A year later....
Luck of the Irish Raffle winner!
Thank you Mary Lou!
~ written by BBPHA President; Mary Bailey
I would like to take a moment to recognize and say thank you to our very own Mary Lou Cohalan.
Mary Lou has been a part of Meadow Croft since the very beginning. She has seen Meadow Croft at its worst and more importantly, at its very best. Still today she gives 100% of herself to helping and volunteering her time to the Bayport Blue Point Heritage Association and Meadow Croft Estate. A truly knowledgeable Meadow Croft docent, her accounts of the estate history and of the Roosevelts are simplifying, dazzling!
She has knocked on doors throughout Bayport and Blue Point gathering information, history, and photos of our Historic Barns. She then volunteered her time to recount her findings with the many photos and stories she gathered. I am sure anyone who attended her lecture at the BBP Library, drove around town to see if they could find these historic beauties.
Mary Lou also volunteers her time at The Parrish Art Museum, The Carriage House of Stony Brook, Sayville Food Pantry and The Islip Arts Council. She has also been an editor/publisher (partial owner) for the Suffolk County News and The Director of the Girl Scouts of Suffolk County. She has so much knowledge to share and is always ready with a story or two about “old times around town” or how something came to be or why it is not anymore. You can often find Mary Lou at Meadow Croft sitting on the porch doing some sort of research or sharing a story.
As of late she volunteered (and we were more than happy to have her knowledge and abilities) to archive and curate all the antiques and collections at The Meadow Croft Estate which were acquired over the last ten years or so. Because volunteer organizations have board members come and go, continuity is an ongoing challenge. Things can be forgotten if not kept in good record. Thanks to Mary Lou’s tireless energy and willingness we are discovering things that otherwise may have been lost and preserving history for the next generations.
It is because of volunteers like Mary Lou Cohalan, that we can continue the great work of sharing and preserving our hamlets shared heritage and the history of Meadow Croft for future generations.
THANK YOU, MARY LOU!
