‘A voice for the voiceless’

No one’s path is a straight one. Just ask Joan Delaney –– wife, mother, educator, journalist and community activist, who for decades has dedicated her life to serving the Baldwin community.

Throughout her 47 years in the hamlet, Delaney has volunteered for myriad organizations –– and has long been willing to lend a hand to those in need whenever called upon. In particular, she has focused her volunteer work on aiding the poor. For this reason, and many more, we are proud to name Joan Delaney our Baldwin Herald Person of the Year for 2016.

Delaney, 72, grew up in the Bronx, near Yankee Stadium. She earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Chicago in 1965. Afterward, she moved to Freeport, where her family was located, and landed a job teaching at Plainview Junior High School. In 1966 she married her husband of 48 years, James. She taught until their daughter, Suzanne, was born in 1967.

The Delaneys moved to Baldwin in 1969 and have lived in the same house ever since. Another daughter, Jenny, was born in 1972.

As a teacher, Delaney said, “I learned how vital it is to have a good education.”

When Suzanne reached school age, her mother started to volunteer in Baldwin schools to support the educational program. Among the organizations that she volunteered for were the Baldwin Council of Parent Teacher Associations and the Baldwin Friends of Music. For her service, she was awarded PTA Lifetime Membership –– the organization’s highest honor.

She became a journalist quite by accident. In 1976, Delaney took Jenny to a puppet show in Baldwin. “I took a picture and brought it over to the Baldwin Citizen,” a community newspaper, she said. “Jim Perry was the publisher at the time, and by the time I left, I had a job.”

Delaney covered the major events of the day in Baldwin. “The community was in turmoil,” she said. “At the time, they were talking about closing Milburn [Elementary]School because of declining enrollment. The board meetings were my baptism by fire.”

Seven hundred people turned out at Board of Education meetings to express their anger that the school might close. “The meetings would start at 8 p.m. and end at 1 in the morning,” she recalled , adding that she quickly learned to “synthesize five hours of chaos into an article.”

Milburn never closed, and to this day is open.

In 1981, Delaney left the Citizen to become the Baldwin editor of the Baldwin-Freeport Leader, which was previously owned by L&M Publications and was purchased by RCI, parent company of Herald Community Newspapers, in 2013.

At the Leader, she reported on community news, and wrote a regular column, “Just Write,” which was honored by the New York Press Association in 2003. She retired in 2007, but continued to submit articles from time to time after that.

“I think community journalism is essential,” she said. “Community papers pull together all parts of a community. You see it as a whole.”

Delaney has for years been an active volunteer at St. Christopher’s Roman Catholic Church in Baldwin, where she has been a parishioner since 1969. She was previously a religious education teacher, and president of the St. Christopher’s Conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which aids the poor.

She is not as active as she once was in the society, but she remains involved to this day. “She was a good partner in the Vincentian mission here on Long Island,” said Thomas Abbate, CEO and executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Long Island, who has worked with Delaney for close to 15 years.

“She understood the needs of the people we assist year-in and year-out,” Abbate said. “Joan is a great advocate for the people in need on Long Island.”

Delaney was appointed to the society’s Diocesan Council board of directors in 2001, and became the first chairwoman of the council’s Voide of the Poor Committee that year.

“She’s a person who enjoys life, but is serious about the things that are important to everyone,” said Mary Von Stein, director of social ministry and outreach at St. Christopher’s. Von Stein has worked with Delaney for more than 30 years as a member of the St. Vincent De Paul Society. “I think, apart from her articles, she’ll be remembered for her giving nature, thoughtfulness and kindness.,” Von Stein said.

Delaney’s work with St. Vincent de Paul has been a labor of love. “A lot of times, government, social services or some non-profits, they help the poor, but they never meet the poor,” she said, noting that, through the society, “you get to meet the poor and see them as individual people, not just a statistic.”

And the needs of the poor have never been greater, Delaney said. “What we have seen over the last 20 years is a tremendous amount of change in the number of people in need and the complexity of the issues of poverty,” she said. “The difference between the poor and the not-so-poor is a safety net. How do you adequately pay for serious health care issues without benefits and insurance? We want to level the playing field.”

For all that she has done to accomplish that goal, we name Joan Delaney our Person of the Year, and all of us at the Herald congratulate her for all of her good work.