pierced by hurting words the most

Thanks to compassion found in tears

Fall to grace breaking our fears

When occasions rise for tenderness

These are days of forgiveness 

Susan Marie Davniero

Red Dawn

  (Published Write On Magazine)

By Susan Marie Davniero

Suddenly it’s Sunday morn

Awaken by light of dawn

From the path to the skies

Fluttering wings passing by

Blush of red dash seen above

Dance within sun light’s cove

Playful flight of nature’s game

Red bird by any other name

Susan Marie Davniero

SAVE THE EARTH

Earth’s quarantine

Besieged air and streams

Poison sensation

Of contamination

Waste chemicals

Lethal materials

Insecticides sprays

Radiation rays

Toxic sites

Nuclear dynamites

Pollution loomed

Nature doomed

Ecology’s birth

Save the earth

Susan Marie Davniero

Published Write On Poetry Magazette

 

GIVING BACK

I learned there is a great peace in the comfort of choosing your own path in life, devoid of compromise or false worship of material possessions.  You may not have all that you want but you may have all that you need.  Life is more than money. The greed of self-gratification and wealth pervades our values.  The rich and the poor divide, the lines are drawn.

Now is the time to give back.  To give and sacrifice, a little bit of that goes a long way.  Find a sense of usefulness by helping others and plan to go beyond words.  Radiate goodwill and social compassion for others.  We are not here to do it alone. No body wins till we all do.  Help others, volunteer, have empathy for someone’s pain. Give the forgotten, the poor, the displaced and the lonely hope for a better tomorrow.  Of all the needs one has, the one that must be satisfied is hope.

"It's not how much we give, but how much love we put in giving" Mother Teresa

See if the word volunteer could fit you – sharing and caring. Put your words into action volunteering at Panty Inns, Nursing Homes, shelters, Helping your neighbors and caring about others. It is blessing to give of yourself whatever it may be. We may not be able to eliminate pain and suffering from the world, yet we can try to leave the world a better place than how we found it.

My twin sister, Laura Bowman, and I wanted to see is the word volunteer could fit us. Neither of us knew how much we had to give but we knew we wanted to share it.  Being twins we learned a long time ago to “share and share alike.” We put our words into action volunteering at Pantry Inns, VA Nursing Homes, Shelters, distributing food, and generally caring about others. 

It is blessed to give of your-self whatever it may be.  We may not be able to eliminate pain and suffering from the world, yet we can try to leave the world a better place than how we found it.

Helping is its own reward.  For we get to heaven on the arm of the person we’re helping.

Susan Marie Davniero

WORDS OF PEACE

One day

The peaceful way

In a world of sin

Peace starts within

Peace is a must

Help and care

Love to share

No war or wrath

The peaceful path

One day

I pray

War will cease

Let there be peace

And let it begin

With the peace within

Susan Marie Davniero

UNSUNG HEROES ARE THERE
Published Great South Bay Magazine 

Unsung heroes are there

Some who cares

Shares with others

Sisters and brothers

Works for charity

Fights poverty

Provides a remedy

To feed the hungry

Meets all odds

Doing selfless jobs

Civic virtues

Few choose

The road lies

Less traveled by

There goes

The unsung heroes

Susan Marie Davniero

 

NEWSDAY CHARITIES

HELP A FAMILY 

Tis the Season for Giving

Dear Robert and Susan,

2013 has been a gratifying year of helping our friends and neighbors on Long Island.

When Sandy barreled down on Long Island in October 2012, it left a path of destruction and despair. With the generous outpouring from more than 4,500 donors to the Hurricane Sandy Long Island Disaster Relief campaign, and matching funds from the McCormick Foundation, $1,669,174 was granted through Newsday Charities to help rebuild the hopes and homes of Long Islanders.

When we published the Report to the Community sharing how we invested your donations restoring our community, nearly 300 donors felt compelled to do even more and gave over $15,000 to help those less fortunate.

Through our Help-A-Family campaign, more than $800,000 will be granted by the end of the year to nonprofit organizations strengthening Long Island. Agencies like:
• New Ground - empowers homeless children by helping them
improve their reading skills.
• Society of St. Vincent de Paul that provides housing for those
in crises
• Island Harvest giving low income kids backpacks filled with
nutritious food to take home for the weekend.

Newsday Charities is a McCormick Foundation Fund.

The Robert R. McCormick Foundation

Fred Groser
Publisher
Newsday

SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE

As you live

And give

To others

Sisters and brothers

Feed the hungry

In poverty

Holiday mood

Donate food

Serve and volunteer

Far and near

Soup kitchens

Pantry inns

Do your part

It’s a start

See the light

Share and share alike

Susan Marie Davniero

LONG ISLAND CARES

Long Island Cares has come to Lindenhurst!  Welcome to the neighborhood – Long Island Cares! Suddenly help is just around the corner, at the local LI Cares help center in Lindenhurst.

Apparently Lindenhurst was the chosen new locale to launch their second storefront assistance center given the vicinity of Hurricane Sandy victims and being impressed by the way Lindenhurst pulled together following Hurricane Sandy. Essentially, recovery following the impact of Hurricane Sandy on Suffolk’s South Shore is on the way.

LI Cares goes on distance to meet the recovery needs of Long Islanders. It’s nice to know Long Island cares about my neighborhood. Lindenhurst has not been forgotten. America often aids disaster victims throughout the world. This time America has helped its own people - after all charity begins at home.

We applaud LI Cares organization – they make a difference. Long Island is a better place because of Long Island Cares. Thank you Long Island Cares.

Susan and Robert Davniero

Lindenhurst, Long Island

 

THE SHELTERED POET

by Susan Marie Davniero

Words of Peace

One day 

The peaceful way

In a world of sin

Peace starts within

Peace is a must

Help and care

Love to share

No war or wrath

The peaceful path

One day

I pray

War will cease

Let there be peace

And let it begin

With the peace within

{Poem by Susan Marie Davniero}