Mother's Day event for single moms in Hempstead modified for pandemic

Reginald Benjamin was hesitant to host the pre-Mother’s Day event this year.

In the past 13 years, ABBA Leadership Center, a faith-based nonprofit where Benjamin is executive director, organized an annual celebration on the Saturday before Mother’s Day to honor single parents in and around Hempstead Village.

Amid a pandemic, Benjamin wasn’t sure if they could continue the event’s format, which included a three-course evening banquet, during which hundreds of women gathered to listen to spiritual music and guest speakers.

But people kept calling to ask about it, so Benjamin, 63, opted to offer grab-and-go meals and gift bags to accommodate the need in an era of social distancing rules.

“The problem is they are needed more this year,” said Benjamin. “You hear the whole story about certain communities are more impacted by the unemployment, the virus and all that. This is the center of it in Hempstead.”

With about 2,000 total cases, Hempstead is among the hardest-hit communities on Long Island where the coronavirus outbreak has killed more than 3,500 people in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Organizers estimated that 250 women came Saturday to the Bethlehem of Judea Church on Greenwich Street in Hempstead.

“It’s a day that’s looked forward to by many people,” said Hempstead Village Mayor Don Ryan, who never misses the event. “The purpose, of course, is to recognize the mothers.”

Each woman received two long-stem roses, groceries and gifts that included a couple of masks (handmade and surgical ones), sanitizers, gloves and essential household products like soap, lotion and shampoo.

Tonya Addison of Hempstead, who wore an N-95 mask and held two roses, said Saturday’s event showed people’s kindness in trying times.

“It means a lot, considering the situation which we live in right now,” she said. “Maybe this will teach all of us a lesson, when it’s all said and done, that it’s not rich people, poor people, we are just that — the people."

The idea of honoring single mothers, Benjamin said, was rooted in his personal experience of growing up in a single-parent household. His mother, Clauzell Benjamin, who died when he was 16, raised eight boys and three girls.

“We focus on single mothers because they are the most likely neglected and overlooked,” Benjamin said. “I’m targeting mothers that I know nobody would think to do [something] for, mothers that sit in their house by themselves … probably feeling depressed.”

The event cost $31,000, which was paid for through donations and ABBA’s fundraising efforts. The nonprofit also partnered with community and faith-based organizations and local businesses.