Carter, DeLuca & Farrell LLP is excited to announce that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of our firm! As we reflect on the past two decades, we celebrate our accomplishments and express our sincere gratitude to our clients and professional colleagues with whom we have had the privilege of working. We recognize that these valued relationships have made it possible for us to be so successful in what we do. We started with a single New York office in Melville, Long Island. We have since added Arlington, Virginia and Dallas, Texas offices and have legal professionals in several other states. Since the firm’s inception, Carter DeLuca has counseled a multitude of entrepreneurs, inventors, and companies, helping transform valuable ideas and business plans into industry-leading enterprises. It has been an honor to help our clients achieve their intellectual property goals and business aspirations.
In celebration of our 20th year, Carter DeLuca is donating $20,000 to local community-based non-profit organizations. Our associate attorneys, staff, and partners were all involved in picking the following ten charities that each received a $2,000 donation:
As a not-for-profit, volunteer-based organization, The INN provides a broad variety of essential services to assist those challenged by hunger, homelessness, and profound poverty. The INN was founded in 1983 as a single soup kitchen run by a small group of volunteers at a church in Hempstead, NY. As word spread of the success of the Hempstead soup kitchen, the volunteers began to form an interfaith network of soup kitchens across Long Island. The INN then opened its first emergency shelter in 1984 and began to establish various programs to help Long Islanders who were plagued by hunger and homelessness. Almost forty years later, the INN has the largest soup kitchen on Long Island, emergency shelters, a long-term housing program and a free clothing boutique and resource center. It’s grown to become the largest private social service agency of its kind on Long Island.
Ronald McDonald House Charities’ mission is to create, find, and support programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children in hospitals and their families. The first Ronald McDonald House opened in Philadelphia, PA in 1974 after recognizing the need for parents to stay close to their hospitalized child. Steps away from the hospital and their children’s bedsides, the 42-bedroom Ronald McDonald House in New Hyde Park on Long Island provides the comforts of a home and compassionate care that meet the unique needs of families with sick children, allowing parents who are far from home to stay close to their hospitalized child and benefit from the comforts of home without incurring hotel and food costs.
Kids Matter International is a nonprofit organization based in Southlake, Texas whose vision is to break the cycle of poverty and provide a sense of hope to children who come from families living below the poverty line. The organization originally began in 2006 as a local chapter in Southlake with the focus of fundraising for a housing facility in Honduras and an orphanage in Guatemala. Since then, it has grown into a well-known and active organization in Texas. Their core program, “Around-The-Block”, gives children access to get much needed clothing and school supplies, and helps 1,500 kids a year on average. In 2019, this program alone was able to clothe over 2,000 children and distribute 20,000 books to promote literacy among school-age children.
Erin’s Hope for Friends was founded in 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia by a couple who sought to honor the spirit of their daughter, Erin, who suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome and unfortunately passed away. The organization’s mission is to create lasting relationships through joyful interactions for autism spectrum teens and young adults. Erin’s Hope for Friends allows members to connect at Club locations, which are filled with opportunities for conversation, games, creativity, and friendships to bring together and connect neuro-diverse children.
As a witness to the love of God, the Helping Hand Rescue Mission seeks to improve the spiritual and temporal conditions of the children, families, and people of the communities they serve by providing excellent service to all, whether rich or poor, high or low social status. The Mission was founded in 1965 by a husband and wife who were both church reverends. After witnessing local poverty conditions firsthand, they invested everything that they had to help. 56 years later, their work continues under the direction of their daughter who functions as the President/Pastor of Helping Hand Rescue Mission.
John Theissen started his Children’s Foundation in 1988 after meeting a young girl, Tasha, while he was in the hospital getting a brain tumor removed. Tasha was very sick and had little family support which inspired John to help others in a similar situation. In 1992, he held a toy drive during the holidays to benefit children in local hospitals. During the first toy drive, they collected 800 new toys in just two weeks and brought them to three different hospitals. Since then, they’ve collected over one million new toys and have donated them to sick and underprivileged children in over 180 hospitals and child-care facilities.
On September 11, 2001, Firefighter Stephen Siller, had just finished his shift and was on his way to play golf with his brothers when he got word of the first attack. Upon hearing the news, Stephen drove straight to the scene, raced on foot to the Twin Towers, and gave up his life while saving others. Inspired by Stephen’s story, The Tunnel to Towers Foundation was formed with a mission of honoring our nation’s first responders and military heroes. They have raised over $250 million supporting these heroes and their families, have delivered or are in the procress of delivering 450 mortgage-free homes, have run over 70 events in their National Run, Walk and Climb series, and have educated over 500,000 people through their Never Forget mobile exhibit.
MOMMAS House is the only program in the metro NY region specifically serving pregnant and or parenting young mothers (ages 18-24) and their babies. Pat Shea, the founder of Birthright of Nassau/Suffolk, opened the first MOMMAS house in 1986 in Wantagh, NY after she sheltered women in her own home for 10 years. MOMMAS House exists because there are very few options for pregnant or parenting youth facing homelessness. By offering shelter and supportive services (such as academic programs, vocational training, life-skills and parenting education) for up to 2 years, women learn to become independent working mothers. MOMMAS House now operates 5 residences and has touched the lives of over 1,000 families and counting.
The Gateway Community Garden Inc was created in 2010 to provide a place for Huntington families to grow organic vegetables, without the use of poisons or synthetic fertilizers for better nutrition/health. Not only does it enhance the beauty of the surrounding neighborhood, but it also helps to fight hunger by providing a portion of the harvest east week to food shares and food banks. Today, the garden is one of the largest on Long Island, with 115 garden beds for children, adults and people with physical limitations. Each year, volunteer gardeners harvest and donate hundreds of pounds of vegetables to local food banks from the donation beds as well as their own individual beds. The Garden also organizes educational workshops conducted at the Garden, for both children and adults and has planted flowers and other plants to attract birds, butterflies, and pollinators.
Last Hope, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of death-due pound, stray and abandoned animals. Through its many programs, Last Hope is attempting to reduce the tremendous cat and dog overpopulation problem on Long Island, encourage responsible and economical pet ownership, and transform the public image of the typical pound animal. From a two-woman organization beginning in 1981 dedicated to rescuing death-due pound animals, Last Hope has grown into an organization of over 600 volunteers and supporters located in their Wantagh Adoption Center. They place over 600 cats and over 100 dogs a year into carefully screened homes. The goal of this organization is to eventually have every animal born on Long Island wanted and placed into a loving and responsible home.
